Ever had this? So you’re tracing – tracing or strengthening: painting lines with a tracing brush – and your line itself looks good enough. But around the line you see a watermark: a halo, where water from your tracing paint seeps out. Ever had that?
Everyone’s work sometimes looks a mess. But what matters is what it looks like at the end. For example, the other day, Stephen caught me “softening” some trace-lines, and he was struck by something he saw me do. (Softening is where you lay down a wash or matt on top of unfired trace-lines, then blend gently while the wash is wet. This turns the trace-lines into gorgeous shadows.)
What he saw me do was: he saw me carry on – even though what was on the light-box looked absolutely awful.
57 sheets of glass delivered to the studio since January: 33 from Germany, 8 sheets from France, 10 from Poland.
And – in 4th place – 6 (just six sheets: the pity of it!) from our own dear England.
Let’s say: 16 square metres in all.
And now, two months later, only a handful of the 57 sheets remains intact:
… while most of it is cut.
Here’s an article about working with clients which Stephen wrote a while back.
Various reasons for citing it here:
So have a look here. I promise it’s worth your time.