Out, Out Damn Spot

I don't ever use black straight out of the tube. I always mix it with something else to bring it to life. Yesterday working with "black" mixed from dioxinine, thalo green blue and raw umbra, I decided to do a study in black on a canvas board painting that had turned out badly. My plan was to mix a lot of blacks and compare them to the tube black while I thought what the hell am I going to do with Kelly? Out of laziness or forgetfulness or whatever, I had tried an art gum eraser when my knead wasn't doing an adequate job. It made a blob on her boob and it wasn't coming off. Black was what I was painting and how I was thinking.


I blacked out the little painting that had been zinnias done poorly, realizing when I was finished that mixed blacks would not be in true contrast to the tube black. Laying the mixes on top of true black,instead of white, would deaden the mixed colors. I lost interest. My mind was on Kelly. I picked a spoon from the tool jug and began drawing the stuff that was on a storage shelf using the handle as my stylus and the bowl as the scrapper. The doodle you see is what I got just before the paint dried. The exercise was reminiscent of kindergarten, but it did the trick. I relaxed and I recalled rubber cement.

Rubber cement will lift smudges if left to dry entirely and then lifted with a wad of dried rubber cement. I had one of those--made it years go. I also had my drafting eraser that could lift Rapideograph permanent ink. I got that out too and went to work. The cement applied four times lifted most of the blob, but not good enough. I was going to have to work it in. Damn. Kelly's white wine glass was going to have to be a red wine glass.-- Or her blouse could be black? I chose the red wine glass. I'll darken her arm to minimize its size but I'm uncomfortable with the implication.

What a mess. I pitched the art gum, but I do not want to pitch the drawing. If anybody knows of any other solutions, please comment. The drawing is done on Strathmore Drawing paper medium with 6B, HB and 3B Sanford Turquoise pencils--no lead so hard it shouldn't lift.