Delayed Reaction
Every now and then a bit of chemistry occurs between my fixative and my artwork. I wrote a post a while ago about one of my red pencils bleeding after being sprayed with fixative, and also posted some before and after photos of how fixative darkens a piece. In each case, though, this occurred before the fixative was fully dried. So, it was particularly surprising when I wandered into my studio (well, my basement....but studio sounds more professional) and found the latest victim: Daydreams. Blue pigment had bled along the pattern in the sheet and folds in the shirt:
What's puzzling about this particular who-done-it is that Daydreams was drawn in 2011. It went to Lizza Studios for a few weeks where it was scanned. It went to the Wilkes-Barre Fine Arts Fiesta where it was outside under a tent for a week. It even went to Houston, Texas, during the heat wave when it was 112 degrees outside, and was shipped back to Pennsylvania. Afterwards it lived on one of the walls for my house for the next two years without incident. The only thing that changed is I moved it to the basement. I'm wondering if the humidity of the basement played a factor.
After removing the picture from the frame, I was able to repair the discoloration by layering lighter colors over it, then redrawing the affected part of the pattern. Aside from redrawing the original colors, I layered peach over the bluest areas to desaturate it, since the best way to tame an out of hand color is with its compliment.
