It was one of those days when you suddenly find yourself awake and very much alive. It was a day of clarity, a day of affirmation, and a day of accepting what is.
Wes arrived in early afternoon before I could set a paintbrush to little bird and do more damage. Upon forcing his hand and making him scrutinize my design and craft, we determined a couple more brush strokes were necessary to even out some of the gilding. We tried a little glitter on the eyes and neither of us liked it. So, clarity. My design work is finished. Affirmation. And after expressing that my design does not seem complicated (for the umpteenth time and upon which many have said very nice things)...Wes spoke the words that made my heart much lighter. Upon comparing my two-dimensional design to the three-dimensional figure, it comes very close to the original idea. And PG chose my design; therefore they felt it was worth selecting. Also, it is possible my design has been sponsored by Parks and Planning, therefore they also felt it was worth the money to create the design. This may seem obvious, but not to the dark insecurities that fester in an artistic mind. So...Wes...merci vous.
Now the hard part...putting my money where my mouth is...putting a protective coating on him, thus ending the urge to repaint. Even here there was a question. I had planned to use a Gel Medium for this...but read a little too much...and decided that the polymer in the medium might not be as strong as polyurethane that PG suggested. Well...I'm doing both. The Gel Medium will be my isolation coat, which has UV protection as well as shielding the bird from chemicals and water. Then I will put on acrylic polyurethane to protect him for scratches and such. By the way, the white stuff on the picture is the Gel Medium before drying. Yep, I'm gonna make you wait until the last possible moment to see him finished.