Sometimes cheaper IS better. This week I learned that a Little Lonestar I had sent back to it's owner had a few stray pieces of lint on it. I never have such problems so it struck me as strange to hear. It would honestly be a first for me.
I know my eyesight hadn't been 100% before the new glasses purchased a few weeks ago, but since correcting that problem I've been on a good roll. Everything is clear, mixing and painting color has been in check and painting tiny Stablemate sized eyes are no longer a problem but lint….yeah, that's a problem.
I went ahead and checked all visiting resins that had made it up to the upper studio and sure enough two other resins had slight traces of lint here or there. I would never write about such an issue cause that is embarrasing, but I feel it's important to discuss such things as it can happen to any artist at any stage of the game. Things happen and in this case the culprit (aside from me being way too close to the subject matter and not even seeing the traces of lint) was a brand new Bounty paper towel product. Whatever was done to "improve" things with the paper towel Ive come to rely on has changed and has created a whole mess of lint when working on art projects. I rely heavily on products to be exactly as I've come to enjoy them and companies keep changing formulas or product in general. It's annoying. Period. Thankfully there are many substitutes and I'm very happy to say that the local dollar store provided a cheap and awful paper towel! Awful for spills and absorption, but wonderful simply because it produces NO LINT!
I always take such disasters and set backs with a grain of salt and this one turned into a nice little tutorial for how to deal with lint once it's found and once it has adhered itself to the model. Repair is not too difficult, but it does take time and a steady hand.
Taking an Exacto blade gently scrape the model with the side of the blade. Try to use the middle of the blade, not the tip. Don't use a box cutter or any other type of blade. Don't even try to use sandpaper because it only roughs up the surface making more touch up work. The blade shaves small layers off at a time. In most cases the lint is just on the surface surrounded by some paint. You should cause minimal damage to your paint surface this way.
Next, use a dry brush to wipe away any shaved lint and paint. Use your fingers and hands sparingly as you want to avoid putting excess finger oil on the horse. Keeping finger oil to a minimum just makes touch up easier in the end.
The horse is then washed and allowed to air dry (some towels create lint too so avoid them all together and just air dry). Then repaint the scraped areas with washes or glazes. Adding layers of color back onto the horse slowly is best.
I had to share my latest addition to the studio. The neighbor who invited me to rummage haphazardly through the dumpster she rented also invited me to take an old piece of slate she had in her basement. Jackpot. No more papers with "to do" scrawled on them. No more notebooks with the same. Just one big board and a fresh new pack of chalk to write on the board with . It's keeping me on target and in line in the studio. Only catch? The position of the board next to the desk...the printer....the storage bins....the paper holder and the portable easel make it impossible for me to even think about writing on this board with my right hand. Im all lefty from here on out with this new addition.
Stuff in that dumpster was amazingly fun.
I hope she likes the card.
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