Brush strokes

[Kimberly Dow]

I have this painting where I had drawn shapes in Ivory black - then changed the positions. The background is flat Ivory black now and I am happy with it (it actually was done sometime last year) - but where I drew these circles there are marks. I have covered them over several times with more black. It's actually the brush strokes that are showing. You only see them in certain light, but it is making me crazy.

Do I need to sand this? There is heavy thick paint in parts of this painting, but not there. I tried putting it on thickly to cover these brush strokes and it still didnt work. Whenever I have tried to sand a painting it has affected the color of the paint.

Thanks for any help.

[Michele Rushworth]

Gotta sand it. I do that all the time and it works very well. Just be sure to stop as soon as you see any white from the canvas itself, and use fine sandpaper, carefully.

[Julie Deane]

HI Kimberly -

My guess is that you would have to sand and then repaint the whole area to avoid the color change.

I am learning this the hard way. I have a background that I tried to make as flat a color as possible, but I have two - TWO - brushstrokes that go in a different direction, and you can see them in certain lights. And it's dried, and I don't want to sand, so I'm leaving it and vowing to do better next time.

[Michele Rushworth]

I almost always go over everything I paint with a wide fan brush to get rid of any ridges. If the paint is not too thick you can do this without losing any of the "brushstroke look" that you want to keep, but just getting rid of the ridges.

I go in an up and down direction on the final pass with the fan brush, so all the glare will be consistent across the whole surface of the painting too.