Bela Bacalhau as of May 5, 2016

I worked on this project again this morning. I am decorating this wooden codfish for the The Marblehead Art Association, which is going to display and auction fifty codfish decorated by area artists. I am decorating my codfish with a design inspired by Portuguese tile (blue and white azulejos) that I have seen on my visits to Porto. And I gave my fish a Portuguese name because codfish (bacalhau) is very popular and codfish dishes are listed on every menu. Today I began by doing some experiments: putting marker and ink over gesso on scrap pieces of wood, letting it dry, and then applying acrylic paint and acrylic medium. I wanted to make sure the marker ink and metallic ink won't fun if they come into contact with acrylic paint (which I plan to use to clean up the white areas) or acrylic medium (which I plan to use to coat the finished piece). After I did that, I continued drawing the design on the fish. I added more lines to the fins and finished the circles on the tiles. I am still considering adding another color (another shade of blue) or adding a bit more silver to decorate the fins, but I am leaning towards making only minimal changes. At this point, I feel that with every new element I add, I risk making a mistake that would ruin the piece. Anyway,there is still a lot of cleanup and finishing work to do before I turn the piece in (due May 15). I decorated a codfish last year, too. If you want to see my codfish project from last year, follow this link: www.flickr.com/photos/randiart/17469011928/