"Problem Child" Painting

I have been painting like crazy getting ready for Artwalk in San Diego at the end of April. I read an article recently about taking one of your "problem child" paintings. The ones that were finished but not quite right. I had just such a painting in my studio, staring at me. It was done on a cradled board that my hubby made, a surface too good to gather dust, so I pulled it out and evaluated it. Here it is....

I painted this in 2005 and it was time for drastic measures. I liked the eyes and the fish. The background had some great collage elements that were lost with too much paint. So I lightly sanded all of the painting except the eyes and fish. There was no bringing back the collage, so I decided to add some paper to cover the nose and mouth and some around the neck. I wish I had taken photos, but was in kind of a frenzy to see how I could fix it. I added texture through some stencils with "Wood Icing" - a trick from fellow mixed media artist Mary Beth Shaw, then dripped white acrylic ink and let it dry. The next day I reshaped the face and dripped some more ink and here is the result....

I really love the way this came out. My other "problem children" better watch out!