Need help: transparent bear image over skull painting

[cindyjames]

I have it in my head but I am having trouble getting it to happen on the canvas. I wanted a ghost image of a bear head over the painting of the skull. The skull turned out good so I sprayed varnish over it just in case the bear didn't work out. I could clean off the what I painted of the bear's head so far and try to do the bear again, or I could give up the bear head and try something else like sprays of blackberries above the skull. I'm using Liquitex Slow-Dry medium to dilute the paint because it dries tranparent. But it's not as transparent as I would like. Does anyone have any ideas of how to save this painting?

Cindy

[dspinks]

Have you tried regular acrylic medium (matte or gloss)? It really gives good result in doing transparent glazes. It looks opaque straight out of the bottle, but it dries clear. And it's less expensive than the slow-dry medium. I mix just a bit of slow-dry and then lots of the liquid medium into my paints when I am glazing.

Debra

[MarciaGayle]

You could slightly darken the area where you want the ghost image to go and then just paint an outline in light or white of the ghost image. I am attaching one of my painting to show you sort of what I mean.

-Marcia

[MarciaGayle]

[quote]Originally posted by MarciaGayle
[b] what I mean.

[taffetta]

perhaps some flat washes over the skull, then go into the detail of the fur.That way you can increase/decrease the detail while still keeping the skull visible.
you could try photcopying the skull onto some sturdy paper, stick a varnish on top again, to see what washes would do to start with.