Spring Is Nearly Here...

Today I worked on my Goddess Of Spring canvas.  She has not been an easy bunny.  I bought the canvas from Michael's, they were a twin pack on offer so you would think they would both be the same wouldn't you?  Not so.  The packaging stated they were ready primed so I figured they were ready to use, no Gesso required.  My Goddess of Freedom was a delight to paint in comparison with this canvas.  I found out all too late that it seemed to have some sort of coating, or perhaps wasn't primed as thoroughly as its twin.  Not only did it repel the water color crayons it just wouldn't grab acrylic very well either.  Using the breyer was also a nightmare as it lifted not only the acrylic but the blue watercolor underneath leaving huge bare bits of canvas.  So I tinkered for ages and this is as good as it gets!  Then finally, an I know Darla with sympathise here, I opened a flip top tube of blue acrylic and it sort of popped and splattered tiny blue spots on her tummy and arm!  Jeez!  so then I had to touch those in, first with gesso and then try to patch the skin tone.  Finally my hand slipped on the third 'vine' and now juts off to the side of the painting.  However, tomorrow is another day and I will finish the fine details, add the butterfly and try to 'repair' the vine.  Also the pink flowers look a little bit like they've been thrown on, not sure whether to do some more green vines going upward from the bottom of the painting.  Any thoughts peeps??  Oh and just for the record some of you guys on Tam's course were complaining, like me, about taking photo's under electric lighting.  Well I found a solution that seems to work if you have photoshop at your disposal.  First go to Image>Adjustments>autolevels.  I do this with all my photos and it seems to help a bit, but they often still  look a little yellow.  So next go to Image>Adjustments>auto color and hey presto she looks less like she suffers jaundice!