After a long period of wrestling with myself today I finally got around to doing something I ought to have done a couple of weeks back. I erased my first independent attempt to painting an ikon, following my earlier attendance at a course in ikon painting. After poking about with it for some time, hoping that the principal error in it was remediable, finally I had to acknowledge that there was no way in which I could correct the original and underlying mistake. (My preparation for the gilding contained a flaw that was always going to assert itself regardless of how much burnishing I did.) In addition, I was not impressed by my handling of the paint in some other areas of the image. So: it had to go.
The good news is that, not only have I learned something, but also in this particular medium it is possible just to pick up a sheet of sandpaper and take the surface back to the original gesso base. With a little tweaking I think that the basic drawing is not bad, and I will probably make another attempt on the same board. It’s a curious coincidence, isn’t it, after yesterday’s remarks about there being nothing that cannot be redeemed.