I was working on a river scene with some otters this morning in impasto mode. All went well. Memorized it as riff. I painted primarily with the thick bristle 10 brush. Did some blending with the depth smear brush. Then I used the depth lofter to get a sculptural quality to the grasses at the bank.

Then I took a break. Coming back to it, I decided it needed some warming in the grasses and tried to add some warm ochre to it. All this did was to pixelate the lofting.

Memorized an alternate version of the file. Clicked off the toggle impasto switch thinking that would allow me to add some strokes but it went right back to impasto the minute my brush touched the canvas.

I finally took the impasto off altogether and used an airbrush for a couple of highlights and did my final version like that -- minus impasto.

Does this mean that lofters and such should be the final thing to do in a painting? When you're sure all the rest is OK? Am confused.

This just occurred to me -- could I have closed the eye on a layer that used the depth lofter and continued that way? Still confused.

Zen