Tai Chi Sword Gesture

I am still patting myself on the back for amalgamating two paintings into one with my last project on dance and martial arts poses.  I am just like a little kid, finding joy in something insignificant or irrelevant and being giddy about it.  What is that saying about sloths; their babies are so ugly only their own mothers would love them!  Well I'm that sloth's mother.

On the heel of such success I am going to try another one and see if I could duplicate the results.

I have a painting of a Tai Chi sword artist striking a posture and another silhouette painting of a martial artist so these are candidates of my current project.  I had tried to reveal foreshortening of the hand within a silhouette painting. 

The silhouette painting is going to be the top layer, so it goes down first to be wet mounted.

Next is my Tai Chi sword painting being placed on the silhouette, 

So far so good!  This is now hung to dry.  Still looking good.

Unfortunately the Tai Chi sword layer fades out quite a bit after drying.  It has lost its brilliance. It does not appear to be behind a sheer veil anymore.

The result is interesting, but not as dramatic as the last project.  It dawns on me that the silhouette painting was done on regular unsized Xuan and is thicker than the cicada skin Xuan that I used on the last project.  The thicker paper renders the top layer less transparent, thus obscuring the bottom Tai Chi sword painting.  In addition, that thinner Xuan has a slight sheen on it, making it more veil like.  

I try to remedy that by coloring on the silhouette painting, by coercing the Tai Chi sword to be more visible in the background.  I am afraid to use a brush that is too wet, thereby affecting the starched layers, causing them to wrinkle and separate.  The dry coloring somehow does not agree with the overall mood of the painting.  It feels obtrusive and contrived.  Not the dreamy nor the enigmatic effect as I had hoped for.

Some things just can't be forced.  Lesson learned.  Again.