so I've been doing these flat color fields where the tape edge is meant to disappear. wet tape off while the paint's still tacky, hard line, no bleed. clean. that's the whole trick.

except on the current one (36x48, cadmium red ground) the tape pulled up a strip of the red underneath and left this ragged little shoreline. and the worst part is it's better. the red underneath is slightly different because I mixed two batches and didn't match them properly, so now there's a visible seam where the two reds meet and it reads like the painting has a history or something. a mistake is doing my composition for me.

problem: I can't tell if I like it because it's genuinely good or because it's mine and I've been staring at it for nine days. also if I "reproduce" this on purpose on the next one it'll look like a gimmick and I'll hate it. which probably answers my own question.

anyway. tape edges. do you chase the clean line or let the tape leave teeth.