The trouble with Perch -- the word, not the fish

While working on smaller areas these last few weeks, my book has begun to sag on the stand. The front corner has actually "wilted" bit, so I've taken time to reshape the right page and need many more coats of white to mask the previous corner.  I've laid out one fish (a perch) on that page and have started giving shape to the one on the opposite page.

Painting words is proving more of a challenge than I imagined. I have to wipe out my first attempt at "P E R C H" and try again, this time using a rule to approximate 2 point perspective and block in the approximate positions of the letters. The vertical sides of the letters need to recede off to the right (and they would merge at some imaginary vanishing point to the upper far right). The horizontal sides of the letters also need to appear to follow an imaginary vanishing point on the left. What this is supposed to mean to me is that the tops of the letters are bigger/fatter than the bottoms of the letters. And the P should be taller than the H. When I stand directly in front of the book, the verticals do seem to line up with the edges of the page. But from my viewpoint 7 feet in front of my still life (looking directly at the corner of the page), the book sags, bending and distorting the edges of the page... What a pain.

I also need to revisit the cork. The right side is too cool. I was trying to follow the rule of painting skin, which is "cool, warm, cool, warm" -- cool highlights, warm in the lights, cool in the halftones, and warm in the lights. But in my last attempt, I mistakenly enlarged the cool half-tones and I need to make them thinner and return the warm darks to the  farthest side.

The background (now sunken in) will also be repainted later in a warmer tone...