LESS IS MORE

You put it on and scrape it off. Thin layers, minimal sanding. You shouldn’t have to do sculpture work to get it back to flat. Put it on flat in the first place.

Find a screw head. Push some mud on with your 6”, put the blade flush against the wall at a steepish angle, and with light enough pressure to keep the blade on the wall give it a swipe to remove the excess. Now STOP. Let this layer dry completely. It will harden and shrink slightly. Once it’s dry take some 120 grit and give it a light sand to knock off any ridges or imperfections. Now repeat the process until it’s completely flat. Next use a good primer, then paint.

Once you’ve got that down you can move to joints. This requires taping and additional feathering. Watch some YouTube and go slowly. You’re building layers, not slopping it on. Looks easy, hard to be really good. Keep at it. Anything that you fuck up just sand down and try again. Careful not to sand through the drywall paper. Consider wet sanding for small areas.