I am painting my two children. I spent last week working on preparing the canvas and the drawing of these two. Then I started on the shading, and refining the drawing with paint.
I love this part, I could ‘draw’ with my paintbrush forever. I’ve convinced myself it’s good to spend a lot of time at this stage because it gets me familiar with the subject and the painting. It’s meditative and I’m always thinking things like “when I get to this part I’ll be sure to blend it into this part” or “I need to remember to make sure this part comes forward” or “Oh, I wonder when that sale at Nordstroms starts?”. You get the idea, lots of thinking time.
But eventually a little voice in my head says “enough already, time to start putting color on the canvas”. I hear that little voice so tomorrow I’ll start adding color.