You’re right, there is no Day 1. I got home yesterday about 4:00, and I thought I would just sashay in and start paintin’ in the evening, but it just didn’t appeal. I had to do some hard thinking about what I really would like to accomplish if I were to paint every day this month. Compared to last time, I am ambivalent about my theme and way underprepared.

So, Self, what do we want to accomplish? I decided I do want to meet the challenge of painting every day. Most people elect to start and finish one small painting daily, but I don’t have the neurons for that. I do have (1) unfinished paintings, and (2) at least three more Israel paintings I’d like to start. I will do what appeals, for as long as it appeals, on each day. Maybe I’ll finish something. I’d really like that.

Here is what I did today. This is Rose.

I can get the initial idea onto the canvas freehand, but this time I used a grid. I spent a lot of time in Photoshop tweaking the photo with the changes I’m making, and I didn’t feel like positioning her wrong after all that. I used a fairly large grid and drew with the brush, got it this far, and now I’ll abandon the grid altogether.