Anthony,14"x11" oil on linen

Usually, I don't stay with drawing this long when I paintﾑI do not want to separate the drawing stage and the painting stage too much. Rather, as soon as the general proportion of the head is established and the placement of the features are determined, I move on to lay down shapes of color, including the background. Sometimes, though, I like to indulge myself with the drawing aspect of the painting just a bit longer (I enjoyed the building of this drawing). But at some point I had to decide whether I should go further with "tightening up" this tonal drawing or move on to color. I should have finished this painting as more of a transparent tonal painting rather than a full-fledged painting. It turned out that the next stage of the painting didn't develop to my satisfaction. Looking back, it had to do with the fact that I let myself be distracted by an event that was happening during the sessionﾑthere was a school holiday event going on at the time involving gallery reception, food, etc.

I took this picture just before I moved on to lay down colors. Later, I scraped the final painting off the canvas for another use, another day.