Lemons, Wine Bottle and Cookbook Finished Watercolor

     Would you like to know the process I go through when I am making a painting? First I wander around with an idea in my head, until I start sketching. I do several little, bitty sketches (the proper name for these sketches are thumbnails). In the sketches I try out different arrangements of the things  and different layouts. This usually gives me an idea of what I want to say in the painting. Once I've chosen my thumbnail sketch, I draw it much larger on my watercolor paper. 

Once I start to paint an internal dialogue begins between me and my inner art critic. Thankfully, in the beginning stages of my painting, I usually like the painting and praise myself on my artistic skills. Then about mid way through the painting, I decide I should have been a science major and become a neurosurgeon. A few minutes later I usually give up and eat lunch or sweep the floor deciding I will not paint ever again. About 5 minutes later, I can't help myself and I go look at my painting and decide its not as bad as I thought it was and I am going to add a few more colors and brushstrokes. Then wooosh an hour  or three go by and I am lost in my private painting world and its just me, the brush and the paint and the critic must have gone out for a walk. Finally, sometime later, the painting is finished. I usually walk away at that point because I am no longer objective. 

When I return to the painting later or the next day, I see it fresh and decide what I like and what I don't like and what I can improve. A few more touches, its done. Or so I think.......