A log of what happened at the easel, kept roughly in order.
Thinning the umber back down
Mixed a batch of raw umber with too much linseed oil and spent the better part of an hour thinning it back down before it would sit flat on the panel instead of pooling in the tooth of the gesso.
OilA fence line, six times over
Redrew the same fence line six times trying to get the perspective to stop looking apologetic. Landed on a version that's slightly wrong and much more convincing than the correct one.
InkSewing paper instead of gluing it
Ran out of the usual wheat paste and started stitching torn paper directly to the canvas instead. Slower, but the thread reads as drawing from three feet back, which the glue never did.
Mixed mediaScraping a panel back to bare wood
Took a palette knife to a panel that had three failed starts stacked on it and scraped it back to bare wood. Kept the scrape marks — they're doing more work than the painting was.
OilWorking from a grocery receipt
Used an old receipt as the reference for a still life instead of setting one up. The paper had already curled and yellowed in a way no prop could fake.
Works on paperTwo chairs, no one home
Started a larger canvas of the kitchen chairs. No figures — the composition works better as an absence than as a portrait.
Oil