That project I started at the beginning of the year? I’m working larger (for me) on a watercolour block, 18″x24″, as I described in Pushing Through. Yeah, nowhere near done.

But maybe, just maybe, I’m in the neighbourhood of halfway? Ha, not even! Here’s an accounting of the first few pieces out of the 20 in the block:

Piece	Days	Span
1	38	Jan 5 – Apr 7
2	22	Apr 7 – May 24
3	11	May 25 – Jun 10
4	15	Jun 11 – Jul 15
5	19	Jul 16 – Aug 25
6	17	Aug 27 – Sep 18
7	14 days and counting	Sep 18 –

At least I’m getting faster, or more focused? I counted the working days I was near my studio, presuming that I made at least one change each of those days.

Though I’m not sure what the rush and counting is about. I do know that I am definitely used to working in series all at once, AND I delight in crossing things off my list. So this slow progress is somewhat tortuous, uncomfortable for sure, but maybe that’s how counting helps, to detect the imperceptible progress.

I’m trying to alter each piece at least a dozen ways. Here’s one, from first marks to when I decided to stop. Drag the slider to see the big differences. I do like to cover up that white space!

Despite the crawling pace, I am succeeding in one way: each piece I’ve done is VERY different from the previous. There is NO sign of a series here in terms of palette or appearance.

And another bonus: the rich texture built up from all those covering layers. Oooh, yes — that is the effect I’m going for, whether it’s analog or digital. Did I know it took so many decisions to create it? I did not!

The decision making is not the hard part here, though. It’s the waiting in between, while things dry, off-gas, what have you. I can make multiple decisions while combining digital layers: which layer? Which overlay? By how much? Any exclusions or masks? All of that feels easy, and natural, at this point. To someone else, it may well be overwhelming. But strangely, change the medium and frequency of changes, and everything feels weird and frustrating.

In chats with artists over the past weekend, I was able to tease this out: ANY new process or medium feels odd for a long while — a year? More? It won’t feel intuitive, like my digital choices do, for a while yet, just like any other medium I’ve tried. Encaustic took a good year to not induce swearing, and watercolour still feels strange when I dabble in it. So be it with this process, which I’m going to have to call: painting!

It’s time to review what I’ve learned and tweak the constraints I’ve placed on myself.

• One thing at a time? While I can move a project along with a small change every day, that’s not enough to fill the day. Multiple projects or pieces, and more speed, are what I need.
• Don’t move on until the block is finished? Nah. I think I’ve got enough started that I’m clear on how to continue with new pieces while developing the initial ones further.
• Analog format? It’s time to move these to digital versions and see what I want to do next. Initital testing can be with the phone pics I snapped.

See what I mean: here’s that same piece from above, with a few digital layers added for fun.

Maybe by next year, I’ll know what I’m doing with these big works. Until then, I’ve now got a new, slow way to start my pieces, with lots of time for consideration — and a way to play in the digital space in the meantime.