So there it is, what I am working on. I have reached the stage where I can say it is finished or 'improve' it further, or at least hope to. The risk is that 'improving' it might not. As I was nearing the end of this stage - where all the colours are in their place and it looks 'completed' - it occurred to me that the yellows might be a bit too yellow and too wishy-washy and then I noticed that perhaps the blues could be a little less blue and that might work better. There is always room for improvement along with risk of overkill. And that is why I did absolutely nothing today. I did not even stare at it which is really what I need to do until I have made a decision on what to do next: continue to stare or just make changes without too much thought or start another painting or continue with the eighteenth century book or work on the small sculpture or continue with the twentieth century book or finish the pencil drawing or clean the house or take the camera for a workout in the hills or make a mosquito net for the window or get back to learning the piano pieces or put hinges on the screen for the studio door or or or or or..... There are so many things I could do to avoid having to deal with the painting but I only want to paint or draw or .... and there we go again. And this is why I much prefer to work on three or four paintings at the same time. I can then jump from one to the other every time I get to a decision point and then the decisions take care of themselves. Sometimes it becomes evident what the next move is. Now that it is warmer in there, I think that is what I will do next: start three or four new paintings (or bring some back to life - the ones set aside because it was too cold to spend enough time in there to bounce from one to the other). I do have three portraits I started a few months ago and got stuck because they looked 'too good to mess with' but I do not want them like they are. I want to play with them. I will work on them upside down and that will solve that problem. Well, I am glad that is sorted.
On another note, I am hoping to get the Twitch channel up and running on Tuesday but that will depend, in part, on the webcam: will it work right away or will I have to figure out how to get it to work? Also, I might chicken out. I hope not. I plan on posting the announcement of my drawing stream on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and that will disallow me to chicken out, unless I chicken out of the announcement. Ah! such entanglements. I am as curious as anyone whether or not I will launch 'on time'. Then again, I am probably the only one who is thinking about this Thursday launch. I will get courage from the idea that it is very likely that nobody will be watching or perhaps just a couple of friends, which would make it very nice. I have set the days and times for Tuesdays and Thursday from 4pm on but now I am wondering if starting at 10pm might not be better. I will stick with 4 for the moment and see how it goes. Why make it simple if you can make it complicated? Actually, as I write this, I realise that at some level I am looking forward to streaming. I have never done anything like it before and so it is interesting and new. Why on earth would I chicken out?! For once, overthinking it all might just work out.