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"Ink Bottle, Canoe, and Paper" oil on linen on panel, 8"x10". All of these images together illustrate the process that I'm using for this painting. After arranging the objects based on an idea that I'd been playing around with in my sketchbook working from imagination, I executed a carefully rendered drawing on paper. Using a charcoal transfer, I inked the drawing in directly on the canvas with a technical pen, and then did an umber underpainting, wiping out the lights and adding in the darks. I took a photo of the drawing and printed out a smaller image which I then used to make the monochrome value study. Lately I've been making these instead of color because I find that it gives me a chance to make decisions about how I want the ligjht to look that may not be apparent if I were working in color. Then, using the value study as a guide I painted in a careful color wash. I'm working pretty hard to get form at this point, but I know I won't get it perfect until i complete the finishing pass in the next stage. The color wash looks very matte because I use Liquin, which was already dry by the time I took the photo. I'll use neo-megilp (Gamblin) as a medium in the next pass, which seems to sit very well on the Liquin. I think in the next one I will use Liquin for the umber stage as well to avoid the sinking in. After looking at the images for Jacob Collins upcoming exhibit at Christies it occured to me that I should be doing more paint studies before commiting to the final image, rather than after the fact. I can see where his studies have pointed out things that needed to be changed in the final work, and in my struggles to be a better artist this just seems like a no-brainer.