filling in

Filling in is always a bad idea. I thought yesterday I'd try to bridge the two sides of my little sketch, which was not a bad idea, though they started as two separate tries at the subject.
The first photo here shows the beginnings of the attempt.
And the second shows the attempt gone too far! I really was just filling in the "spaces" and as soon as I was conscious of it, stopped.
Note to self: be conscious!
Brings back what Jan Hart (www.janhart.com) says about stopping when the painting's an adolescent and thinking it over.

I went back to the dying orchid study this morning after painting the pine cone, which I drew last night. I'm not going to critique the painting--I think it's a little timid; perhaps all those lace holes get me too much into a left-brain mode--but I like the subject--there must be so many ways to approach painting a pine cone!--and want to do it again.

Today I really practiced Suzanne's advice: I set the oven timer for 1 hour ... That hour really flew by too!