[Tom Edgerton]

Sharon--this response means a lot...!

Linda--

Thanks so much...I just picked up the brush on day one and started painting. No preliminary drawing, but a quick, rough "map" of major features and outside contour with thinned down paint. Then painting largest shapes first, and then to more specific, smaller shapes. General to specific, refining the drawing with each pass through. You've seen it--and done it--a million times. The likeness is a tightrope walk, as you know. You either get it solid and quickly, or it falls apart--not many times in between.

No medium other than whatever mineral spirits stayed in the brush--mostly paint straight out of the tube (I have a bad habit of painting mostly with just a couple of brushes, and cleaning as I go. I don't use a bunch because it confuses me. I'd get cleaner color if I didn't do this.)

It would be wet in wet during each session, and the next day that would have "set" somewhat, but I made no attempt to slow the paint down or speed it up with a medium. I refreshed paint if it dried on the palette, and MAYBE a drop of oil on the piles of the colors that had stiffened on subsequent days. My goal with these is to get it with a minimum of fuss, in contrast to my anal approach with commissioned work. I love it--it's like skating.

You'd have done it in half the time or less.