I want my students to know that this can be done. It is like the question, ‘How do you eat an elephant? – One bite at a time!’ This can be done! But you can succeed only if you have patience. The circumstance that helped me learn this technique is the health condition that limits my endurance. I needed a way to paint where by I could quit at almost any stage in the work. This method requires extreme concentration sometimes, but the method also makes it necessary to stop so it can dry and so that the subject is not destroyed by too much fussing around without a plan. Often my students tell me they think they have ruined their project. When I look at it, I see the layer, all ready for the next step. They have just not yet learned to recognize how each layer is supposed to look before moving on. Even when they have successfully finished a portrait, they don’t come to understand what they have done until they are working on the next portrait. It is only then that their brain recognizes the ‘landscape’ where they have been before and they now know how to proceed. In this portrait, the eyes have it! When looking for the subject which will make a good painting, look for something that will get the viewer’s attention. It could be a shadow, an expression, even an idea that the subject represents well and clearly. Then, make it your goal with every painting to make every mark, every brush stroke speak and draw the viewer in. I hope you enjoy the painting as much as I do. I have a friend who is a wonderful artist but he tells me his work causes him anxiety. It would take more dedication than I have to continue under those circumstances. I hope this will resolve itself and that he will begin to relax and enjoy the process. Let us count our blessings every day. Shalom, Diana