Initial elements

Step one: break out the beloved brushes; squeeze out those beautiful and vibrant paints; and fill the whole room with the smell of turpentine. That first moment where the brush meets the texture of the canvas is so exhilarating!
Step two: you decide you are too excited about the project to let it dry (plus you didn't add cobalt drier!) so take a picture of the canvas. Then manipulate the file in Photoshop, spending nearly as much time and having nearly as much fun, playing on the computer as you did with the actual paint.


Step three: use part of the rich color and texture to add detail and intrigue to a white slate.

This was a first draft using minimal information for an invitation, based on this painting:

The Piano Lesson by Renoir; image found at artilim.com

The theme changed, the colors changed (but how I love the rich, warm colors--so some of them still kept a strong role), just about everything changed over the course of this project. Wait til you see what emerged! But these were the initial elements.