this second stage is so simple, so present, it's tempting to leave it as is. i'm not going to touch it for a while.
8/22/14: well....that decision didn't last long! mikela, accurate as usual in her first-look observations, had a problem with the blue shape in the upper left. the more i looked at it, the more i agreed, although i still love all the other bits. lets see how this version holds up over time.
8/23/14: needed to shake it up; it was becoming too facile, in my opinion. so i did a riff on vermeer's the studio, one of his most successful works. it won't stay this way for long, but it sure was fun exploring vermeer's unique sense of perspective and composition, as well as finding a shorthand for the feathers on his model's head.
later in the afternoon: it was fun for a few hours, but it's not the direction i'm headed. so it was even MORE fun to paint over it!
