Evolution of a Painting

Have you ever “finished” a painting, than weeks later , saw that you missed the original idea? That’s what happened with Drifting, the painting below.

I was really excited about this image, my thoughts exploded in all directions.

• I liked the vantage point from above, wanted a – floating, drifting, sleeping feeling.
• I liked the intense warmth, wanted to manipulate this from warm at the top to cool at the bottom.
• Wanted her to exist in two worlds, one of reality and one of graphic design.

Any one of these would have been interesting, but all of them at once was too much. There were parts of the painting that I really liked; her face, hair, warm light, the composition. However I got lost along the way, the relaxed flowing atmosphere I had originally pictured was not there. So how did I go about bringing it back?