I felt like I had hit a kind of wall with the image as I had been working it. I felt too slavish to the details, was too mired in the tiny things and was missing the point of the whole image, which was to evoke the feeling of sitting in this area of Harvard Square. Then I watched a documentary on Mark Rothko and felt inspired. After watching it, I did what I've often done with some of my images; I deleted the stuff that was too fussy. Usually, it's a line work layer. In this case, I started over, using the same pencil drawing but I held the pencil at the very back end so I had less control. I didn't do most of the detail of the background and worked my way forward only adding as little technique as possible. I'm going to sleep on it but instinct says this was a better way to go. And if that's the case, I don't mind that I put so much work into the other version. If I'm happy with the final piece, it just means that was a necessary step.