Each drawing was projected on the wall of my studio and enlarged until the size seemed to be right. Measurements were taken and size adjusted for partial inches. Because each painting is not a standard size I bought stretcher bars and cotton duck for my work. Each canvas has three layers of acrylic gesso. The first layer was thinned with water and this helped to draw up the canvas so it would be tighter. The two remaining coats were unthinned gesso. I toned most of the canvases with a yellow ochre acrylic wash. Three of the paintings have an under painting in raw umber. Next the drawings were transferred to the canvas by the use of an opaque projector using either a #2 pencil or charcoal pencil, and set with a fixative. Then came the ominous task of filling all that wide open space with paint. Since I enjoy layering I mostly started out thin, pushing myself to use thicker or unthinned paint. I love the playing of paint on the surface of the canvas, which was not something I could do with thin washes. During the painting process I perused books about Impressionism in Europe and America. I did more viewing of the paintings than I did reading of the words written about there work. My main interest was to see what colors they used especially warm vs. cool, and their brush strokes. I started with John Singer Sargent and then there was a book on William Merritt Chase. He started me on the road to looking at more work of American Impressionism. What I was looking for was how they painted folds in clothing in strong light and shadow. Most of my figures are in strong light I wanted to see how it was handled by impressionistic painters. I wanted these paintings to push me away from my tendency to paint flat and with hard edges. This is the reason I chose to paint moving toward the impressionistic style. This style would also force me to use thicker paint with bolder strokes. I’m also impressed with how light there shadows are. These paintings have been a push to move me out of my timidity. I’ll not fear putting together a large canvas again. I’ll be a bit more daring in trying something new. I’ve had great guidance along my journey in areas that were at first confusing. Like how do I put people from different photographs in the same painting? I feel I now have the confidence to paint more figures in a variety of situations.