Alive and Dead

This is how the process goes: first an idea, a visual thing. It appears on the "mental screen", I see obscure shapes and don't grasp the meaning yet. Next, I stand in front of the 'blank canvas" lost, helpless, and fearful.
For the Alive and Dead what I knew was that the mother's belly had to be moon-like, that the baby had to silhouette against its light like a fly on a lampshade, and that the mother should have had my face upside down. What I didn't know was what brush to use first, wide or narrow, what paint put on the pallet, and what to start sketching.
Day one: 50 min, a sketchy sketch in pale blue in medium brush. Ah, how grateful I was to Mark that he called me for dinner!
Day two: the whole thing almost finished in two hours. I didn't dare to look at it yet; I let my conscious mind to check out while my hands and eyes working.
Day three: taking a photo and examining it on computer screen.
Day four: while driving, having an idea  of one skeleton hand and the night sky .
Day five: finishing the whole thing in one hour. Same day: taking a photo, having an idea of the title while driving, and posting it on blog and facebook.
Tad-aah!