Yoga pose IX - step II... pitted against the decorative power of white walls... and unsure of the winner!

I tried to retain brush marks as much as I could during this second pass...

... with some difficulty...

I still have a hard time controlling granular backgrounds and making some sense out of them. I think I need to persist and not be afraid of mixing different techniques to get the look I want.

Some adjustments on this painting are called for before calling it quit...

Note to self: "Retaining brush strokes with thick paint "sans repentir" is something I don't have down path yet. If I manage to pull this off one day, my style will experience a quantum leap in freshness and expressiveness."

Sub-note to self: "There is no two ways about it. I need to get back to strong under-paintings and calligraphic second layers applied in the spirit of final layers!"