Working from the mirror again, which I should know better than to do at 44 because the model keeps sighing and wanting lunch.

The problem is the left hand. It's resting on the chair back, half in shadow, and it is correct. Proportion fine, values fine, edges where they should be. It looks like a hand carved out of soap. There is no blood in it.

I've repainted it four times now, each time a little more carefully, which is exactly the wrong instinct. Careful is what killed it. The rest of the figure has some looseness in it, the shoulder especially, and this hand sits there like a piece of taxidermy glued on. I think the trouble is I painted it from the shape instead of from the light. I was drawing a hand, not looking at what the shadow was doing to the knuckle.

So tomorrow I'm going to take a big brush and a lot of medium and destroy it, and hope the destruction leaves something alive behind. Voilà the plan. It has worked before and it has failed before.

If anyone has a reliable trick for the moment when a passage is technically right and completely without life, I'll take it. Otherwise I'll report back from the ruins.