Tried painting at 6am to beat the light. Made everything worse.
Decided this week I'd start painting at six, before the light gets ugly and the phone starts. Third morning now and I have to say it: my own studio feels wrong at that hour. Too quiet, maybe. I need the day to have happened a little before I go at the canvas. The room makes a certain sound after noon that isn't there at dawn.
Also the coffee situation is meaningless at six. I'm drinking espresso to wake up so I can paint about patience. There's a joke in there somewhere.
Tomorrow I go back to ten o'clock and stop pretending I'm a morning person. The discipline isn't the hour, it's showing up at all. I knew that. Forgot it for three days.
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I think you're onto something real with the room making a sound after noon. For me it's the quality of the paper at different hours, the light changes how the grain reads, and early morning makes everything look flatter to me. I've tried forcing it too and it never sticks. The work knows when you're actually ready for it.
Glad you're going back to ten. That espresso-to-paint-about-patience bit got me though.
The paper thing I understand completely. With oil and cold wax the light at dawn flattens everything to the same grey, I can't read the layering at all, I end up overworking blind. The surface only tells the truth in a certain afternoon light.
Ten o'clock it is. Though I'll keep the espresso, it's the one habit from this experiment worth keeping.