Been staring at this underpainting for three days. The linen is fighting me — I think that's exactly where I need to stay a little longer.There's a temptation at this stage to resolve things too quickly. To mix a colour that makes sense, to commit to a line because the canvas feels too empty and patience feels too much like procrastination. But I've learned — slowly, and more than once the hard way — that the underpainting knows things the finished surface doesn't. It holds the logic of the whole piece before the whole piece exists.What I'm looking at right now is a warm ochre ground with some loose gestural marks in raw umber. Nothing that would mean anything to anyone else.