The best part of London was going to the queens gallery at Buckingham Palace and viewing hundreds of original Leonardo da Vinci sketches up close.

I brought my watercolor sketchbook with me and did my own studies of his work from the originals. I wanted to give an older, worn, feel to it as I was working, so I kept running back and forth between the bathroom and the gallery. I would rush in the bathroom, cover the background with a brown watercolor base, hold it under the dryer, add another coat, dry it, run back to the gallery to paint or sketch, and repeat the process.