Simplicity- a great design principle

"Just out of Reach"  Acrylic
Image:  18" x 13 

This painting was finished the first time, (haha) about 2 months ago.  I thought I liked it, but upon judging it more, I realized that it was far too busy, so I simplified it.  The design in this piece was established by drawing a wire drawing in an abstract manner.  

I love to use Iphone apps to check up on my design.  One of them that I love is called PencilSketch and another one that I like is called Notanizer.   The one on the left is from PencilSketch and the one on the right is from Notanizer, using 4 levels (white, light, medium and dark values)  I can see if I need to choose a different color or perhaps add a glaze to unify a section, just by looking at these apps, when I think I'm getting to the last steps of the painting.