Sketching & Driving - Continued

So I spent more time thinking about the piece today - I think a lot about my work before doing it.  Sometimes I think that I almost 'think' them into existence.  One of the considerations for this particular work is that it is three panels, 2' x 4' each - and they will be plywood panels probably 5/8" thick and I have to wonder if they will warp, so I imagine making some nice oak strips to 'cradle' the panel with.  I'm always trying to figure out how to make things sturdy without being too heavy.  When I made the first frame for Family Unit Circa 1970, it was made out of oak and weighed a ton because it contained nine separate canvases in one single frame - Yikes!  Then, in the middle of the night, Peter fell out in the middle of the Ellarslie Museum in Trenton, setting off the alarm and bringing in the curator who was none to happy.  But I digress - Do you ever come up really close to a work and try to figure out how it was made? That is one thing I love to do with artwork - maybe one day I'll tell the story of how close I got to 'Portrait of an Old Man in Red' by Rembrandt when I was in the Hermitage museum in what was once Lenningrad. What's the closest you've gotten to a work of art (without touching it of course! :)