Elephants in Between

I'm working on elephant paintings from sketches I did in the summer of 2010.
Usually I paint to a point of completion and see one area where I'd like to add a color or brushstroke...and then I add another and another. My paintings are layered several paintings and colorways thick before I finally stop.
With these I'm stopping before I repaint - and starting on a new canvas from the last point where I saw something to do differently.
The sketches I'm using for these paintings are below. They're different from other sketches I do at zoos. I did them intentionally to be used for abstract paintings and they're gestures - very quick studies of that moment.