Coming along on the second sara piece. Getting at that frustrating point when things seem to be getting worse the more paint I put on. There are so many aspects of painting I still have to learn. Sometimes its hard not to focus just on what's not working in the painting. It's difficult because you have to be your own worst critic to be able to be honest about how you need to improve as a painter, while at the same time not getting frozen up by a sense of failure. Walking the line between honest criticism and self deprecation is a tough one. It's funny since its also necessary to keep a healthy show of confidence. Its like dating, if you don't at least put on a front of confidence no one is going to take you home. Same with painters, no one is going to have faith in you as a valuable artist if you don't at least act like you are the bees knees.
   Well, keeping my fingers crossed this piece works out.

Second Sara piece.

Starting the new Sara piece. So far just the burnt umber underpainting. I'll be sticking to roughly the same  palette as the first fish girl painting. 

My girl with fish painting is at its new home at the Hideout.

I've been spending most of my time this last week focusing on drawing and painting exercises. We made some casts today from a moulage material. Its a bit boring to be working on so many cast and anatomy exercises but it's helpful to get some good practice in before I get to finishing the series this fish girl painting goes with.

observational work and excersizes

It certainly feels like the cold season has begun. We had our first fire today in the fireplace upstairs from my studio. Makes it a little more cozy. I haven't been doing any new paintings lately. Instead I'm focusing on working on different excersizes in our atelier. Anatomy studies, Barque copies, color studies, and lifedrawing. I'll be starting a new series that I know will take up a lot of my time, so I need to make sure to get in the habit of keeping up with my observational work now while I have the chance.