Newsletter and photography

I'm in the process of looking into creating a newsletter. Even though I'm wanting to move away from photography on my website, I still post some on my blog from time to time, and I think it would be a good addition to a newsletter. I think I'll do a monthly newsletter, it will have new art, photography, information about upcoming projects, shows and I think I'll include special sales just for the newsletter subscribers. I still need to research a bit more into the actual creation of a newsletter, but I think I'll be able to get it off the ground within the next month or so.
With my photography I'm moving away from it on my website because I usually end up wanting to use a lot of it as reference photos. I just feel that it gets a little redundant that way. I still love my photos, that's why I'll still post them on my blog and include them in the newsletter (the newsletter will have photography that will not be posted on the blog as well).

Painting updates

I've finally been able to get back into the painting again. I'm not sure about the size of the hand already. The tips of the fingers are right, I've measured that about 16 times. The wrist might just be over too far. The hair needs some more work but I'm happy with this layer for the most part.

Painting updates and frustrations

Nothing fully dried since last night. I tried to put in the last of the background since that color is starting to dry out on my palette. I might not have brought the shoulder down enough. With the background it's ok if it comes in too far but if it's not in far enough I have to mix the color again and it's really hard to get that exact color twice. I included a few detail shots in this. I even painted the edges of the canvas with the background color, because I'm not sure if I'm going to frame this or not. I just wanted to keep the options open. I'm really getting frustrated though because again I'm waiting for it to try and I'll know the edge will probably take a few days. At least the rest of it will be able to dry in that time. Meanwhile I have nothing to work on. I think I'll either start a drawing or another painting so I have something to work on while I'm waiting for this to dry. Before it was I felt like I had no time, now I feel like I have the time but I can't work because I'm waiting for something to dry. If I try to go wet on wet I just end up getting an awful gray looking mud color. I'm seriously considering trying acyrlics again, I might try to find the proper place to post a comparsion thread on Wet Canvas, or maybe I'll search for a post that may have already been posted. I think I'm going to look through reference photos when I'm done with this and see about starting something new tomorrow while I wait for things to dry. Still working on something else doesn't solve my main problem of wanting to finish this, and of course I really don't like working on two projects at once. I just usually can't split the focus and end up neglecting the one project.

More Progress

This really is not the amount of progress that I was hoping to get done but I am happy with what I got done. I still need to make some adjustment to that line on the left side cheek because I've had to move it and it's looking a bit awkward. I may have to look at the line on the right as well. I noticed that the knuckle was too high, which was throwing off the line of the cheek which was throwing off the ear. The ear is entirely too high. I just need to move it down a little. I have to wait for everything to dry so I can go back over it or I would have done more tonight. Hopefully everything will be dry tomorrow and I can fix that cheek, the ear and the hand. If I can fix all that and get more done on the hand I'll feel good about everything and if I can start the shirt and arms before the week ends even better. We'll see what happens.

little progress

I did a little work this morning too. I got the background filled in, but I'm not sure if it's too dark and I think the texture might be a bit too much.

Progress

I'm really happy with the progress I made tonight. I might have worked a little longer but I set the easel too high and didn't notice until my neck started to hurt. I still have some things to fix, but I made some changes to the right eye that I'm happy with. It still needs a few tweaks but I think I need a smaller brush. I may be a little hard on my brushes because my smaller one is fraying a bit and I was having trouble because of it. I think that left crease next to the cheek is a bit too strong but when I was lightening it I thought it was getting too light and had to make it darker. I may just leave it as is until I get the hand in and the finish the lips. The lips are giving me a huge problem because I can't get the color right. I also need to fix the left eye and then decide how much I really need to change about the nose. Right now it looks a little big but I think the left eye needs to be a little larger. The nose might look right then, and then I'll just need to fix a little shading around the left nostril. I'll work more tomorrow and see how that goes, unless of course the wet paper towel I put in there waters down my paint to much. I'm hoping the moisture from it is enough to keep my paints from drying out but not so much that it adds a bunch of water and makes the paint runny. Though either way I didn't put that much paint on the palette this time anyway.

painting progress

I got some work done on my painting. I'm really liking my progress though I'm still having a bit of hard time with the lips. I think I need to let them dry and come back to them. Also I think if I got more of the finger in it might look better. I also need to wait for the hair to dry so I can put in the ear and then of course add more hair back in. The hair isn't done anyway.
I did try that clove oil and I'm just not impressed at all. If anything my paint dried out faster. I haven't painted since Friday but really I didn't think it would be this dried out. There was a skin over everything, the alizarin crimson included (one of the last to dry out usually). I put some in there tonight but the smell was so horrible I just won't be using it again. I'm going to try to paint to paint tomorrow, but I may just have to spend the night washing my palette again. I think I will try putting a wet sponge or paper towel in there. I've done that with acrylics before so I'm not sure if it will work out. I'm actually thinking of getting a set of acrylics after I run out of my oils. I may get a set before running out of oils. I seem to spend a lot of time waiting for these to dry, I might benefit from a faster drying time, and I work so thin anyway the paint really doesn't even stay wet over night anyway. I haven't let that stop me from blending, I've found a dry brushing technique that really works for me.
Also I have been published in The Battered Suitcase, an online literary magazine. My art work is featured as well as a few other artists, who have some very interesting work.