Sticking with the Series

I have been working on my "Forgotten Memories" series for a year and a half now and every once in a while, I paint something that is just too nice that it is hard to paint over the eyes. It's not that my other paintings aren't nice also, it's just that sometimes I work on a painting that has a certain expression in the eyes that I love, or I paint the face especially well and it is painful to cover the eyes with a bar in order to make it fit the series. I have been told by fellow artists and friends that maybe I should just keep the eyes uncovered but despite my really wanting to, I always cover the eyes with a bar. 

It's important for me to be consistent with this series and I don't want to have two separate series going at the same time. I am not ready to stop working on this one and I don't want to work on two of them just yet, especially if they are similar. I finally have a series of work that I like and it's starting to get noticed and do well. I don't want to stop now and work on something else just because I don't want to cover the eyes of a certain painting.

This new painting is one of those paintings that I can tell will be hard for me to cover the eyes. I love the dreamy, somewhat melancholy look in her eyes as she is gazing off into the distant. The sharp contrast and shadows on her face make this even more interesting. I'm not sure how this will work with a dark bar. I may have to lighten the shadows and her hair so that it doesn't blend with the bar and look weird. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.