Feeling Pretty Good

Yesterday I finished a large portion of my first painting in this new series and, looking at the painting right now, it feels good to see something that I like. This series has been producing a lot of anxiety in me, anything new usually does, but I think I am at a point where I can relax a little. Just a little. I have a clearer concept of what I am doing and what I want to do with this work. So far, it's working out the way that I want it to. I still have a few unanswered questions, but some of the major ones are answered and I feel good about it.

One interesting thing that I found while painting this new work is that painting a face was a bit intimidating. Although I painted ALL of the eyes on my last series before blocking them out, there was a certain freedom in knowing that if I "messed up" the eyes, it wouldn't matter too much since they would be covered. I rarely  "messed up"the eyes and I always went into it with the idea that I wanted the eyes to be as true to the photo as possible, but now that I am not covering the eyes (did everyone hear that? I AM NOT COVERING THE EYES IN THIS SERIES... all of you who were upset every time I did that, you'll be a lot happier with me now...), I am a little more nervous and cautious about making sure the eyes, and face, looks good. It was not something I thought would happen since I have practiced painting eyes and faces so many times. I assume this is only a temporary thing, but it did add to my anxiety.

As I work on the second painting I am feeling a lot more confident than I did going into that first painting. I can feel the excitement building for this work and have already decided what I wanted to do for a third painting. I hope this excitement continues for many more paintings!

I PROMISE to have images as soon as I finish the first three paintings....