Michele, thank you so much for nitpicking away at the little things, because you have demonstrated to me how I have to be with myself. It's a constant process of questioning and requestioning and never accepting "good enough". Oh, and the AGO has a [I]gorgeous[I] Bouguereau that I spent a long time studying a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if our painting teachers at OCA knew about what was essentially in the backyard...if they did, they kept it a big secret from me. (Note: it seems Michele and I went to school together about 100 years ago.)

Alex, thank you too for your excellent advice and support. (Good grief, I feel like I'm on the podium accepting the Big Award. Please excuse.) I'm seeing that maybe one of the great things about this forum is the "peer group". Mostly friends don't understand and family are a bit tired of it, so it's nice to get to hang with people who find the same things to be important.

Cheers, guys. Janet

Janet,
This is coming out so beautifully, it has been fun to see what you have learned and then applied. The only thing I could add, since I too, am learning, is that actually using Indian Red in a dark value in the nostrils and the deep creases of the eyelid look very "authentic". I believe that is what Bouguereau used, it is a deep, warm red.

Hi Patricia, thanks. Isn't it funny to find ourselves "beginners" again? Not so bad, really. Yeah, I actually reddened up the nostrils a bit (I use Terra Rosa, Indian Red behaves very badly around me). The eyelid crease thing looks okay in Bouguereau's work, but Sam has a lot of greeny-grey going on around her eyelids, I'd be apprehensive about going too red there. Howbe this: I won't be able to get to this again for a couple of weeks, so it will be quite dry on the surface and I'll try, see how it looks. Take care, Janet