[Kimberly Dow]

Thank you Mike, Allen and Beth!

I'm feeling fairly optimistic at this point. We had a good meeting and she made a decision - with some hearty pushing from me.

I did a neat little trick just for her. I displayed her photo on the computer screen with a closeup of her face as large as I could get it - than I used one of the software programs to lightly soften the photo. I told her that this in effect would be how I would be painting her - not with all little lines and marks - but with softness. We had a nice chat about her areas of concern and I flat out told her no when she asked about changing the shirt color again. Well- I actually said 'I dont care for that color at all." Getting a bit firmer with her seemed to work well.

I still do have several references to work from, but they are all almost exactly the same in lighting, pose, etc. - so it shouldnt be too difficult.

Believe it or not - when she wrote my check out she offered to pay more because the original contract had stated gessoboard and I had ordered it previously. I declined since I can use it for another painting.

I showed her samples of work on canvas vs gessoboard and showed her the supports with no paint on them. She preferred the canvas for the more 'painterly' surface - so there we have it.

There has been lots of discussion here about contracts and payments - what I have been doing recently is taking $300 down when the contract is signed -this is for the photo shoot(s) only. Then after a reference is decided on they pay half.

OK - I have a headache from smiling too much. Thanks for all the suggestions - now for the fun part - the actual painting.