Still not finished...

Here is the piece so far.  So sorry for the long wait between posts but the progress was so slow there wasn't anything worth reporting besides a list of mistakes I had trouble wrapping my head around at the time.  As you can probably guess I've had to do A LOT of repainting (basically everything from the neck down).  This painting has been an ordeal from the beginning but I know in the end all the long hours will be worth it.  I am sort of proud of myself for not just accepting that it wasn't coming out well.  The outcome is always up to the creator--as artists we need to continually remind ourselves of this.  There are many times when we may want to turn away and scrap a difficult project and move on to the next but, at least in my experience, there is always something to learn from sticking it out and seeing what you arrive at in the end.  As far as this piece is concerned I still have a lot of work to do (it may not look like it but there have been at least 50 hours of painting time since the last post).  Besides the obvious areas such as the hands and background which I'm still working out specific details for I have some modeling to do on the face, left pectoral and abdomen.  I also have to do some color correcting as the temperature is quite off in some places.  The good news is that the form is there and I can see it coming together.  I'm actually pretty happy with the lower right abdomen area that is in shadow (it looks smoother in person).  This has certainly been a test of patience for me and I am more than eager to start the next one which should move at a more steady pace.  Anyway, here it is for the moment.  Thank you very much for checking in, there will be more soon...