Hey bloggers

Must share the most gorgeous portrait with you. Quite frankly, this gave me the biggest and longest laughs I've had for months - seeing this. Hope it does you too. Bought one of those cyber webcam thingies, with these special portrait-enhancing extras!

Perfect Portrait of and by Laurel Moore.

So, I hope you like my new look. My bosoms look stupendous in some of them. So funny! I have many more to share with you, so be prepared. Or shall I just find another one? Yes, one more today!

What a hoot!!

So, who needs to learn to paint portraits? When you can produce such great ones, via webcam eh? Nice set of teeth. People have always commented on my nice teeth  

Well, I've been swinging on my wheely chair from painting, to saxing, then to singing then to song-writing this week. I've finished three songs this week!! And though I say it myself, I think they're wonderful! I'm itching to perform them with a band. But, all in good time............

Worryingly, my rings have begun to tighten these last few weeks. At first I really thought I'd been getting chubby. So, I spent some time checking in the mirror, before I relized that they just must've gotten muscly!! From playing the saxophone!

 Well, that wasn't something I was expecting! But, I guess fingers are just like any other part of the anatomy. So, now I have fit, buff fingers  Luckily, they don't look any chunkier. That would be a bit of a bummer really. It must just be on the inside that I have mean and moody fingers now, with which you can't mess! My poor little finger, doesn't quite know what's hit it these last few months. Well, I don't think a little finger is designed to do much really, on a normal day. It's just an added extra. But, it has a lot to do pressing those keys on a tenor saxophone. And those lower pads are really quite beefy. Not a lot of use for nice nails now either really.

So, it's a choice between being covered in paint, or spit at the end of the day now really. What a choice!

Here's a little thumbnail of the oil painting I finished a week or so ago. Isn't she gorgeous? I've called her 'Born Under The Sun'. I've tried to bring out the intensity of the heat in the painting, where the sun is so incredibly hot. I also tried to achieve the rich variety of skin tone. There was an orangy base, with chestnut brown layers. So, I used many layers of glazes (a little paint in oil)  to bring out those layers of  glowing colours. Then I used final glazes over the top, to bring a rich healthy shine to the skin.

The garment in red, was richly embroidered, and I loved the richness of those colours under the intensity of the sun. She took about four weeks to finish. I work a few hours most days, or every other day. I find, if I paint too long, my eyes weaken, and I can get a bit stale with it. So, it's better for me to leave it, then come back later. I seem to have gotten quicker and quicker with my paintings now. Which is great, because it means there's more time to fit other things in too.  So, moving between the other skills works quite well for me now.

I've created these working timetables now; they're great for giving myself more self-discipline and also seeing what I have managed to achieve each week. It's kind of like a tick-list of time spent on each activity. It also helps me keep a better balance on my activities and stops me frittering time away - mostly on this computer!!  Whoops!

www.moorethanart.com and www.boundlessgallery.com