
Here is the second picture of my current work in progress. As you can see, I have started to work on the shading, and I have started her eyes. I decided to make them a grayish-blue color. I really am liking how her hands are coming along. I love showing hands or partial hands, in my portraits. So much of who we are as women are is shown by what we do with our hands. I kind of cut off the bottom of the picture, but I will make sure to get a better shot next time. I am going to work on some
highlighting and finish her eyes, mouth and fingers next. I have not decided what color of hair she will have yet. I did add a couple of little birds to the collar of her dress. Well, I am off to work on her now!

I am adding a picture of my favorite brush. I just bought a new one at Michael’s yesterday for a whopping $20.00! My old one was just getting too scruffy. I have had the old one for years though. If you buy good brushes and take proper care of them, it is worth the investment. This brush is what I do almost all of my shading with. It is a
Loew-Cornell, 3/4 inch wash, #7150. It has a wonderful
chiseled edge to it and is my number one choice for shading. You can see that my old one has paint in the
ferrel, bad, that is something to avoid, but I grew lazy toward the end of this brushes life. Now it will become my primary
base coat brush and the new one will be taken care of properly. I do not use good brushes to do my background work, I leave that to my two-inch chip brushes, the scruffier the better! I actually have two
separate containers of brushes on my desk, I think it shows it in a picture in one of my earlier posts. One is for brushes past their prime and I use those for any and everything. Then I have my good brushes,

that only get used for detail work. To maintain a nice edge on them I use ‘The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver’. It lasts
forever, and after cleaning them, you can just swipe the brush across the cleaner (it is solid, like soap) and let it dry. It will keep a nice chiseled edge and protect your brush. You just wet it before you use it. Well, now I really am going into the studio to get back to work! Just thought I would share some tips before I break in my new brush:-)