Another layer, painting flesh, and an sketch I dug up

I like this sketch. I probably have around 5 or 6 active sketchbooks. It took me years to overcome the odd feeling of drawing in a sketchbook I had put down for a long time and then picking it up again and drawing in it again. The feeling of having a drawing that was from, say 2007 next to a drawing that was done in 2009. But I decided, a: it is wasteful to do that because I only fill them about halfway before they get buried in the clutter somewhere, and b: it's actually kinda cool to see things next to each other and how they evolved. Well, I don't know how old this sketch is. Maybe 6 months? I kinda like it. It might become a painting, I don't know.

The painting is coming along, but I really need to put it aside for awhile. I think I obsessed over it, and overworked it. It's a matter of figuring out just what technique to use to paint the skin, and since I don't have a model, making the figure look somewhat believable and interesting, not just awkward. Flesh is notoriously difficult to paint, and the medium I mix with my paint is particularly difficult to work with as it gets sticky. Did I mention it before? It's called Venice Turpentine, and it's really just sap. It comes in a jar and appears to be the color and consistency of honey, but it kind of thickens really fast, so I mix linseed oil and turpentine with it. It still gets sticky. It's a glazing medium. What it does is suspend the particles of color in the clear goo so light goes past them, and comes bouncing back. That kind of glazing is why so many old masters paintings have that "glow".

Now, I don't have a teacher to teach me how to use this stuff, so I have been trying to just experiment with it. So far I have had some beautiful results, but it takes so long. I think eventually I will have a method that I can keep using and it won't be so hard just to finish one painting. Unlike drawing, which is so automatic to me I don;'t even think about technique much, even when I experiment. Sorry the image is bad, I still don't have a digital camera. Anyone want to trade me one for a painting??? I need a fairly good one, it can be used, just decent. My old one had poor image quality. Ooh... my co-worker wants to buy my "God Cart" painting, (http://willowdarcy.deviantart.com/art/God-Cart-98620070) maybe she has a camera she can trade...

Which makes me also wonder if I shouldn't just frame and show a series of pen drawings. There is sometimes nothing more satisfying than drawing with a plain bic ballpoint pen. Actually I'm not picky about brand, I just have a bunch of bics lying around.

I hope I can get some of my art career off the ground. I might have to buy a new car, as the one I just bought seems to have more problems than are worth fixing. Not sure, I might fix it, I might trade it in for something else.... I don't know. If I had a couple thousand dollars I could sell it and get something decent.