I'm hoping that I can really get back on track again.  The last month I've been doing a lot of overtime at work and been pretty tired when I get home, and now I'm wondering where the last month of my life has gone.  Getting caught in that rut again, but feeling like I'm about to get back to what I need to be doing.  I guess it's just how it's going to be, at least for a while.  Getting stuck in the monotony of life and then breaking free of it, then getting stuck again.   This is a cycle that is impossible to break until I can begin illustrating full time.  A struggle that of late is really beginning to wear me down.  But I'm glad to be feeling that little burst of energy again.  I hope that means a productive weekend.
     I've been spending a lot of time looking at other artists.  I suppose that it's all part of the process.  It's been a good way to step away and gain a little insight into what I'm doing at the moment.  I've been really inspired and have been able to see what I need to improve and what direction to go in.  I think it's an important break needed for any artist.  It's great to be really involved in your work and feel driven and be completely focused, but sometimes you can start to drift off course without even realizing it.  It's important to stop for a time and re-evaluate things, make sure that you're still going in the right direction.  So now that  I've begun to gather my thoughts and ideas once more I'm ready to head in the right direction.  I need to step away from the computer and get back in front of my own canvas.
     On that note, I've still been slowly working on the whale painting.  It's coming along, but I'm kind of at a stand still with it right now.  I'll work on some other things and hopefully I'll figure out where I need to take this.  I'm trying to figure out this sudden obsession with water.  I have a few thoughts on the subject, but it sounds silly to say them out loud., so I'll keep them to myself.  But I do know that something about it is speaking to my soul.  the ocean, rivers, rain, baths, tears - all of it.   And something about whales that I'm in love with.  I think it's something to do with a mammal that lives in the water, because fish don't seem to fascinate me quite as much.   Is it living in water, but needing air to live?  Now I'm rambling, so I'll move forward before I bore everyone to death.

      Here is the latest update of my painting ....

I also have begun this new piece - closed my eyes one night and saw this.  The next day I couldn't get it out of my head.  here are the sketches I started with .....

I've gotten it onto canvas board and decided to try a red underpainting.  I want to keep it sepia toned, but bring out the red in the fox.  And then to balance the red fox I'll have to bring out some red in the old woman's house coat, and possibly somewhere on the table.  I'm also going to play a little with patterns on this one.  But, I'm enjoying documenting the process of each piece so i'm going to try to keep track of this one as well.  

So, here is the underpainting, step 2 (step 1 being the sketch) ..

the fox has changed a little and now I'm feeling like the body shape was better in the sketch, so there may still be some changes.  But now what was going to be a short little update has gotten completely out of control.   I'm going to say Goodnight now.  See you all again soon.