If you've been painting for a bit and know you're going to be painting again in a day or two, you don't have to clean your brushes every day. Give them a dip in oil - I use walnut - and don't wipe them dry. Leave them in a tray like this paint roller tray from Home Depot I've got here, with the bristles angled down just enough that the oil won't run down and collect in the ferrule. That'll keep them wet for awhile, at *least* a day or two, without needing to be scrubbed every time! If you need to buy yourself even more time, a few drops of clove oil mixed in with your dip will keep them wet a *very* long time, but wipe them out extra well before you paint again!

Didn't like how this one was proceeding and it just seemed easier to wipe it all back down to the drawing and start over tomorrow.

Finished this one up in the spring. Learned *so* much in the process of doing this one. Excited for my next portrait painting.

I'm really feeling the excitement and momentum of a dedicated daily art practice and I hope you are too. It took a lot of effort of trail and error and eliminating bad habits that suck up my time into a black hole to get my schedule set up in such a way that I can stay consistent, and it's still a work in progress. Everyone and everything will tell me it's more important so it's easy to push art aside for later. I have to stay really sharp and clear on my goals in order to over come some obstacles and limiting beliefs. What sort of obstacles or limiting beliefs do you have that keep you away from your regular drawing? This photo reference I got from Pinterest. I'm giving myself the extra challenge with these to draw the layout with paint straight onto the canvas rather than doing a transfer. 👍

I did another study from a photo reference, this time focusing on colour which added another layer of complexity and slowed me down a good bit. I'm really enjoying the feel of textured brushes in Photoshop and I'm glad I went out of the comfort zone of the default round.