Facebook changed how it's pages interact with the people who like a business page. We were all good doobies and made our business a page instead of conducting business on our personal profiles or just using a personal page for our art. So FB put the screws to the pages. If I want to reach all 402 people who have "liked" my page I need to pay $5 per post, then they guarantee all 400 people on my page will see it, if I don't pay $5 then only about 130 people see it. Additionally if I go ahead and schedule updates they meterout the number of people who see the posts across all the posts per day so the maximum number of people who see the posts totals 130. Pretty god damn sneaky if you ask me.

I won't be eliminating my use of the Comfortable Shoes Studio page but I won't be using it as much and I'll probably use my blog more. Hopefully I'll be writing more over this winter and spring.

Somethign I can't wait to share with everyone is that I have scored a wall at a local cafe to hang my art. It's not a big space, a spot for 10 or so paintings and the ability to have an opening night. So I'll update you all more on that. It's a long way off, August of 2013, but that's good, I'll be able to get a lot of ready for it.

I'vebeen painting a few more faces. These are nearing completion. I need to add a few more details and some stencils to the background but for the most part these are done.

The new blades I ordered for my cricut let me cut through painted papers. I really like how the cuts look.

I ordered a few roland blades for my provocrap Cricut machine. They are sharper and work better than the Cricut blades. I got 10 for $20, free shipping from this guy on the 'bay. No affiliation, just happy to get blades that work and are cheaper than $5 to $10 a blade.

This is letting me make more cuts. I've done a new series of ovals and circles, much like punchinella, or sequin waste. This time I've been smarter and saved them all, so I can cut them as I wish instead of redoing them again and again.

I also picked up a couple of EF Montana paint pens and replacement tips. I've been filling them with liquitex acrylic ink, awesome, awesome stuff.  You can see their work in the images below. Full review to come.

In other news, I got braces. They hurt, like a lot. More than I expected. A great thing about them is that I can see results already. I had this one tooth I called the "snaggle tooth," and it's already straighter and closer to my other teeth than it was before. Soon enough no one will be asking me on my YT videos if I'm missing teeth. Which, has to be the worst youtube comment I've ever gotten.

Above is the intitial drawing. Done with a Pitt pen in black. I messed with doing these drawings in gray but like the effect of the black better.
Then I block in light and dark with titanium white and unbleached titanium white.
The layers of warm glaze come first, then I add a layer of blues.
Then a layer of unbleach titanium white glaze. I am missing a step after this, I would add a layer of very very transparent warm and cool glazes on TOP of the unbleached titanium white glaze.
Final details, like the eyebrows and hair with a liner brush and color of the lips are put in last.

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Glazes

Stencil Process

Roots

More Process of the Glaze Portraits

I start with pages like these. I build up a textured base layer of bright vibrant colors.

I look for spots that have interest, like these.

And then I add an area whre my paint will stick, using a mixe of white acrylic and gesso, sometimes just white acrylic.

Sometimes I add more stencils, so they overlap the whtie area.