October Update

In the Studio
October was a month of advances and retreats when it came to portrait work.

Two portraits were on the easel when the month began.

The current portrait of Lockkeeper began the month in the umber layer phase, but advanced to the dead layer shortly thereafter. It has presented a series of challenges since. The background has been painted twice, with a scraping between the two layers, as I attempted to diagnose and solve a problem with adhesion. The lighter colors just were not sticking to the previous layer. When October ended, the second attempt with the background was in place and drying and the horse was about half to three-quarters complete.

On the flip side of the coin, the portrait of Keyodee Star is sailing along at a great pace. The umber layer was completed and work on the dead layer began. As of the end of the month, the stall interior was complete and I was waiting for paint to dry enough to continue work on the outside walls of the stall.

A new portrait project began toward the end of the month and, in the closing days, a previous portrait that had been put on the back burner was moved forward again with delivery of new reference photographs.

The total number of portraits on the easel doubled during October, so that’s good news.

A landscape painting was finished and another nearly finished this month. Both feature the Flint Hills.

Buckles & Belts entered the color phase at mid-month, but has been moved down the list in order to work on portraits.

On the Writing Desk
Writing has been somewhat disjointed, too. With National Novel Writing Month looming in November, I’ve been trying to occupy myself with non-NaNo projects. When I really want to sink my teeth into serious fiction writing, it’s been a challenge to focus on second drafts and rewrites.

But I have done that, spending most of the month either editing and rewriting Parting Gifts (which was completed June 27, 2009) or dabbling with other stories and ideas. A series of historical westerns set in my part of Kansas began to take shape, too.

It doesn’t seem like I did very much, but in looking at totals for the month, I see that my daily fiction output averaged 1,081 words and total production for the month was 77,256. A good deal of that was taken up with planning and plotting for Saving Grace, my NaNo story, but it all counts.