Week Two- Final Painting

I wasn't sure to call this one "Giving Thanks and Praises" or "Receiving a Blessing"?

Acrylic on roofing paper - 28" x 36"

This painting is more or less a self portrait, not so much as it was made to look like me but a portrait of where I am on my life's journey. My boyfriend says it's very dark in feeling but that's fine with me since I'm comfortable working with the shadow parts of myself and bringing them out to be witnessed by those who wish to look...it's a very personal thing. Which is one of the reasons I struggled so much with the paintings as I did.  If they don't speak to me on that level I lose interest in them, as I did with the one in the previous post.

My learning this week, was not to get too attached to an outcome...let the painting go where it needs to go. Easy to say and difficult to do but I'll keep on trying to stay open to that concept.

Face - close up

So here's a few shots of the painting as I went.

The  Concept - chalk on roofing paper

Starting to pull it together.

Just after this point I hit the bottom of the curve struggled with the painting the rest of the way, mostly with the eyes, actually just with the eyes when I think about it, urg...because the hands came easy enough and so did everything else. Those darned eyes drove me crazy and I'm still not happy with the finished result but I'm going to leave it alone for now. 

So my question is: how do you know when your painting is finished?