[Chris Saper]

Dear Enzie, Linda, Debra, and Elizabeth,

Thank you all so very much for your gracious comments.

Enzie: Yes, I like to just be bold and put on the strokes of color and leave them. Try it, and see if ti works for you. If not (particularly in pastel), just brush it off.

Linda: Thanks. As always I appreciate all of your comments, and particularly your helping me at stumbling blocks (oh, so many).

Debra, Thank you as well. Yes, Janet is a model who is perhaps in her late forties, early fifties. I am now fifty myself, and I feel that I know how I would want to paint myself, and feel that I can bridge the age gap without losing the likeness.

Several years ago, I had asked an artist friend of mine to paint a nude of me for a gift for my husband. He shot the film, which was, actually great...but I couldn't deal with the concept of someone painting from the images. I think it would be very difficult for a (say) 50 yr old man to understand viscerally, how a forty-five year old woman might feel about her body. To this day, I feel that perhaps my judgment was wrong...water over the bridge. But I must say that I feel comfortable talking with my 50+ yr clients to understand how they want themselves to be seen.

Nonetheless, I digress. There is, indeed, weight that settles into the face, in a very characteristic pattern of aging. All of the detail is not necessary to say who the subject is.

Elizabeth, I can't say what medium is best for you. Generally I choose my open studio medium in this kind of priority; First, I think about what is currently giving me the most trouble: next, I consider whether I will really have the full 3 hours (I rarely do): last, I consider how late I am packing up to get there. Sometimes I am just so pressed for time, I can't deal with more than one readily available surface and some tools that I can drop in my Jeep and go. A piece of canson and some charcoal is always ready, but I have often grabbed a wet palette of oils or a box of pastels. Woe that I don't have the luxury of forethought and considered planning, but I am lucky just to show up in enough time to grab a space.

The main thing, I think, is to just go and draw. It doesn't matter whether you fail or not, the point is that you do the time.