Clive,
I really enjoyed your last post with that beautiful shot of the older woman. After reviewing your style, I thought your artistic bent was more towards Fairfield Porter and David Hockney.
I see that you want to continue in the more traditional vein. Peggy Baumgartner gave you some invaluable pointers in that direction. I think you need to shore up your artistic underpinning in this area if you are considering becoming a serious amateur or a full time artist. Simply relying on painting from photos is not nearly enough. You should do some serious work from life and perhaps take some workshops.
In the Cafe Guerbois section under the thread, "
Critiques and Anger, A Lethal Mix", I have outlined my opinions of what to do to acheive a modicum of mastery. There are no shortcuts. This takes time.
Sincerely,