Chris,
Congratulations to both you and your son!
This may sound silly, but since I have not used oils, isn't it harder to work on the figure with a totally wet background? Do you let it dry first? How long does that take? Like the green tomatoes in a brown paper bag that never turned red for me no matter how much time I gave them (they didn't turn brown either) - all I remember is my oils never dried, maybe I used too much linseed or something.
