These little 8x8" panels are so nice to work on. Especially for experiments - which is what this piece started out as, before I decided to make a proper go of the face. There's still one more thing to add to it, and no doubt I'll mess with the face a little more, but I have other things that I need to get to before I can come back to this one.
The textured surface is extremely challenging to work on. And extremely hard to photograph ( - I just seem to kill all the subtleties). At times I was wondering if it was all worth it, but I'm happy with how things have turned out in the end, and I've figured out what I should and should not do next time.
So I hope I've learned a lot from piece number one. I'm still getting my head around painting, but I'm hoping I'll get used to it with a bit more practise.

I'm also hoping I'll learn not to paint in my "good" clothes, and that resting your hand in your palette, and then resting the same hand on your artwork, is not a good thing.
We can only hope.