Here is the painting brought to a finish...almost. I am not quite pleased with the gesture of the thumb. It needs work. It needs re-drawn actually.

I am at the point in my painting experience where even when i finish a painting, I can't help but study my own finished piece, finding things here and there that i might do differently if I had it to do all over again. And that's one of the beauties of painting - I actually will do it all over again. Each new work is a chance to put to use everything you have learned up to that point. everything. Even things you learned from where you fell short.

I am reminded of Lamentations 3:22-23, that "...the Lord's mercies...are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." Each new day we can have a new beginning with the Lord - a blank canvas, if you will. And if we who are is children submit to his will, God, the Master Artist, can begin to shape and fashion us into a perfect work of art, flawlessly capturing a perfect likeness - the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ. All the great masters who have come before us, on whose shoulders we as artists stand, together with all the masters who will come after us cannot compare with the transcending touch of the Original Creator. And be it known, He doesn't make mistakes. And for that I say, here's to a tabla rasa - a blank slate.

Previous related posts about this painting can be found here first, then here.