Drawing with paint (underpainting) is such a funny thing! Since I use drying medium to speed up the process, there's only so much I can do before the paint gets sticky and I have to quit for the day. Then there's my natural (and "odd," so I've been told) method of working from the outside in when I create form. When you combine those two things, the result can be some pretty funky shapes in the interim, before the paint is dry enough for me to go back and add another layer. That's where patience and faith come in.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because I want you to know why Jeff's hand is looking kinda funny. I have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday to go back in and shape the shadows on both his fingers and hand. In the meantime, when I was looking at those fingers (especially in this photograph of the painting), an O-L-D memory came back to me of an episode of the Flintstones cartoon (we're talking 1960s here!) Fred Flintstone was hanging out with his buddy Barney Rubble and reading the "help wanted" ads in the newspaper. There were two jobs he was interested in: "Person with long, narrow fingers to stuff cotton into little bottles," and "Person with long, narrow fingers to remove cotton from little bottles." And I thought to myself, as I was looking at those crazy fingers, "Maybe Jeff could apply for one of those jobs...."
