Some more art reference photos. As said earlier, for me one of the main reasons for this photo shoot with Nina was to get pictures I could use when I try to figure out how to paint or draw a full cloak. So she is wearing that green cloak in almost every one of the photos, and even so I realized I could use more, ones where she is doing things like kneeling. Well, maybe next time. Nina said she is willing to pose for me again, but it might take until spring, with bad luck. First of all we are now in that part of the year when we get only a few hours of sunlight in this part of Finland (and I live in the southernmost part…), and second, the weather has been lousy so even what little light there would be if it was clear has been hidden behind clouds and the days have been just one long morning twilight changing into a long evening twilight. Well, usually the weather starts to get better around February, when, with luck, we might get some nice sunny days with a good snow cover and the snowbanks glittering prettily in the light. Or not. In this part of the country having a whole winter of slushy, muddy snow alternating with no snow, just some ice in places where the slush got hardened by people walking on it – yeah, icy sidewalks are one of my banes, I rarely manage a winter without falling down several times, and I really hate that even if I have, so far, only broken my wrist once – is quite possible.
Oh yes, I have finally started painting again too, but since I paint with oils it will take a while before I can show anything. Finishing a small oil painting takes me somewhere between a month to a month and a half – oils need to dry a bit between layers, and I prefer to go slowly even so – and after that it will be several weeks before the painting is dry enough for scanning. But during this winter I intend to make enough for a portfolio I can show here, and some other places. And start advertising for commissions after that. Some of these first ones will become covers for my own stories, but if anybody wants to make a commission for something I’m open to offers even now. If you ask for something now, based only on my sketches, you can even have it for free (well, apart from mailing the original, I would want the mailing costs covered, and the right to show it in my portfolio if I happen to like it well enough myself so ‘nude portrait of my girlfriend’ might not be a good choice). š
Northern dreaming 
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