New Painting In Progress and a Little Irritation

Here is another piece that I'm doing to practice the techniques I'm learning from the mixed media class by Suzi Blu I keep mentioning.  In honor of the upcoming celebration of Day of the Dead, I put in a few little skullies.

 It started out as this (wood burned sketch on birch with some pencil shading):


and has evolved to this point so far:


I like to take photos along the way, and you can view the process for this painting here.  She is certainly at least another 2, maybe 3, layers away from completed and I'll be sure to post when she's all done.  I'm also working on another Venture-inspired piece for Nik which I will post when it's finished.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated subject: I got a jury summons in the mail today.  No big deal - I'm actually one of those people who is fascinated by the law and would actually enjoy serving on a jury.  To punish me for my positive outlook on public service, the summons date is set for 10/20 ... um, WHAT?  They've called ME in OCTOBER??  Come ON!  This can't be for real!  It's my absolute busiest month.  As a matter of fact, it's really my only busy month!  The last two times (in 6 years) I was called, it was on New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve respectively.  I didn't care about the holiday calls, but I never made it out of the waiting room either time.  Ron got into a pool last time he was called and was dismissed after his speech on jury nullification (stupidly requested by the prosecution 'cause I'm sure he gave the other potential jurors quite an education).  Anyway, he says I can ask for one postponement and I'm definitely doing it.   October!  Pshhhh!  Yeah, right!