Hello, new to here;) eeek huge images... but they are large in person too;)

Interesting style Abigail. Welcome aboard.

Welcome to POL. There are some very talented people who will give advice when wanted.  Your paintings look big, good luck with the commission.

This, first of all, isn't a dig at you: it's a general comment - I would say to anyone, do not be trapped by concepts, especially other people's concepts.  This whole 'comfort zone' thing is getting a bit irritating, even if I am rather too easy to irritate.   Any painting, any artistic endeavour, can go horribly wrong: to that extent, we all leave our 'comfort zone' the moment we contemplate a blank sheet of paper - the exception isn't leaving it, but entering it in the first place.  I've heard rather too many art tutors - I think of a couple on the last BBC competition, whose names and its name escaping me - who pushed artists to leave this comfort zone; usually to their distinct disadvantage.  If all it means is 'do something you've not done before' (lousy advice in a competition, by the way) then it really doesn't mean very much at all.  It can be a way of saying 'your work is boring (to me), why don't you do something else entirely?': which you wouldn't say to a pianist, unless he were truly awful, while pointing to a violin.   I don't believe in the 'comfort zone'.  If it exists, size, materials, difference however you might describe it, have nothing to do with it - and the idea that you can think or plan your way out of it, or into it, strikes me as nonsense.   I could ramble on, but enough is enough - and welcome to the Forum, Abigail - I think I'd like to see your work face to face; a large work can be hard to assess on a relatively small screen, but I can tell you know how to mix colour!