Anna

and the more you work on a hand trying to make it right, the less right it looks, I know.... keep it as simple as possible is probably the best advice, but it's one of many things that's easier said than done. I'm familiar with Uglow's work, not so much Coldstream's, and you were taking on a bit of a challenge using their methods; it can lead, and with Uglow often did lead, to very stiff looking work - it was the colour with Uglow that justified his approach... I think I'd be inclined to go more with your instincts, and a more free attack; the constraints imposed by using a grid can imprison the imagination. The only way to get hands right, by the way, is to draw them, again and again until you're sick of the blessed things - if you don't, there's a huge psychological barrier every time you have to paint them, as you dread having to do them, leave them till last ... and then approach them with all the enthusiasm some of us would show for taking a walk on a rope across a chasm.