Digital Painting Final

Progress

The biggest issue with going to art college is the question of progress. The constant struggle is this: am I making progress fast enough with the aid of schooling to warrant the expense? I've been working on my still life painting final over the last few days, and I think I have a satisfactory answer for myself. Here's my first still life, slightly edited in Photoshop as it was when I first posted it:

Keep in mind, that represents a finished product. In comparison, here's a badly cropped photo of my unfinished final taken in the minimal lighting that my apartment provides at night:

I know I'm still not exactly Rembrandt (I am an acrylic painter, after all, so I kind of suck by default), but that feels like a lot of progress for one semester.

The final version of this, along with a few other new and not-so-new things (I have another Color and Design painting that might be going in the spring show along with my Tolkien portrait) should be posted shortly, after the semester is finished and I can go back to giving a damn about my blog.