Maiden 1

Back to the brushes after too long a break. This is purely a practice piece, so yes, it's a bit amateurish.
I had several goals in starting this piece.
1) attempt a human figure
2) practice my initial brushwork so the paint could do the work, and walk away (no restroking, no wc pencil touch-up)
3) try out American Journey "Apricot" as a potential flesh tone (opinion: too flat, too opaque)
4) practice techniques for charging a color wet-in-wet and variegating the background color
5) practice using masking fluid (still too heavy-handed, sigh)
6) use up the color on an old pallet so I can clean it for reuse