Larger Paintings

Typically what I do to get a larger painting is pull a small painting I have here of mine and copy it, maybe changing a few things I didn't like about the original.This is my latest and you can compare it to the painting I used in the December 19, 2008 post. Painting larger has been a goal for me but I tend to be vasillating with my goals at times. It seems like life gets in and changes your circumstances which in turn may alter what you need to achieve at any given moment. I keep up with a painter named Stacey Peterson through her blog and she was a chemical engineer before becoming an artist and she appears to have a very analytical way of setting her goals, revisiting them from time to time, and staying on point. I never seem to have this real concrete target of where I want to be, say, at the end of the year. I just paint and work as hard as life will let me and hope to have made ground at the end of the year. When I do try to set goals, I realize I can't control what happens a week from now much less a year. There is so much that bombards our lives, outside circumstances that keep you re-adjusting so often you get off track. I think that is why it works for certain people, they stay on point. Stacey Peterson seems to stay on point.
Oh, and if anybody out there has tips on photographing work, share. It is a constant struggle for me. I am thinking about investing a little money to try and set up a small booth with lighting but then again, I am not sure what light will give me the closest color. The color above is atrocious and I even corrected it a bit in a software program.