So close!

I've been working on a painting for weeks now. It's amazing when you are doing a portrait, and for the longest time it looks like nothing but forms and colours- blurs. But today both my characters became "people." I think it comes with the eyes. They are the windows of the soul, after all.
The painting is of two main characters from "Moby Dick", Ishmael, who is really not described in physical form at all, and Queequeg, an over described (if you know Melville) native man. The two become very good friends. They are tied to one another. Kindred.
This is the first painting I have done that shows a really good likeness to a familiar face. I've done paintings of myself and a few other people, but none of them looked right. They didn't have that spark of "Hey, I know you." This one does.
I'm so excited to finish. It'll be done, photographed, and sold by next week. I'm sad to see it go so quickly.
For all the toil and trouble it brings, painting this makes me know I'm heading in the right direction. This is what I need to do for life. I feel a great pull for it, and there is nothing else I'd rather pursue.