getting into a groove

I think I'm finally getting into an art groove.
On thursday, friday and yesterday, I have been working on art projects.
I worked on an old painting about my salvation story which I hadn't worked on in 10 years, I think, and you can see the progress to the right. It's on wood, nothing fancy or special. It's a square, but it's warping a bit. It's not a great photo but you get the picture.
then, when this needed a break, or rather, I needed a break, I gessoed a couple canvases, added texture, and tried to glue stuff to them, and waited for them to dry.
The texture to one of the canvases worked, but the glued/collagey stuff didn't and I had to remove it, and do something slightly different to the canvas.
While this tried and I figured out what to do next on these surfaces, I worked on the boys' costumes for Halloween. They had the Autumn Festival at Graffiti church, on saturday, so I worked into the night on friday to finish the costumes. They are pirates, and you can see their pictures here.
When I came back to the canvases on monday, I knew how to approach one, so I began by doing a quick sketch of the figure, and then I blocked in 3 shades of blue in acrylics as under painting for tone and contrast.
Then this needed to dry, so I set up the next canvas on the easel.
I felt a need to use orange, and so I started brushing it on to the canvas. I was originally planning on making this a big head, somewhat distorted and comic book-like, but as I got orange over the whole thing, and played around with wiing off some paint, and letting the texture show thru, I realized it was not to be a face, but a cityscape of sorts. It was weird, because I've read and heard many times of artists being "spoken to" by their paintings, as to what it wants to be, and I believed it, though can't say I remember haveing those experiences, so it felt strangely odd and exciting to be so in tune with the painting. It made me feel like a real artist.
of course, these are in their beginning stages, so there's not much to see here, but I thought it would be good for me to record my progress and keep myself accountable.
After the blue figure set aside and I looked at it enough, I decided it will be my modern version homage to St. Francis, since he loved animals, especially birds.
Any thoughts or comments always encourages me.
Thanks for reading.