I think I'm done

He's been tweaked and now I'm stopping. I've just sent a photo to the person who commissioned it, so hope she likes it.

Today I was child-free, now after buying my Xmas cards it dawned on me it's two and a half weeks to Xmas, and I've not even thought about gifts let alone bought them.

So I'm now on holiday until after Xmas.

So I'll wish you all a MERRY XMAS in advance!

How's my bedside manner?

Michael finally went back to school today, against my better judgement, he looked awful, but he couldn't stand being at home a day longer! I don't think I'm the most patient with sick people. Just to test me my youngest son Spencer was off school today, fingers are firmly crossed its not the same virus.

I've had another go at the doggie today, building up more tones and depth of colour. It nearly there, I finished in the dark today, so had to use a daylight bulb. Tomorrow I need to see it in natural light to tweak abit

They're dropping like flies!

My eldest son has had a virus now for best part of a week, a nasty thing making his temperature shoot through the roof. My other son came back from school looking peaky so I checked his temp 37.7c, groan! My husband also went to work complaining he was achy. Now I'm thinking I should really crack on with this commission, if I'm next in the firing line, this needs to be finished, now!

I can now start to pull this together, the dog still needs more contrast, I need to work in some purple which when together with the yellow and orange will hopefully produce some subtle tones. In my reference photo the blanket the dog is on is the same colour as him, very practical choice, but not very artistic. I'm thinking blue at the moment, it would set off the dog well.

Doggie continues...

A lot more layers of pastel later for the texture of his fur. He still needs more contrast, but I need to get the chair in to see how it effects his tone and hue. The chair I'm also using a soft pastel first, obviously green, then working into it with a hard pastel pencil in a contrasting colour, red.

Over the weekend I was hoping that my son Michael would get over his illness, however we woke up this morning with him looking very pale, his temperature back up to 38c. So work is limited again, can't be helped, we have our fingers crossed for tomorrow, he's fed up with me now!