Manic Week

Hi all,
        I did not realize that a week has passed since my last post...not good really, but you know how it it is life sometimes just gets in the way of things. I have done some on the little Cairn coming together nicely now and hope to have it finished in the next few days and be able to start something new.
      Hubby is unwell with a very bad bout of man flu..have to say that I do find men a bit on the poofy side when it comes to their health, and I did so have a laugh when I read my blogger pal Sue post something very similar. Recently we have had a few issues with Bluebell as a couple of times she has peed in her sleep, and not known anything about it. On further research it seems that is a common problem amongst spayed bitches, and is to do with muscles weakening around the urethra. As women I think we understand this problem and have it drummed in to us about the importance of doing our pelvic floor exercises but as she does not talk human I cannot explain this to her! So we will monitor how much water she drinks especially before bedtime and see how we go, but if it does get worse there is a drug that can help,so it is good to have this as a fallback.
     Today has dawned beautiful and sunny and being quite mild is a typical October day, but not sure how long will it last. Hard to believe that we are almost in November and this is the weekend that the clocks go back an hour so we get that extra bit of sleep....not that Bluebell needs it she dose not get up before 10 lazy little bedhead!

Cairn Terrier Drawing

Hi all,
       Thanks for all your comments on my previous post concerning mobile blogging, have to say that I do love my HTC Desire, it is a super little phone and capable of so much, and makes a good little backup if needed not just for blogging but also as a camera which is good too. Having said that the picture of Bluebell is a tad blurry due more to me than the phone, and in answer to Katherine who suggested that I should draw her with her blanket wrapped around her head that is on my never ending list to do!
       The picture you see above is a little Cairn Terrier called Teko, only a youngster and full of the joys of life. Quite complicated this one as he a lot of different colourings in his coat from beige/brown to the more tradtional tones of greys, and I am using a mixture of Prismas/Derwents on StoneHenge with a bit of black grape too which I find works well with the very dark shades as in black.

Lola Tee Shirt

Hi all,
         Just a quickie to say that my Lola Tee arrived yesterday and this is a preview of it that was sent to me by Valerie. Have to say that she looks so much better in the "flesh" so to speak. The sizing is just right with some to spare, being a well rounded size 16 gal this is important, don't like anything too tight across my assets! I hope that this will help raise some funds/awareness for them, and more so when I do the donation picture for their fundraiser in 2011..which I will blog as a wip.

Sunny October Weekend

Hi all,
       Today has been absolutely beautiful lots of sun and a bit of breeze, almost an Indian Summer except it is not set to last, but hey ho must not complain some is better than none in my book.
        You can see above another GSD again Graphite, this one is an elderly female now, but still very much a looker, she has the typical colouring of a german and lovely soft fur which I have try to have of captured in this picture. This was done on Fabriano 5 which I am still unsure about for graphite with a range of derwent pencils from h up to 2b/6b for the very dark tones. It is strange because I first started drawing this dog on Stonehenge and so did not like it, and yet I love it for CPs, hence the first attempt got promptly binned. I know that a lot of graphite artists favor the smoother type paper, like Bristol, but I still like a little bit of tooth which makes me wonder if my drawing skills with graphite is not as strong as it is with CPs ! Another thing occurred to me whilst doing this was about mechanical pencils......do you use these and if so how do you find them or like me do you still use the traditional wood encased ?...perhaps there is another poll in there for that somewhere ?

OES update

Hi all,
         Got to say that it has been a very busy week one way or another, many pictures to do and hubby deciding yet again that we need to change the front room around and although I absolutely hate the disruption I do understand his reasoning behind this.....but no more that is it for at least two years or more and not a couple of months !
         As you can see the OES is done now and I am letting it sit for a couple of days to make sure I am entirely happy with it. I was not too sure about drawing this dog on a blue paper, and almost opted for black but really did feel that would be too harsh. The blue complements the colours of the dog which is a mixture of blues,greys,whites,mauve's, some pinks and no OES would be complete with out the "dirty" chin. For that I use one my most favorite colours Caput Mortumm by Polychromos and a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dark Brown with some Black, the bulk of colours used were Prisma and Coloursofts.
      Onwards and upwards and hopefully with some new work to show this week, and a few more updates on the German Shepard which I posted up last week.