Aches and pains

Once again I find myself running behind schedule and Zara is not to blame - at least I don't think so.

Every Wednesday evening my daughter and I take Zara to puppy classes which, by the way, she loves. Unfortunately she spends the majority of the hour pulling and ends up on her back legs trying to get to the other puppies (I'm sure she was a meerkat in a previous life!) and she is STRONG. By the end of the classes I feel like I have done a round with Mike Tyson and literally ache all over in my efforts to keep her from jumping enthusiastically over the other dogs.

For some reason I haven't felt well in the days following. Two weeks ago my arms ached enough for me to take painkillers and last week I ached from the hips up like I had flu of the trunk!?!?!? Of course it could just be coincidence that I happened to have aches and pains after puppy classes that's why I'm keeping an open mind.

Whatever the reasons it stopped me from putting in the hours behind the easel. However, I did finish this portrait of a Great Dane that I had the pleasure of meeting called Meg.

I visited Meg to take photographs to work from and she was HUGE - compared to Zara she was like a horse!

Meg was to be completed in pastels and therefore my first choice of paper would have been velour but not with this portrait. Unfortunately there are not a lot of colours to choose from in the velour and I wanted it to be on blue paper. So Meg has been drawn on Canson which always leaves me wanting to use colour pencils with the pastels - I like the results you get with this combination.