I finished the Sharpei today. What a fun drawing to work on with all those wrinkles and bristly hairs to work in. Working on it reminded me of the first time I held one of those dogs. I had only seen photos before and when the puppy came into the shop I thought it would be all soft and cuddly. My reaction to scooping it up for its bath was....eeeeuuuuuwwww. There does not seem to be a direction to pet this type of dog that is not prickly. Very special indeed.

Here's a work in progress of a Sharpei from wc weekly draw challenge. It still needs a lot of work to bring out the bristliness of the coat. The eyes are still a bit lifeless and well the nose is simply not all there yet. It is a fun dog portrait to try as the point (as I see it) is to get the feel of the dog's bristly coat to come through in the rendering. It looks like a cuddly soft dog but frankly their coats are as prickly as an old scrub brush. We'll see if I can manage that feat in the days to come.

More protrait practice from wc. The beard was difficult to render. All in all though it was a great practice piece to work on. It is taking me some time and effort to get back into the drawing groove.

Ahhh. Finally completed this WC weekly challenge from last week. I felt oddly out of touch with doing human portrait. But, once I began to remember the knack it became a joy to work on. I am very pleased with the effect of the eyes...almost to the exclusion of the rest of her features. The creative muse has returned...at last.

My creativity is back!!! Thanks to Roly Poly Oly. He is a HuskyX that we took care of for 2 weeks for friends. And here he is. It was a joy to draw him and a pleasure to give the drawing to his folks! Now maybe I can get back to the pencils.

This cheeky little fellow was sitting atop the step railing peeking in to see where his best buds...Zak and Freedom...had gone to. I was sitting in my blind stalking birds at the feeder when I spotted this. I thought it was funny but I was glad the dogs did not see him from inside. They'd have gone wacko.

I took this landscape a week ago and I keep going back to it. It is not a particularly great shot. The day was somewhat dull and it was late for what little sun there was that day. There was evidence of either heavy frost or light snow on the higher elevations. I did use my tripod so the s lack of sharp focus is atmospheric. This was taken with a 55-300 mm zoom. What I'm getting at is...it's compressed, fuzzy and obviously low in light. BUT...for some reason it has captured my interest. Perhaps the textures, the lines of the various planes, the different blues are the reasons it appeals to me. It is truly representative of what our winter has been this year.