Costa, more coffee and the Gas Safety Check

I had a late start yesterday as the plumber was here for the annual Gas Safety Check and to service the boiler and it would be impolite not to have coffee and a chat with him, wouldn’t it? In my defence, he used to be a driving instructor so there were many tales to swap. Even so, I did manage a further five and a half hours on Costa. He has a look of calm contentment…essential qualities in such a large dog!

Again, hard to get the exposure right when taking a quick snap as the dark paper overrides the drawing itself.

As for today, pot of coffee is made, radio is on and I’m ready to begin. I shall be working on Costa and Molly.

Too short to sharpen

I hate waste but I can’t sharpen this any more…time to take out a new one

 

Costa, coffee and a 5X magnifying glass

         
Today I’ve been working on Costa from a 4 x 6 inch photograph, having to use a 5X magnifying glass to get some of the detail. (I could do with a 10X glass, too).

After five and a half hours I need to finish for the day…I have ironing and house work to do!

Radio Five, Wimbledon and someone called Murray

My preferred radio listening whilst working is Radio Five but this morning it’s wall to wall Wimbledon which is not my thing, ( too much speculation about Andy Murray) so, having tired of Autoglass jingles on local radio, I’m torn between Radio Four and closing my eyes and pointing to a CD.

Molly, Milo and Marmite

A further three and a half hours today so eight and half hours so far. She’s a lovely looking cat, sadly no longer with us.

Also, a few more tweaks to Milo. Need to finish a little earlier today, so packing up now. Time for toast and Marmite.

Good golly miss Molly, baked potato and tea

Five hours today on Molly, from preparing the board to this stage, interspersed with tweaking Milo. Tis not a great photograph I’ve taken but it’s hard when there’s only a little of the picture on the paper to get the exposure right.

It’s only 5.00pm now but I’m very hungry, so I’m going to take a break and have a baked potato with egg free mayonnaise and pepper and a bucket of tea.

Lazy bones, sleeping in the sun…

Lazy bones sleepin’ in the sun
How you ‘spect to get your day’s work done?
You’ll never get your day’s work done
Sleepin’ in the noonday sun

Lazy bones sleepin’ in the shade
How you gonna get your corn meal made?
You’ll never get your corn meal made
Sleepin’ in the evening shade

Ralph had such a busy day sleepin’ in the sun, while I worked, that he had to spend the evening sleepin’ in the shade, while we relaxed with a glass (well, maybe two) of Shiraz and a bottle of Old Speckled Hen.

Garden birds

I can’t take my easel into the sun today as the main photograph I’m using for reference is on the laptop but it’s nice to open both garden doors and let the good weather in. I have lots of bird feeders and I can hear the birds…in next door’s garden! Come into my garden, you unfaithful birds!

Aha…here they come.

Derwent animal free, vegetarian, vegan pencils

Today, Derwent sent me their updated list of pencils which contain no animal products. Luckily very few of their pencils do so it’s easy to avoid those.
This is the list they sent: Pencils free from animal products (Opens as a PDF)

No drawing over the weekend as it was my husband’s birthday. Today, Milo is on the easel; he’s at the stage of stepping back, stepping in, draw a line 0.5mm long, step back, step in, blend a patch 1mm x 1mm…I actually like this stage but it does take a lot of stepping back and forth. I think Milo’s ready to be on the wall while I work on something else so I can look at him and spot the bits which need tweaking.

Milo and the vegan omelette

Only four hours on Milo yesterday as I had to go to the bank (walked with Ralph) and work on a labrador. I also had to watch Wildlife Kate’s webcams…no, really, I HAD to! In the evening I was transfixed by the foxcam…two cubs feeding.

Today I hope to get this stage finished on Milo. Then maybe another week should do it. Then, I’ll put him aside and view him after a few days…that’s when I really see the picture, so I can tweak as necessary. Then he’ll be off to his new home.

This morning, I made this Vegan Omelette type thing with an onion and mushroom filling for breakfast…it was good.