Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

So Andie's portrait is almost finished. I leave my finished pieces sitting on the mantel piece for a few days to see where tweaks are needed. I find myself looking for areas to improve on but I sometimes think I could get carried away and actually overwork a portrait so I give myself a few days to stare at it and then post it/frame it or put it away. In this case I need to frame it.

I've also been working on two other commissions which I can't post as they are Christmas gifts for local customers who regularly follow my blog so if you are local to me, keep your eye out for big flat parcels at Christmas!!!

Also Stan has almost completed his first week at work, and what a week it has been. I've finally discovered that although Stan is very even tempered and his recall is outstanding (even more amazing that he consistantly comes back to the name of Stan when no one knew his real name after he was rescued) he is a confirmed chaser. He has found two herds of deer and chased them. Luckily no casualties were caused but I need to work on this issue a lot even though he comes back to the whistle or his name as soon as he loses them. For one thing I can't cope with the thought of him running on forever and my losing him, but the sheer panic I suffer when he shoots off is just unbelievable. Willow on the other hand has never given me this cause for concern and after some serious training is quite capable of wandering by sheep and deer without any hiccup. Stan obviously has now gotten the taste for chasing so it will doubly hard to break him out of the habit but we are in for the longhaul so training begins tomorrow in earnest.

I'm also astounded at his speed, when he first raced off I followed him out into the woodland but a minute later he had rounded on me and come up over the bank on the other side and was walking towards from the opposite direction! Perhaps I'm just too slow! We have also found out he is not exactly cat friendly and he has launched himself upon our cat (she moved next door and refuses to come home and now I doubt she will even visit our garden anymore) and as she is about 14 we think she deserves a bit of piece and quiet so Stan is also going to learn to be cat friendly! No easy tasks, why he couldn't just have a slipper fetish like other dogs I don't know, mind you all dogs could be deer chasers but as they don't get to walk about the woods all day every day they may not get the opportunity to chase them I suppose.