These are 2 sketches of my children whilst they were watching tv, done on holiday. I only had a small tin of neopastels with me so I couldn't get the colouring exactly right and there is no real fleshy colour in the tin, only yellows and peaches. However I wanted to have a go at drawing with no measuring or guidelines to see if it has improved somewhat. All my other portraits have been carefully drawn and measured to achieve maximum accuracy and because I couldn't draw off the cuff. I had read somewhere if you keep drawing out plans and grids eventually you won't need to and it is certainly true. The perspectives, size of the eyes, chin etc are not correct but on the whole I have surprised myself on how livelike they are. My daughter particularly is very realistic, my son is not so and this looks older than he really is. That is because he wouldn't stay still and I couldn't recall the shape of mouth etc. However, I am still fairly pleased. What I am also pleased with is the success of the neopastels. I had not used them often, preferring sennelier, however I am getting a little fed up of sennelier because the blending is becoming tricky after a while. They tend to move across the page rather than blend so you have dirty glubs of pastel that won't blend in. I didn't seem to have this problem with the neopastel and am seriously considering investing in portrait colours in that range. The holiday went really well, lovely Herefordshire countryside. Went on 2 lovely walks (really must get a dog!) The kids were great. Surprisingly there was no pressure from them to eat out, they were quite happy asking for their favourite meals each night - and pudding! We did however, manage 1 tea shop visit in Hereford Cathedral and although we didn't pay to see the Mappa Mundi we could see it from the table we were sat at in the tea shop. We lit a candle at Thomas Traherne's shrine and then I had to suffer a trip to Game for a new xbox game. I taught the kids to play whist and the highlight for me was sitting round the table each evening with a bowl of peanuts and having a game. Amazingly my youngest son won each time! (9 years old). I am still convinced he cheated. The low point was having to drive through 14 miles of ever worsening snow on Thursday. I have to confess that with 5 miles to go and cars pulling off to the side of the road because it was getting so bad I burst into tears and wept for at least 3 miles. My eldest son was really good and when Take Thats 'Patience' came on the radio I calmed down and managed to guide my wonderful new car (we are calling her Sandy) back to the lodge. The next day when we returned to the road to come home they was a car upside in the ditch!