I think that the painting scans better than it looks in real life. It looks strange now that I have added the hair. I think I was used to seeing it with lighter hair and now it looks odd. Generally though, piling on layers of pastel has helped to lighten the skin and the Sennelier pastels offer alot of scope for flesh coloured pastels. For the first time I can see what Patsy meant about scraping back. Putting the dark sepia on the hair and then using a knife to scrape hair lines into it is showing the lovely rich brown colour underneath. Lighter parts of my hair do have this colour so it looks very effective, though I have not done it very neatly since I find it hard to make straight lines with the knife. The white bobbles of the watercolour paper are also showing through in parts. Around the base of the nose this is actually quite effective but around the hair line it looks unfinished so I need to find a way of tackling that. I'm glad that it is Saturday, though still snow bound due to unresolved issues with my car and very icy roads on my estate. My youngest and I walked to the farm shop today, across the fields and then round back through the village. We reckon that it was about 2 miles and he didn't stop talking the whole way round. Its nice for the company but by the end I had given up trying to reply. So after completing all our jobs this morning the children have been playing with their friends all afternoon and I have painting until now, since the light is fading. My eldest (13) has this xbox live. He has a headphone and mouth piece that makes him look like he is guiding planes down. When I pass his bedroom I can hear him chunnering away to his mates. Last night we couldn't get him to come off it. My youngest wanted to go to bed and watch a DVD and we kept shouting up at him to come off it. In the end I walked into his bedroom and said 'come on little boy its time for your beddy byes' He shot me a look of such contempt that it was all I could do to stifle the giggles until I left the room. Needless to say he quickly got off it and hopefully will listen next time. Is anyone getting a little tired of the snow yet? I think I am. I really need to get a new car but I have never bought one myself. Everyone tells you conflicting information which is purely designed to ensure that you copy their tastes in motor vehicles. I just want one that is reliable, cheap to run with petrol, not going to need to visit the garage every month and is big enough to fit 3 lots of cricket bags in the boot. Any car dealer would see me coming a mile away and I would be so easy to rip off. Plus, you need a car to buy a car so whilst this Galaxy sits in my drive in the middle of a dispute between me and my ex I'm feeling rather fed up. What I need is some generous soul to hand over about £6k and I could go to a reputable dealer, sit in a few, go for a test drive and I'd be sorted - fat chance!