Wielding the radiator roller of destruction...

Two more pieces of artwork:

My first still life I did at my Oils and Acrylics evening class. This is in acrylics on paper.

A unicorn in pastels. This is 70x50 cm. The shadowing doesn't come out too well (the unicorn does have 4 legs, not 3) but you can get the idea.

I painted the unicorn for a friend (or drew it - pastels are a dry medium and you can rub them out) and she really liked the half-finished picture... then I realised I had a bit of a problem.

Pastels are, in essence, chalk. The painting is done on a 70x50 cm slightly floppy piece of paper. I can't 'fix' it because it darkens the colours to soot. Pastel paintings are so fragile that you can lose detail even carrying the thing about and the pigment will drift if they are stored the wrong way around. They have to be framed under glass immediately and that means glass because perspex causes static which leads to the pigment lifting off the picture. Even glass can cause 'lifting' so you have to use a double mount to give distance between the pastel and the glass. Framing for a picture of that size would be probably about £60.... I'm giving the picture away for free and thus problem.

I didn't want to bitterly disappoint Liz since she's seen the unicorn half-finished and loved it. I don't want to do a copy in a better medium since it'll look different...

Anyway, I've now bought a 60x40 cm canvas. It's a deep-edged gallery canvas which means it can be hung without framing and the shop provided it in a nifty translucent plastic bag with carrying handles. I've primed it with black primer (using a radiator roller. I had one accident with the carpet but fortunately it's an industrial carpet and I *think* it's come off) and I'm going to paint a large red dragon in acrylics. If it turns out ok, I'll probably repeat with some other fantasy animals.