Ken's Rottweiller Picture

Here's Ken's first pastel pencil painting that was done from scratch of his Daughter's Rottweiller. Ken was pleased with his work and his Daughter said he had captured her dog's expression exactly. To quote Ken, he thought she was being 'a wee bit kind to her old dad'. This reminded me of something I used to mention to my students in workshops & classes.One of the biggest problems we artists have to deal with is our own belief in our work. There is no simple solution to this but think of it like this 'I am pleased with what I have done and it is the best I can do at my present level of experience, however I will take what I have learned here and will do better next time using the new skills I have learned'.Ken's picture is really very good and I am certain that from now on each picture he will see a slight difference with every one he completes. There will come a time when the student will gain enough confidence that they will be satisfied with the result. This is how I view each picture that I do now because I know that I have put everything I have learnt into practice. But Ialso love the challenge of finding something new to tackle in each picture I start and would you believe I always do.One of the things your daughter said that is very complimentary is that you captured the Dog's expression exactly, this is more important that anything else.