The Making of a Classic. I wish.

Several years ago I gave my Mum and IOU for some original artwork of my own. This is the year I make good on that promise, I hope it'll be worth the wait.

It's Mum's 51st birthday in a couple of days and I'm back home in the U.K. for the big day with a sore neck and high hopes. I spent two days drawing and painting St Basil's Cathedral, I'd like to say from life but I doubted my fingers (or the rest of my body) would be able to withstand any amount of time stationery in the sub-zero temperature outside, from a postcard (much more practical). So I laboured at home making the most of the limited daylight which found its way through our groundfloor windows, crouched over the table (hence the pain) cursing at having started (and therefore having to finish) such a project.

Saturday afternoon (after the pancake expedition) started like this:

From Artwork

In the middle right through to the end there was a lot of this:

From Artwork

And I ended up with this:

From Artwork

I'm now in the process of biting my nails and waiting impatiently for a COPY of it to be framed. I didn't choose the best paper (silly me) nor did I pre-shrink the rubbish paper I used, what a FOOL! Instead I am paying more for it to be scanned and printed onto paper which isn't wrinkled and then mounted and framed and let me say this - the man at the shop, who smelled of wet dog, wasn't hopeful.

The process :