I've just had about a week off from working on my next picture book. Sometimes, I find that my creative impulses and motivation hits a hard patch and I can't seem to simply put my head down and push through it. Instead I need to step away from the project for a bit, get busy on something else, and hope that the creative juices will begin to flow again eventually.

This time, I spent the week teaching. My three younger brothers are all home-educated, so I decided to take over their lessons and free mum up to work on other areas for a while. The mornings were busy with numerous subjects and I got to reaquaint myself with math problems that I'd been quite relieved to leave behind many years ago. Anyway, all three boys really worked well and I enjoyed being able to teach them. As this week began, though, I was delighted to discover that my mind felt refreshed and ready to grapple with story number two again.

The illustration that will appear on the last page of the completed book, is proving to be very difficult, though. I knew it would be. It's the face (well specifically the child's right eye) that is causing some many problems. Currently, the child looks like a washed out sort of zombie - not the style I was aiming for.  I know that I will need to redraw the eyes another few times before I get the look I want. That's part of the reason I like working with pastels - the fact that they can be smudged out and drawn over fairly easily!