Thank you so much! My husband and I were thinking if we ever decided to have a baby, the nursery would probably be a panda theme.

Thank you everyone :-)

She was more upset that I told her to stay still for the picture. 

thank you! 

This was my first time making a costume. I'm ok at sewing, so most of this was constructed with my handy glue gun. I used an old dog shirt, felt for the ice cream and cherries, yarn for the chocolate syrup, and an old long sleeved yellow shirt for the bananas. Stella didn't seem to mind it. We wore it to a little doggie Halloween party. My husband and I went as Soda Jerks and we won best group costume.  

Thank you so much craftsters for you amazing support! I feel very lucky to have this forum to share ideas and to gain feedback on my work. I really appreciate everyone that took the time to respond, thanks again!

OK I just got news from the people that ran the event! The person who got it was the person that I mailed the drawing too (she was running the event). She said that she just couldn't let it go. It went for a little less, but the group that has this event is a small personal group. People in the group probably saw that she really wanted the piece and probably didn't bid because they knew how much she wanted it.

So I feel really good about this now and I have an even great faith in my art. I'm really hoping that I can get into the larger event at the National Zoo. I had the group giving me praise to the right people at the National Zoo so I'm hoping I can do even bigger pieces for their auction! Thank you so much for helping me build my confidence!

I voted! I love it! Wonderful job!

Thank you everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I still haven't heard anything so I'm taking it that it didn't sell and they didn't want to disappoint me. I'm not discouraged about it because there could be a number of reasons why it didn't sell at the event. I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of my work. I'm still so proud of this piece. I really poured my heart into it. Even if it didn't sell, I'll probably make another piece if they ask me again next year. Thanks for encouraging me to keep going.  

Oh and I used prismacolored pencils, they're my favorite.

Thanks guys I really appreciate the feedback. I tried to capture the expression that he had in the photo. It really looked like he was smiling and it just warmed my heart.

It's gorgeous. I get irritated when people don't use a full range of values and deep pressure with colored pencil. You captured the reflected colors in the chin fur so well. Beautiful job

Thanks CraftyMcCrafterson. I actually differed a lot from the photo. I could have gone darker, but I thought that for the drawing it probably would have been a bit better to vary from the photo. I was getting close to over working it in that area, the lead wasn't absorbing into the paper as I was layering it. I used Arches 300 lb. Hot Press Watercolor paper.

So last year I was invited by the National Zoo to donate some work for a silent auction to raise money for their pandas. Here's my post from last year http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=254275.msg2835787#msg2835787 My husband ended up driving to DC and going to the auction. We spent some time there and took loads of pictures (mostly at the zoo). I was asked to participate in the auction again this year, so I used one of my reference photos. It's 11x14 in colored pencil. It took maybe 20 hours to complete (I kind of lost count but all my free time was spent working on this for 2 weeks).



Detail of the face.



What it looked like in the 16x20 frame



I haven't heard anything about how it did at the auction, which was on Thursday. I emailed and called a couple people that were handling it but I haven't heard any word back. It would be nice to hear good news. I poured everything I had into this piece. I know that this is what I should be doing with my life, but it would be wonderful to get some reassurance that I'm on the right track. So craftsters, I'm asking if you could send me some positive vibes (or pray if you believe in it) that I hear some good news. Not just because hearing that it did well would be good for my career, but because I want to know that my art can make a difference out in this world.  Thanks for listening.