A Very Bright Chihuahua

This is a cute painting I just finished.  It was a lot of fun to do.  Can you tell I'm trying to avoid something more important??  A group of us, painters all, on Artfire recently started a little "challenge blog," where we all have themed deadlines for submitting paintings to the blog.  We've only been together a short time, but so far it's a lot of fun -- and so intimidating that I manage to get a lot of other not-so-pressing matters taken care of rather than get started on my own monthly-challenge painting.  Here's the link if you want to check us out:  http://artfirepainters.blogspot.com/

As I've been doing for the past few years, I'm still trying to loosen up my own painting work.  I do a lot of custom work, which for me at least, requires that I work very tightly so that I can get a really good image of someone's beloved pet.  Then when I do my own work, my just-for-fun---and-profit work, I want to loosen up, have a good time, not agonize over every little detail.  It's hard for me.  As all my family and friends know, I'm an awful, awful perfectionist.  Some of that I like, but when it comes to painting, I wish I could "throw caution to the wind" a bit more and have a lot more fun at my "work."