i love your paintings of doggies - heck, I love doggies. they are so much easier to chat with than people sometimes. I have an aversion to chatting sometimes too - but my mouth is so big that it runs on it's own steam and it lands me in big kakka as we say in mzansi ;-) My ill-advised pearls are to just wing it and don't be afraid. Your experience will probably produce something as pretty as your paintings.