My schedule all Winter and Spring was to get up, eat breakfast, start painting. Now with the heat I am exercising first and by the time I'm cleaned up and ready to paint it is 10 o'clock already and the creative juices are gone. I painted this little 8 x 8 pastel to just get something going. I have some great photos I took this Spring at a little farm in Bush, Louisiana. Twice I've painted one big rooster that looks like a saddle shoe, white on top with a black tail and belly. This time I thought I would try a speckled chicken. I had seen Jodi Armstrong's lovely pastel of 3 or more chicken painted on a dark paper so I wanted to try painting on dark too. I just toned mine with Indian Red acrylic.  Jodi's is much much better but I can't improve without picking up the pastel stick. Chickens sure have humorous crabby expressions!