Is it okay to smile at an Alligator?

How could I not smile while working on this tiny portrait?

2½ x 3½ inches of pure sunshine.

Just what I needed in a day of cold, windy skies.

The technical details:

I have no idea what colours were actually on my palette today.

seriously, when my tray starts to look like this it's time to do a little cleanup.

i think that's a bit of quinacridone red at the top.

ummm.... maybe some aureolin yellow

and, ah, pink. Yes, definitely Quinacridone Rose.

I know for a fact that I warmed it all up with Quinacridone Burnt Orange.

(are you sensing a pattern here?)

the hair has some ultramarine turquoise and lunar black.

I don't usually use black, as you probably remember me saying...

but in this case it was a new tube just begging to be opened!

But really, the colours only tell part of the story.

I recall my school days in Australia

School uniforms... lunch at the tuck shop...

and silly rhymes designed to make you giggle:

"From Sydney Zoo

An Alligator

Was put on board

A flying freighter.

He ate the pilot

And the navigator

Then asked for more,

With mashed potater.

~Spike Milligan

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