Starlight Adventure

I have strayed to the other hemisphere, learnt a bit about the stars (and how to add a copyright sign to my work).  Can you see the Southern Cross?

These are not my home waters but the New Zealanders might recognise the Poor Knights, the Pinnacles and the Sugarloaf.

The Southern Cross looks like a sideways kite with two pointer stars as it's tail. The biggest and brightest is Acrux, the next brightest is Mimosa, and the only other one I can name is Gacrux (on the left of the kite).  A line from Gacrux through Acrux should intersect with the horizon in the direction of the South Pole.  Jolly handy to know if you don't know where you are.

There you go, celestial navigation in a teacup!

Boat Dogs

A little while back I was commissioned to do a very special painting for a nursery and I have been given full permission to talk about it here, which is very exciting.  I never quite know whether to keep unfinished work under wraps, or whether to flap it around and shout it from the rooftops?

Anyway, I am going ahead with talking about this, even though the piece isn't finished, mainly because I have reached an impasse and am hoping you can help.

In my painting there is to be a dog; a sweet dog with an adventurous little boy sailing away in their dinghy. I've been thinking about dogs in boats (some dogs are good boat dogs and some dogs are definitely not) and wondering what this little dog would be doing?  I've done some drawings and whittled it down to three rough options but can only choose one...
1. Dog and boy talking to each other.

2. Sniffing the wind!

3. Lookout at the bows.

My question is easy.  Which one do you like best?

I'd love your help.  If you're feeling brave, click the comments link below and vote 1,2 or 3....  (it should be easy... you can even be anonymous!)  or hop on over to my new facebook page which is a perfectly perfect place to leave comments and chat. (I'm planning on adding a facebook link to the sidebar on the right here straight away, but if it's not there yet just click here).