One of the things that most caught my fancy when I first saw this cartoon, was the bottle of “hootch” tucked in Sir John’s pocket. What a funny tribute to his known proclivity for a “wee dram”. …..but I am ahead of myself…..I was working on his face, and then began his hair…I think the most difficult part so far….to get the shape the colours and the messiness all at the same time.

As I went along, I changed his ear lobes (which still aren’t right), and softened his hairline at the forehead (which I do like), then I sketched in more detail as a guide for the hair on the right.

Then typically, I decided to try something new, and wondered if I could hook the bottle of whiskey.

In my initial efforts at hooking his jacket, I had hooked the open pocket flaps at the edges of the bottle.

When I decided to hook the bottle, I immediately realized that this was backwards. The bottle needed to be hooked first, then the pocket worked around it. So that little piece of messy hooking came out.

Then using a #2 cut and a variety of greys, I tackled the bottle.

It’s surprising how long it took to hook this little bottle, and there was quite a bit of tweaking    and adding little touches here and there (there is more colour variety than shows up in this photo). When I was satisfied, I then added the pocket flaps back in,

While I was in the area, I went on to hook the cuffs of both the jacket and the shirt.  (his hand is another item which will require extensive renovation so it looks a bit more life-like)….but that’s another day’s project.

Today ,March 13th ,winter returned with a vengeance. The only good part being that the old dirty snow is once again covered in a blanket of pristine white. A good day for hooking.