Oh man, you've got me tearing up in my coffee. Natalya, what a lovely portrait and tribute to Merlin.

Well done.
Thank you.

Amazing story. Awesome work Natalya.

RIP Merlin.

TWH are the most consistently gentle breed i have ever hd the pleasure to work with, and when i saw Merlin's portrait my first thought was "he's Got to be a TWH with that head!"

natalya--awesome! i've always wished i could even draw a stick figure half decent....

Beautiful artistic rendering of a handsome horse. I love it. A generous,loving gift indeed. RIP Merlin.

What a wonderful gift of artisitic talent you have Natalya. I have always admired & secretely envied the talent that people have to draw & paint our equine friends with such realism. I am the worlds most frustrated artist in that respect. I have loved horses all my life & have tried to sketch drawings of my own horse thru the years, only to remain disappointed in my results. My depth preception on paper is the pits. I will remain the worlds worst artist forever.

It is so true....what an amazing group of people there are here.

Thanks so much everyone.
This project was a really special one and I was more than happy to make the offer - I hope it will bring Merlin's owner a bit of comfort.

 Quote: Anne Jones

My depth preception on paper is the pits. I will remain the worlds worst artist forever.

Well if it makes you feel any better, Anne, I STINK at math, spelling, geography, and don't EVER hand me a map and ask me to navigate for you - you'd think such a visual person would be great at reading maps... HA!!

~Natalya

Hey, I have some of those skills. I also make great cookie castles & gingerbread houses! So there is some artistic talent. Just not in the art on paper stuff. LOL

Good thing that we are not all good at the same things. Sure would be a boring. world.

 Quote: Anne Jones

Good thing that we are not all good at the same things. Sure would be a boring. world.

Exactly.

And I am now intensely curious as to what a cookie castle looks like... sounds AMAZING!!

~Natalya

Thanks for the lovely inspirational moments here all of you!!! Wonderful art and excellant story of 4-legged brother..........kudos for real!

The castles that I have made have been 2 1/2 feet long by about 2feet high to the top of the turrets. A small box in the center about a foot square & everything else edible up to the toothpicks & flags on top of the turrets all centered on an almost 3ft square base. This allowed the abilty to create the moat & area surrounding the castle. Oh, yea, complete with moat & draw bridge. Grahnam crackers,(siding) circle butter cookies, viena fingers, gum drops, shoe lace licerish (cable for the draw bridge). I can't even remember all the different kiinds it took. It was kind of expensive to make & took many hours several to build. It was fun.

I haven't done one in a while, so any of the pics I have are just regular photos. No digital ones or I'd share.

I used to make one or the other every christmas when my son was young. I would keep it covered when no one was there(company) & we (son & I) would take it to a local school for autistic children to enjoy & eat. The delivery to the school was as much of a ritual as the making of the castle/Gingerbread house each year. The act of doing this taught my son many lessons & he truly loved sharing it & looked farward to deliverying it. One of the last years that I made one, he couldn't come to the school, I can't now remember why, but he was very upset about it.