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	SASHAY IN THE SHADE... To see the thumbnail/inspiration for this letter, you'll have to go to two places. The germ of the idea can be seen at one of the (if you follow any of these links, you'll have to use your browser's BACK button to return) About the Artist pages (toward the bottom right...the rollerskating S). The next place is Joy . My first inclination was to make the animal an otter. Their long, slinky bodies can be more easily manipulated around the esses of the...er, "S". Since the Joy J is an otter, and this design is so similar to it, I went with the dog. I didn't want it to be a dachshund, though, because the Speed Skater "S" is a dachshund. Later on, when I was struggling with fitting the illustration into the shape, I saw a photo of a long-haired dachshund. Naturally it was a cinch to fit it into the S, and, probably because I was so glad to have something go right, I promptly forgot about Speed Skater. Click on any illustration for an enlargement. The final drawing, ready to be transferred to the "good" paper, and...color! At this point, I was still basing the animal on the long-haired dachshund...hence the coloring I used in this step. When it hit me that this was the same coloring as the Speed Skater, I decided to ignore this color pattern for the final version. The white of the paper was gone--one of the reasons for this step anyway. So the dachshund became a shaggy mixed breed (i.e., mutt). I had a very difficult time with the caption for this letter. Some of the contenders: Steppin' Out, Steppin' to the Stereo, Shower Samba, Shower Sashay (nice tongue twister), Singin' in the Rain (trouble with that one is, the mutt ain't singin'). I went with Sashay in the Shade to further distance it from Joy (the umbrella in that one was obviously being used for protection from the rain since the otter was wearing a raincoat (duh). This umbrella is more of a parasol). The letter is finished once it's been touched up with acrylics.