Thank you Laura for an interesting class. I chose Stripy Horse for my first attempt at painting a toy, as he was my daughter's constant companion when she was two years old, carried on many an adventure and getting up to mischief in her games.

Stripy Horse is a doll based on a character from a fantastic book called "Who Are You, Stripy Horse?" by Jim Helmore, Karen Wall. In his younger days, he was a good deal less grubby and had more stuffing in his neck. I tried to paint him as he looked when he first came to us and looked new.

My daughter (now 11) was impressed and decided to have a go at painting Cow, who has been with us since she was 6 months old.

Cow was originally a strobing nightlight who became a carry around toy. After being dropped from the car far too many times, I removed his electronics, restuffed the resulting cavity and sewed closed the access panel for batteries.

Cow is my daughter's favourite toy and will undoubtedly retain a special place in her heart. Although a well meaning animal, he tends towards being loud and boisterous, charging in before thinking things through. He also moo's a lot and can be very annoying to the other toys. It took much concentration on Cow's part to sit still for long enough to have his portrait painted.

This was my daughter's first attempt to use acrylic paints and she found them challenging to control. She was surprised at how quickly the paint dried and also found it very blobby. The details on Cow's waistcoat were added with sparkly paint and my daughter says the background is to show that he originally was 'Disco Cow' due to his strobing tummy light.