I can finally show this painting

I had such a WONDERFUL time painting this for a friend for Christmas. 

I had the canvas for months as was afraid to put down the first layers of paint. 

I used a couple photos for refernce, but other than that I did not draw or plan out what I was going to do. I just let it happen. I think that is a great part of the creative process. Just letting it flow. I knew it would work out as I went. I did stop a couple times and said to myself "should have I put down that layer of paint, or should that be a different color?"

But it worked out! 

(click on photo to enlarge)