Thanks again to everyone for the friendly welcome. I have attached my first piggy practice. Got to admit, I was far too impatient, thawed the skin for 6 hours in cold water, gave it a few quick dabs with a tea towel and attacked it with a machine, no stencil (still waiting for the postman to bring the stencil stuff) no pen lines(think the skin was still too damp, pen wouldn't take) so just stuck a needle into the poor piggy and made some lines
. I then tried a bit of shading after letting the skin dry out and the needles bounced off the skin and machine started spluttering.Like I say, a long way to go

