The very place I have been seeking

Here is the finished print! The black and orange/red are separate plates, and the blue is hand colored. 

This quote inspired me:

"I have just dropped into the very place I have been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams." -Isabella Bird, 19th century explorer and naturalist

But I've also been fascinated with grown-in houses for a while--the kind you sometimes see going wild with tree seedlings growing in the gutters and ivy growing in through the windows and the grass growing ten feet tall, and you know the neighbors probably hate it but it's actually kind of beautiful.

A thousand cuts...

...more or less. Now to make some prints!

Nice day for ducks

It's pouring rain outside, and I'm sketching lots and lots of chickens for a book project while listening to a dove making hooting noises on the porch.

There are about two hundred little chicken drawings on my table, and I only like three of them so far, so I'm throwing in a duck for variety.

Brrrrrr

It's insanely cold today; when I woke up this morning there was a solid sheet of ice on my windowpane. Once I got it scraped off there was one very puffed up bird sitting in the dried vines outside (not 22 or 23 as in the illustration).

Weird: If I count the birds horizontally I keep coming up with 22, and if I count them vertically it's definitely 23. I'm still not sure which is right. This is one of the many reasons why I'm not an accountant.

Stay warm, and Happy New Year!

Insomnia

Something woke me up in the middle of the night. It was my husband snoring: HOOORRRRRNK. HOOOORRRNK. It went on for a long time until he finally rolled over. 

Complete silence. Then I heard, farther away, HUUUUNNGGK. HUUUUNNGGK. It was one of my neighbors snoring. After a while, the noise tapered off.

I was just falling asleep when I heard HINK. HINK. HINK. My cat was snoring, too.

Illustrator Saturday

I'm proud to be the featured illustrator this week on Kathy Temean's Illustrator Saturday blog! You can read the interview here.

Society of Illustrators 55

I was very happy to find out that the painting in my last post was selected for the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition!

When I found out, I smiled for a few hours straight, and then started thinking "I'M NOT WORTHY!" like Wayne and Garth in Wayne's World shouted when they met Alice Cooper. Thanks to all the judges who decided otherwise.

 Here's the painting again (in a bad phone snapshot).