Growth Chart

I selected an illustration from my book Maya Monkey for the www.illustrationfriday.com theme grow. This one's pretty obvious, as she's being measured for growth by her friend the sloth. 

Just another day in paradise!

Small Weddings

Great Expectations

There are a lot of small things in this world.  Thumb tacks, shot glasses (way too small) whiskers, newspaper print, acorns, fairies and frogs.... 

Well, I could go on and on.  But what could be smaller than a fairy wedding?  All of the guests would be small. Hopefully, that would mean the cost would be small as well.  I guess it would depend on how many woodland creatures are in attendance.  There would definitely need to be a vegan menu. But the venue would be free and the flowers could be hand picked. 

 And when the chipmunk proclaimed them man and wife, or frog and fairy, the crowd could pick a dandelion puff and blow seeds over the happy couple.

Small is the theme this week at www.illustrationfriday.com

News of the Weird

Oh my God. Boy, was I spammed.

 It was my educational Have you ever seen the reverse side of a Blue Morpho? post. A pictorial of the life span of a butterfly from an egg droplet to a beautiful blue wisp on the wind. The spam hit the fan. 

The first day I had 32 comments. And 1/2 of them were spam. I deleted them and went back to business. The 2nd day I had 54 comments on my poor butterfly post. What is going on? I marked them as spam and changed my settings to eliminate anonymous comments. Unfortunately my husband won't be able to comment anymore. Sorry honey! The spam comments are a blight to behold. Ha! They were so weird and poorly written I posted some of them below. Minus any scary links. If you read nothing else, please at least scroll to the bottom of each comment to see who left the wise words. Do they really think I am going to click on a link that says rectal prolapse!

P.S. Don't miss the irony of the last comment. Read that one for sure.

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Imagination

click to enlarge

I finished Great Expectations a few weeks ago.  It is my most ambitious illustration to date.  And a lot of imagination went into it. I was inspired by the art work for the May/June SCBWI bulletin by John Rocco.  He illustrated carp-shaped kite balloons to represent the Kodomo no Hi national holiday in Japan.  It was his kite perspective that I tried to incorporate into my piece with the hovering butterflies. His cover was the best darn SCBWI bulletin art to date.

I worked on this piece all Summer. I had many beautiful drawing sessions outside at lake Harriet. And there is so much going on that it is best viewed at original size.  Sorry, you can't do that over the internet.  My favorite part is the big dandelion puffs in the foreground.  I painstakingly tried to get some realism there.  And look at all my labels.  I guess there were a lot of wedding guests!  I hope there is a happy ending. 

P.S.  Be sure to plant your toes firmly in the ground and read my last post.  You might have won an award!   

Florida 101

There are a lot of people I've run across in life who don't care for what Florida has to offer.  But I always say that if you don't like Florida you just aren't looking hard enough.  We love the white sand beaches, peaceful Cypress trails and abundant Winter wild life.  The first shot is one of our favorite parks in Naples.  We always try to walk and enjoy a few picnics here.  Sungren park

The view at Naples beach. Or I should say one view of thousands.

I had a visitor below my beach chair.

I was sitting on a bench in the heart of Corkscrew Swamp and look who snuck up behind me.

An Egret wading in the swamp. 

A curious Owl.

A maze of gulls.  Or amazing gulls!

Butterflies fluttered at the Rookery Swamp Trail.

And turtles sunned themselves.

Weird colored sea birds at Lover's key.

We threw this live shell back after a photo op.

Feeding Giraffes at the Naple's Zoo is not only for the youngsters.  Florida.  It's what's for Winter!

P.S.  This FLA post has been simmering in my drafts bin for quite awhile.  It is going to be 100 degrees in Minnesota today.  Hotter than a Florida swamp in Summer! For more photos visit the Sunday Best blog hop!

Stripes

This is just a little something striped and spotted I painted back in 2007. Or was it 2010. Oh, how could I forget the MNSCBWI Zoo Day of 2009. Especially since the monkey is waving it right in front of me. I've grown a lot as an artist in the last few years. But my Girbra stands the test of time. I still love him and wouldn't change a thing. And my weird 1/2 breed with the handy tongue is my entry for www.illustrationfriday.com

Creature Feature

The trail cam captured a beautiful moment in black and white. The deer is posing in such a graceful way.

And since I'm wrapping up my trail cam photos, I've added a bonus piece of art to accompany today's pick. I painted this piece back in 1998. It pairs perfectly with all the creature features that have been popping up over the last week or two. But don't forget to check in tomorrow for one more photo and a little Halloween surprise. Spooky...

Lets all migrate to Iowa

I laughed at the comments about the last photo being a castle in Europe. It was a cool stone tower. And the views from the top were probably about as good as it gets in Iowa. Poor Iowa. But now we're moving on to a flurry of butterflies in Costa Rica. Just kidding...still Iowa! The trees were wearing a living lace dress of butterflies. It was beautiful. Geez. Maybe Iowa isn't so bad after all.

Things with wispy wings

I was feeling uninspired about what to post today. And then I ran across a butterfly photo that was taken a few weeks ago. Suddenly I had butterflies on the brain. Here are some wispy winged creatures from my photo archives...

Safari

I've never been on a Safari. But if and when I do I hope to spot a Girbra. Actually I hope to spot more than one. We want them to reproduce after all.

I'm sure http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ will be a virtual Zoo this week. One of my favorite illustrations called Neon Giraffe is very sad that I did not choose him for my Safari post. Oh well, can't please everyone.

I just did a spell check. Girbra was highlighted. For heaven's sake! Clearly Girbras are real and I spelled it correctly. What do they know.

Have you ever seen the REVERSE side of a Blue Morpho?

It's illustration friday. http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ And I have a really fun post to go along with today's illo. My pick today is an illustration from last Winter's fiction project. I wrote and illustrated a journal called, "There's an Iguana on my roof!" for Art House Co-op.

The Blue Morpho was an easy pick for today's theme. It has a brown moth like reverse side of the beautiful blue that we all know and love. Now for the interesting part of this post. Be sure to cruise down to see the complete life cycle (approximately 3-4 months) of this butterfly...

We visited the Blue Morpho hatchery at Chaa Creek in Belize earlier this month. The butterflies start out as a tiny opaque droplet on the underside of a jungle leaf. Then the photos take you on a journey as they grow to a cocoon. (They actually are quite toxic during their caterpillar stage) Then they magically pop out of their shell for a brief and beautiful life on earth. The photo of my husband is funny. The reverse side of the butterflies look like hat horns.

This is where the wild things are.

I illustrated the painted moose art for the Minnesota SCBWI's Summer field trip to the Zoo. To see the flyer visit http://www.minnesotascbwi.org/ I like to think that after the beaver finishes painting the patient moose, the moose decides to kick the beaver sharply in the be-hind. The paint and the beaver fly into the shallow water. Unfortunately the poor beaver is forced to swim away through a swirl of paint clutching the paintbrush tightly between his two front teeth. The End. In honor of Zoo Day (which I missed, darn it all) I decided to create a HUGE post of animal photos. Have fun at my Zoo!

Corn chips.

This fawn was photographed in Hatfield, WI.

A Howler monkey at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

Standing tough.

Baby

My pet bat...not.

Owl butterfly.

I'm talk'in turkey at Fort Snelling.

Akua

White faced monkey.

Monster Hummer.

It's a Kinkajou raiding the hummingbird feeder. At Monteverde.

This behind belongs to a Coati.

We like to think that we saved this frog from the volcanically heated pool. He didn't say thank you.

This sloth dared to cross a busy highway. Luckily a local gentleman stopped his vehicle and escorted him safely across. Near Fortuna, Costa Rica.

A Red-lored Parrot perhaps?

This is the extremely rare White-throated Magpie-Jay. Ha!

This is a beloved house cat. Hana! To see more beloved house cats visit http://www.gattinamycats.blogspot.com/