Perilously close to the end of this book - last piece is tonight! Here are a few more samples of what I've been up to. This will make for 17 illustrations total for my half of the book and there's even more artwork than what I have posted here over on my facebook art page!

Home stretch...

Some more rodentia dementia for the book! Feeling very nostalgic for New England, so here are some harvest mice enjoying that special crisp air that we seem to lack here on the west coast.

And here is a tribute to my Rocket, who earned her wings SUPER HERO CAPE two weeks ago. All of my rats are special to me but Rocket was just that extra something, she had that certain sparkle about her and enthusiasm that only our most precious companions seem to have. It's been sad times. :(

Onwards with the book...

Petit-pigs anyone? This took WAY longer than I had anticipated, so I will have to hustle on the next illustration tomorrow to make up for all of the noodling on this one. I'm glad that guinea pigs got some love at least! That's quite the family those two have, though by the looks of that Himalayan, there was either a little infidelity on mom's part or some seriously recessive genes afoot.

 

Channeling even more Nate Wragg than usual, I put together another piece for the book last night. I also had a rare moment of common sense and decided to start selling prints before the book is published, in an effort to help fund the printing costs. 

This piece and a few other new ones are for sale here!

None of the rats or mouse in this piece are any of mine specifically, which is sort of a first for me. I might have one more rat piece in the book but I am afraid of being redundant. We'll see. Also, my palettes have been getting really dark lately. I wonder what that says about my inner workings these days... or maybe it's because I got called out on having a narrow value range. Booyah! ;)

So if you're new to this blog, this is probably one of the best times to start watching. The fall is my art marathon, that is, it's convention season and I am a self-proclaimed eleventh hour finisher, so basically I will be updating here often with new illustrations for my upoming animal art book and if I can find the time, some portfolio pieces as well. Some people train for marathons that you can run, I train for art ones :)

So! Another one for the book! It wouldn't have been complete if I didn't include at least one cat butt. This is Fritzy, one of my two new feline housemates, courtesy of my boyfriend. They say we take on each other's baggage as we merge our lives, right? Cats count as baggage in my humble opinion. 

I will be offering this one as a stand-alone print, I think, or maybe do some cropping and do a greeting card run? I dunno!

Took a brief detour from the book to make a piece for the “Searle in America" fundraiser auction! This piece will go live next week on ebay. Hopefully it’s an obvious homage to Searle himself and is titled "Fancy Rat" (you rat enthusiasts get the pun I hope!). It’s the first time I’ve used my pen and inks in about a decade. X_x

Lots of catching up to do on the book now. Unfortunately we suffered the loss of one of our favorite furry kids this week, that being miss Rocket. Her health was declining for weeks and she needed a lot of nursing, so it wasn't sudden like poor Porkchop's passing, but all the same we are still in a state of mourning for her and things have slowed down a bit. I think the next book illustration will be about her, considering she is still on my mind quite a bit these days. 

IT’S ON NOW! I have begun work on volume 2 of Snorffles and Meeps. The brand spanking new art book will debut at APE in October and then be available online in my shop. I still have about 8 copies of the first volume of the book, so if you haven’t snagged one, this is your last chance!

Let's get this party started with a maned wolf. Hard to believe the chubby little charcoal lumps grow up into lanky killing machines, eh?