the end is in sight!

if all goes well i should be done with this first go around by the end of this week (could be tricky tho with both soccer and Easter this coming weekend!)...then it's onto tightening up the details in the sand and grasses!

the birds of san buenaventura, ca

my boyfriend and i took a mini vacation to san buenaventura this past weekend. we intended to spend it riding our bikes in town, along the ocean and into the seaside wilderness park but it was sooo cold that we mostly just rode our bikes a short distance and sat on washed up logs and watched the bird show! i can't tell you how much i love doing that...just observing animals in their natural habitat...i find it fascinating, i learn SO much!! i just wish i had brought my binoculars, which i always seem to forget!!

still on the drawing board...

but making progress!!

2 new drawings on the board!

 this is tucker, a horse from the wild west campground and corral in wisconsin. my youngest daughter, emily has been attending summer camp there since third grade, she's now 16! last summer she took a plethora of photos for me to use as references for my drawings. i loved this photo as soon as i saw it but haven't gotten around to drawing him out until this past weekend! i'm hoping to have him completed so i can enter him in a competition through north light books in april. i entered last year but didn't make the cut...so cross your fingers (and/or anything else you'd like to cross...eyes, legs, etc) for me this year!! 

and this is gracie! i commissioned myself to create her for my other daughter, allie, for her birthday coming up quickly in just a few weeks. she found gracie behind her work place last summer and was in pretty bad shape...skinny, fur all around her tail area gone. so allie brought her home, fixed her up and intended to put her up for adoption. well...gracie is still with allie (rarely leaves her side!), but now with a beautiful, soft grey coat and a very, very round belly!