When you go on vacation, bats move in!

{Watercolor, 2012}

My husband and I left for vacation a little over a week ago (and had a great time, I might add!) We departed to Michigan for my brother-in-law's beautiful wedding and then headed up north to visit the Traverse City area. It was a peaceful week and we did quite a bit for only one week. As we were driving home to Iowa, I noticed that my neighbor had sent me a text that a bat had been dive bombing her as she was feeding our pets! I was surprised to hear that because we have never had issues with bats before. When we finally made it home, it was still light out (just barely) and we searched the house. Finally, we found a little brown bat stuck in a bucket in the basement. After a little research, I found out that bats can't fly up and out of things. They need a little loft for coasting. We brought the bucket outside and carefully lifted him onto a tree where he promptly climbed up and flew away. We thought that was the end of our adventure with bats. Wrong. (side note, little brown bats are really really cute!!!) Later that night, as we were nodding off to sleep I awoke to a very distinct sound of flapping. I nudged my husband and sure enough, we had another little brown bat visiting. This time, he was flying freely in the house. (just like my neighbor had described.) Getting this little guy (who was slightly bigger than the other) out was a little more work. My husband held out a towel and the bat would swoop around, presumably trying to find a way out. He landed a few times, hanging from the ceiling, which let us have a bit of a look at his little face and structure. After several tries, the bat crawled to the towel, my husband lowered it to the door and the bat flew away, probably really hungry and ready to eat some delicious insects. I did a little more research about bats because I worried we might have a real problem on our hands. (we haven't had any more bats) It turns out, sometimes a young bat is learning to fly, gets into a place they can't get out of, and then the parent follows them to make sure they are alright. (how sweet is that?) I think that may have been the issue here. Either way, we were glad to get both bats out safely. My husband and I are pretty big animal lovers and even if its an animal that is a little creepy, we want it to be happy, healthy and safe. I know a lot about little brown bats now, so of course, I wanted to paint my own version of one. I think the real ones are cuter! So small and innocent looking!

Sketchbook - Daily Life

{Ballpoint Pen in Sketchbook, 2011}

{Copic and Ballpoint Pen in Sketchbook, 2011}

I have a confession: I can't stop drawing my cats! Their bodies are so sweet and at times they look like little contortionists. I also did a two minute sketch of Ken last night. I have to make it quick, because if he discovers that I am drawing him, he'll purposely move or make faces at me. Thankfully, he was Facebooking, so I had more than ten seconds.

Illustration Friday - Winter

{Digital, 2010}

{Printed Cards, 2010}

{Back of Cards, 2010}

Wishing everyone a magical and Merry Christmas! I love being able to share my artwork with the world through this blog and I appreciate every single person who comes here to take a look. A few posts back I shared the top illustration, which was done as the main image for my family (ie. my husband and our menagerie of pets) Christmas card. I said I would share the final printed version, which I got from Overnight Prints. They turned out very nice with wonderful colors and great quality.

Christmas Card Illustration 2010

{Digital Mixed Media Illustration, 2010}

I didn't have time to make handmade cards this year due to my current illustration workload. (which I am really grateful for!) I decided to do an illustration and have some cards printed professionally and mailed to me. I am running a little behind this year, but I have always had good luck with Overnight Prints in terms of quality and speed of delivery. I thought it would be fun to have our whole family (which consists of several furbabies!) Photoshopped into a gingerbread wonderland! I love that the pictures are totally not to scale in relationship to each other. It's probably pretty accurate if we were measuring personality! I'll make sure to post some pictures of the printed cards when they come in the mail. I'm really looking forward to seeing them!

Happy Halloween! 2010

{Candy Corn Costume, 2010}

Photo Credit: Metromix Des Moines

{Lego Man Costume, 2010}

Photo Credit: Metromix Des Moines

{Carved Pumpkins, 2010}

We always have fun making costumes. This year I sewed a candy corn costume using fleece and my husband, Ken, revamped his Lego costume from last year. To be fair, he was working on it until the last minute last year and only got to wear it to one party. This year he wore it all around Des Moines and got lots of laughs, smiles and nostalgic 20/30-somethings! In fact, he is in the running to win a local costume contest so I am going to shamelessly plug him! If you are so inclined, please vote for him until November 5, 2010 at THIS LINK. We would really appreciate it!

More Halloween Pictures!

{Pumpkins lit up, 2009}

{Costumes, 2009}

{Finished Makeup, 2009}

{Ken's Wonderful Costume, 2009}

I know this is generally an illustration blog, but I can't help but share more of our Halloween happenings! We spent so much creative energy on our pumpkins and Ken's costume that I think its totally legit to share it here! Ken came up with the idea of a Lego man costume. He did a scale drawing in AutoCAD and started to build the costume using cardboard and tons of other mundane materials. When he got to the final stages I helped sand parts of the costume and I painted the torso and areas of the face. The final product turned out fabulous and even won him $500 at a local radio/casino costume contest! I loved working on the project with him too. Its always such a wonderful bonding experience to work together on something creative... especially when the hard work pays off! (literally!) Hope everyone out there had a safe and happy Halloween!