Odes to Animals

I've just finished up a short series of five portraits, this time the subject is animals. The portraits are odes to some of my wild friends, including: Brown Bear, Sparrow, White Tailed Deer, Fox and Jack Rabbit. I've surrounded them with some of their own loves as well as some of my own.

My friend was leaving his house the other day to go feed birds in the park. "I love animals!" He smiled. He pointed to his shirt, which was teeming with bears and trees and wildlife. "See?!" He gave me his 10 pound sack of bird seed and said, "You know what you can tell about a person that loves animals?" He paused and I tried to understand the question. "...They love people even more." He gave me a hug and we went our separate ways.

Animals have a soft and mysterious place in my heart. They seem to know something we don't and we've been given the unique responsibility of caring for them and sharing this world with them. These portraits are my small attempt to capture their majesty and mystery.

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I'll be turning one of my five portraits into a beautiful letterpress print. Please vote for your favorite here.

A Map in the Dirt

This is the cover to a 15 page short story in comics form I just finished. The story is called A Map in the Dirt and follows a group of animals fleeing from a common threat. It's been selected for publication within the next couple of months by the always friendly Grimalkin Press, which should give me just enough time to finish some other things...

" love the foot prints! (although I dont like the little indian guy as much...sorry) other than that looks cool"---Rachael

"your straight from smoke signals. "---Eliza

The Parade!

Joel Priddy runs his very own Parade of pictures, where parents can download and print hi-resolution black and white images for their little ones. It's a great way to share pictures that people can use at home!

Here is my contribution (you can click the pic to make them grow!).

Cats

Here are some playful cats I made with charcoal pencils, graphite, crayon, colored pencils, and pens.

I think I've always liked the idea of cats more than the animals themselves, but I've been liking 'em more and more over the last year and a half. I've also started eating spinach.

If anyone wants to talk about "cute" in pictures, this post might be a good place for it. We'll get a good forum on Rob James' "Cute Face Theory" and my thoughts on the "Cute Factor". It'd be nice to get some comments from Andrew Christensen and Kelly Larsen, too. 

Huh.

By the Way

Here are some recent animal doodles and a bear hug for you because I love you.