sullen squirrel

Mr. Sullen Squirrel after a long day at his not-so-fun corporate job...

christmas for the kiddos!

I have a nephew and two nieces that all got some homemade presents from me this Christmas - including some hand-embroidered felt ornaments! yay! And ever since my nephew was born (almost 3 years ago), I've always taken his gifts, wrapped them in brown kraft paper, and drawn on them with sharpie and paint markers, so now I do it for all of them. Beckett is the only one who's old enough to recognize the drawings, but I still like to do it. Love those kiddos :3

the usual suspects...

The Steffen-Bublitz cats, from left to right: Wilma (chubby, adorable ball of fluff), Grendel (caveman kitty), Lando Cat-rissian (scared and/or confused at all times), and Jonesy (the silly one).

wild ride

Because that's how horses talk... 

So, I spent this weekend visiting friends (human and equine) that I haven't seen in a while and had a ridiculously fun time. We all went for a trail ride on Saturday afternoon then later we played some games and had some laughs.  And then there was Sunday - oh dear...  I got a chance to ride the amazing barrel racing horse, Slapshot, for the first time ever. Rode him bareback with no bridle - just a halter and reins. He is a phenomenal horse and quite lovely to ride. That is unless he's barreling down forest trails... 

Though I made it through the woods without any major mishaps, the pasture was another story... Heading up a giant hill, I think Slapshot and Calibur decided they wanted to race to the top, because once Calibur took off, Slapshot needed to follow and hr bolted up the hill.  He won. I didn't. Instead, I had a rather rough and somewhat painful introduction to the ground, A over T-K.  It wasn't too terrible at the time, but has since resulted in a bruised and sore lower back, and some pretty mean whiplash...

halloween girlies

A couple quick sketches of two of my very good friends - Jackie and Heidi, and then myself, in our Halloween costumes from this weekend. We celebrated up in Milwaukee and a marvelous time was had by all!

My 1950s getup came together quite nicely I must say, considering I didn't give my "faux bangs" a test run beforehand (I actually have bangs, but surprisingly they made it more tricky to roll the hair in front ...).  I also made my very first piece of clothing ever: a circle skirt! I ADORE it - it is so much fun to wear, petticoat and all!

CHICAGO COLOR RUN!

I successfully completed my very first 5K this weekend in Chi-town! WOOHOO!  Cannot wait for it to come to Milwaukee next year.  Declared to be "the happiest 5K on the planet" - I would say the Color Run most definitely lives up to its bold affirmation.  We all had a BLAST!  Besides the part where I got blue powder blasted directly into my eyeball... But other than that - it was just amazingly good fun.

creature feature friday!

bovid x edmontosaurus?  I have no idea what this crazy creature is that I created, but we'll just call him a "big, beefy ruminant with funky nasal air sac"...

teeny tiny!

I had the pleasure of spending part of my weekend in the presence of an absolutely ADORABLE teeny, tiny puppy :3  ERMAHGERD. Holy cuteness overload...  Many thanks to the friend who was puppy-sitting for tolerating my childish glee :)

here come the scissors...

I think I need my bangs cut... I feel  like a sheepdog for crying out loud.  I don't think I can cut them myself again though - you'd think after doing it a fair number of times that I would be better at it, but that's definitely not the case...

mrow?

No, kitty. No, I do not need your help.  Okay, there was supposed to be more to this comic, but I ran out of steam and it was just meant to be a super fast sketch anyways.  I really need to learn to keep these "quick" sketches quick, and not worry about making them perfect...
So, this is my goal for the rest of the year: one quick comic a week - and keep it loose!
Also, I plan on continuing with my monthly self-portraits - which should prove to be an interesting venture...

lil' munchkinhead

elsie sketch

She was sitting on my bed, watching a bug fly around the lamp. Super quick 1 minute sketch.

conceptual ramblings

Friend needs creature designs for a graphic novel. warm up sketches.

hurray for horseback riding!

By the way, a lot of trotting = very sore legs.

delineation

poor little elsie

Poor little Elsie dislocated a toe after a crazy night of being chased by Miss Button, so they had to amputate it!  She is now officially missing one of her little toesies. Her pupils were entirely dilated for two days after and she was quite sad and more than a little freaked out...

Sedna in the works

Been working on my graphic novel for the last few days...

strange girls

Some sketchees...

what?

I don't know...

a taste

Just a little taste of the work I'm doing for Paradigm this October.  They are only sketches though...  The second image is just a very rough idea, the first image is more the direction I'm headed in, though like the second image, there will be more ornate details.  I'm working in watercolor, acrylic, fabric and wood...