Flying Pigeon

Its been pretty windy here. Aside from making it obnoxious to run or bike into the wind (which somehow always seems to be the way I need to go...) it keeps the temperatures really nice and stirs up the air a good bit. It also seems to stir up the neighborhood pidgeon/dove population.

Now that I have a bit of a break in between projects, my brain has sort of floundered around trying to decide what to start next. This can be a dangerous time for me, as it is far easier to waste time when I'm not exactly 'ignoring' my to do list (since I haven't decided on one yet). To keep idleness at bay, I like to just draw. A lot.

Which is how I end up outside, tracking down flocks of fluttering pigeons.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Key Deer and Pelicans

I spent a better part of today going through the vacation pictures we took in Key West.

It's about 95% pelicans.

Oh sure, there are a few family pictures, one or two of a beach, the quintessential food picture, an occasional blurry rooster and a few shots of the 'Caution, Key Deer" signs... but the rest are just pelicans.

The pictures of the 'key deer' warning signs got me thinking however. I've never seen a key deer and I was curious what one might look like. Google responded with the cutest mini-deer you could imagine.

Sadly, they are a very endangered subspecies of the white-tailed deer that is so common in Michigan. Habitat destruction and human encroachment have taken their population down to roughly 400 - 500 deer left in the wild and this is why there are so many signs on the approach to Key West.

After looking at the collection of key deer images, I decided to make my next frame project a drawing of said deer. I have quite a few blank frames sitting around at this point, but felt particularly drawn to using a small ceramic white frame that I found on clearance at Target. It needed a key deer to be happy.

I'm happy with it, though I may end up shrinking the image inside the frame just a bit so the whole circle is visible.
I think after that, I have to do something with Pelicans. I have way, way too many pictures of the birds to not draw them.