Of Mice And Wheat

Based upon a suggestion from my previous post, I decided that my next drawing project would involve mice. I had to forewarn my dear hubby of the subject matter because when he was a child he had a bad experience with a house mouse and has been terrified of the little creatures ever since. So I had to give him the heads up to avoid any freak outs on his end since he can’t even tolerate seeing pictures of them. I don’t tease him about it though because spiders give me the hee-bee gee-bees and since we have an attic, those little buggers have a tendency to just drop down out of nowhere when I’m walking down the hall or cooking in the kitchen. So he gets rid of spiders for me and when our cat died and two months later our house was invaded by a family of mice, guess who had to set the traps and get rid of them? So we have a nice little arrangement for who does what when these creep crawly terrors invade our personal space.


What has been a little surprising to me is that while doing a bit of research on mice I learned that there are a number of different mice. I always thought there was only field mice and house mice but no, there’s more. There’s the deer mouse (also known as the field mouse) that’s called such because its fur is the same color as deer, Then there’s the cactus mouse, the cotton mouse, the wood mouse and the harvest mouse. Of these I chose the harvest mouse to be my subject simply for it’s adorableness and because it’s known to be found among cereal grains which I thought drawing one or two of these mice among some wheat would create some intricacy in the drawing. So far I’ve been working on some preliminary sketches to get familiar with drawing wheat and mice since they’re both new subject matter for my visual vocabulary. And as usual I anticipate that drawing the fur on these little creatures will be challenging because trying to draw fur realistically in pointillism is always challenging but I think this project will be fun as well as stretch my skills a bit. πŸ™‚

Tree Frog Blank Pocket Journal Set

New to my growing line of stationery are my handmade Tree Frog Blank Pocket Journal Set. I sliced, folded and threaded these up over the weekend and they’re now available for your quick notes, doodles and rambling thoughts. I just adore tree frogs so these journals so far are my favorite, I even made a set for myself. So be sure to check them out at my online store and get yourself a set or two. πŸ™‚

New Journal Set

Tree Frog Pocket Journal

Got to making the first journal for my upcoming new set of Tree Frog blank pocket journals. This is the first set where I’m using the threaded saddle stitching on and I really like the look. The thread gives the journals a more handmade feel to them that is much more appealing to me. The cover illustration is a reproduction of my ACEO drawing “This Little Fella”. I plan on making the cover illustration for the second pocket journal from my ACEO drawing, “Strike A Pose”, which I’m currently working on. I’m excited about this new set of journals so be sure to stay tuned to see the end results. πŸ™‚

Close up of threaded saddle stitch.
Inside view of threaded saddle stitch journal.
“Strike A Pose” (wip)

Tree Frogs and Thread Binding

This cute thing will definitely make a perfect match for a pair to my previous tree frog drawing, “This Little Fella“. I love the eyes and how it looks like it’s crawling out of the darkness and over a leaf. I kinda want to leave it just as it is with that half drawn look that I like so much but I will ink on… πŸ™‚

On another note, I’m still learning more about book binding. Lately I’ve been doing saddle stitch binding with thread and although it takes a little more time compared to using staples, I’ve learned that thread is better for longevity and that I’m not as limited as far as page count goes if I use thread instead of staples. When using staples I can only have up to 32 pages in my pocket journals beyond that the staples won’t close. When using thread I can have up to 48 before the journal starts to feel a bit too bulky. The work flow for using thread is taking a bit getting used to but I’m enjoying the process and have decided that may future pocket journals will be stitched with thread and contain at least 40 pages (that’s 80 if you count front and back). Be on the look out for new thread saddle stitched illustrated pocket journals in the near future. πŸ™‚

This Little Fella

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I am so excited. The end result of “This Little Fella” is just adorable. I don’t know if it’s by design but these little creatures seem to always be smiling and therefore make me smile. With so much cuteness, as mentioned before, I just had to do another one.

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I dived right into this one as soon as I signed my name to the previous one. I don’t know why but as I was drawing this Madonna’s “Vogue” popped into my mind and hence I decided to call this “Strike A Pose” for now. πŸ˜› His little stretched out arm makes him look as if he’s posing, so the title seemed appropriate. I think I’m going to definitely have fun inking this guy. πŸ™‚