Blogs, Banners, and... Mice?

      In redoing my blog, I've faced the challenge of coming up with something a little more interesting to look at.  The previous banner with the sketch of the pig and pencil just wasn't cutting it.

Too monotone.  I like color in my paintings, darn it!

    But what to do?  This was particularly difficult considering I have a number of styles I work in, but after mulling over it a bit I came to the obvious conclusion: why not show all of them?  I, therefore, came up with the following design...

So much more color!

     MUCH better.  It's amazing what a little tinkering in Photoshop can do.  The image to the far left was a personal illustration piece I did based off a children's story a friend of mine wrote, while the cat portrait to the far right was a promotional/ charity piece I did for a local rescue organization.  Both of these pieces were originally done in watercolor (my favorite medium :).  The little mouse you see holding the pencil was created digitally using Photoshop over the past two days.

"I'm ready for some serious blogging!"

       If you've happened to wander around my various websites, you may have noticed I have a certain affinity for drawing animals of the rodent variety.  I think it has something to do with how easily I can anthropomorphize them (and come on, just look at that adorable face).  They make awesome little mascots, so I've been slowly building a series of characterized mice to represent my various webpages.  The blogspot mouse makes number three of my cartoony cheese connoisseurs (I also have the facebook and zazzle store mouse in the wings) and there are more to come, including one for the print on demand store I will be opening soon.

     "Print on demand" you ask?  "As in I can order prints of your artwork?"

     That is exactly what I mean.  Are you excited now?  Don't lie; I know you are.  Stay tuned.  More info coming soon.