Dozens

The trip to Mojave was wonderful and went by way too fast. Back to work...

The Precollege program is staring next week and so we have been all over the place trying to get things ready for the students and thier arrival. 

In other news. The Morae River is getting a blog. I figured that The Morae River would work well as a blog for now, at least until I have time to tackle the website. Check it out at 

www.themoraeriver.com

The Morae River also has a twitter! 

expect updates soon. 

Black Bear

Another one for the animals for kids series. I should have way more of these, but Im going to have to put them aside for now to work on the Morae River. Im hoping to have a blog up for it by the end of the month. 

Pennies

John's dad came out our way this weekend to spend some time with us. We went up to Napa to taste some wine and get a tour of Newton Vineyards. The Vineyard was beautiful and the tasting was awesome. They had pairings braised pears and marcona almonds, Duck pate and blackberries. The grounds were just as wonderful - with an intricate English tea garden and pagodas to contrast. Apparently the founders were an Englishman and a Japanese woman who were married. The whole place shows the influence of both backgrounds in the architecture and the way its managed. 

I recommend a visit to anyone who loves wine and its culture -its also a really good place to bring visitors from out of state, as it really captures the spirit of Napa. 

I was finally able to go to the Academy of Sciences over in SF. I was in awe the entire time I was there. The design, the animals and the detail of the place is almost too much to handle in one visit. I have a feeling that I'll be getting a membership soon just so I can go an use the Naturalist Center when I have spare time to do some studying. That whole place is such a great resource to the Bay Area, especially children. I feel that we are better off to have places like that to teach out children the importance of life and just how important it is to have an education. I was really inspired. I sketched a bit but want to put some more work into the pages, so Ill be posting those later. 

The Mojave desert is up next and Im excited to see old friends and family. It should be a good trip.

Viking

For a weekly challenge on Heytutti - the forum I created for the CCa illustration dept. John Mathis runs this forum and gives out prompts every week, this week was viking. 

Im not sure if Vikings owned dogs for sure. It is believed they might have, and if they did they would have owned St. john's Water Dogs. The breed is now extinct but they are similar to Labradors. Although, this was never meant to be accurate.

Harvest

Working on some personal work now while Im putting together some promo ideas for the next upcoming weeks. Im having my senior show this October and so Im getting some work together as well as creating new work for it. Im also in the process of creating a book for the show to be on display and for sale at the show. The whole Morae River will be in the book for anyone to buy there or online through blurb.com. 

Keep an eye out for updates on new animals and environments to be added to the MoraeRiver.com

Monstress

Two commissions for St. Mary's Magazine to accompany an excerpt from the short story by Lysley Tenorio,associate professor of English and winner of a prestigious 2008 Whiting Writers’ Award. The story was called Monstress. Look for them on the website too. I'll post the link later...

Chimeras

I entered this "Design a Chimera" contest for CCA's mascot last semester and found out my design has been chosen by popular vote. Im excited as the mascot will represent the school for the school year of 2009-2010. The character (in various positions) will be printed on t-shirts, planners and posters. Expect more variations of this guy soon...