Wild Mustangs

This is the spread I made for Linda's "Where the Wild Things Are" round robin journal on Paper Traders. I chose to illustrate the wild mustangs from Red Canyon, Wyoming, which is just outside of Cody where Linda lives. My family also lives there and I've seen the wild horses for myself - very cool! I also made a tag to match...

The Artist's Palette

These are the pages I did for Connie's round robin journal on Paper Traders. Her theme was "The Artist's Palette" and she asked us to use paint and try to expand our abilities by challenging ourselves. Since I am still in the early stages of exploring my drawing talents (as in, do I have any?) and I am not very inexperienced at watercolor either, these pages were definitely a challenge. I found the water especially hard to do. I'm not sure if you can really see all the details in here or if the scan washed them out but there are swirly white places to give the suggestion of foam and spray.


I should have taken the quote to heart and exercised a little more patience in writing it out... my lines tended to slant upward and the handwriting is sloppier than I would have liked.

Wyoming Wildflowers and Landscape

I literally took several HUNDREDS of photos on our camping trip this past weekend. We went up into the Beartooth Mountains in northwestern Wyoming (and a bit of southwestern Montana). Not all of my photos came out great, but here are several that will hopefully give you an idea of all the beautiful stuff we saw...


This little chipmunk moved so fast, it was hard to catch him with my camera...

A portion of the panorama at the top of the Chief Joseph Scenic Bypass - you can see the switchbacks leading down to the valley below and, in the very far back on the right, the mountains where we camped...

Tiny little alpine flowers (Lupine?)...

Many of the flowers hadn't even started blooming yet - summer is slow coming in the highest mountain peaks...

Here's a busy little bumblebee, hard at work...

Some hardy little alpine flowers - seeming to grow right out of the rocks!

The flowers were everywhere - growing in even the most unlikely of places...

More little alpine flowers...

Indian Paintbrush...

Beartooth Lake...

A waterfall along Beartooth Creek - this is looking across a steep, wide canyon - that's a LOT of water!
Tiny little Forget-Me-Nots...

Even more alpine flowers...

Long Lake near "Top of the World"...

These are some of the smallest flowers I have ever seen...

An interesting snow melt...

In the distance, Pilot and Index peaks...

Hard to tell from this photo, but there is so much water coming down here that the creek has overflowed its banks and is pouring down the mountainside in a wide, foaming rush - that white in the background is not snow - it's water!

These pink (Wild Geraniums) and purple (I don't know what kind?) flowers were everywhere we looked...

Even the pine trees are blooming...

If you want a little perspective on this photo, check out the people standing on the bridge in the distance - the force of the water coming down here is phenomenal!

At the tippy-top of the Beartooths, looking down onto alpine lakes and glacial canyons - still a lot of snow up there for the middle of July...

These pink flowers are called Shooting Stars and they're my Dad's favorite! If you know how tiny Forget-Me-Nots are, then you'll realize that these rocket-like blossoms are only about an inch long...

There was a whole mountain meadow filled with these blooms...

A cute little visitor...

Wyoming Wildlife

I was so excited because I got to see my bear! This is a photo my dad took... we only had a brief moment to get the shot as the park rangers were already on site and moving the traffic along as quickly as possible.

I also saw a moose (sorry no picture) and lots of other critters - deer, hawks, antelope, chipmunks, rock chucks, squirrels, etc. Unfortunately, there were lots of mosquitoes, too!

Going wild in Wyoming

Well, not really crazy wild... but this afternoon we are heading into the wilds for a weekend of camping. I have been in Wyoming for the past week, visiting family. I've taken lots of photos while I'm here so I'll make a longer post with pictures when I get home next week. For now, I need to help get the trailer packed so we can head out! Hope I get to see a bear =)

Intuitive Watercolor

I recently purchased Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop and am hoping to try out each technique. Below is my first "intuitive watercolor."