Thawing out the chipmunk..

  This was the week I thawed out the chipmunk... Seriously, I really did.( Check out my  post " The Unfortunate Demise of the Chipmunk" dated Nov. 9, 2009)

    

      He has been in my freezer for over a year, along with the bluebird, cardinal and wren. All victims of my wicked pussy cat, Claudette. Taking a cue from the beloved artist Tasha Tudor, who kept little frozen mice in a freezer, I decided that this little fellow need not have died in vain and now, he has become a model of sorts for a book illustration, chock-full of nut gathering tree folk.

  I love drawing from life, but sometimes it is difficult to get, say, a Moose to hold a violin whilst you scribble away.. or, a field of dancing bunnies. That is when a vivid imagination and  lots of photographs come in handy. But this week, I have some REAL models to help me out. 

       I figured, as long as I was "defrosting" critters, I might as well pull out the deceased birds as well. 

   I hope I am not grossing you out. 

Please do not think me morbid... I am so far from that. I would be much happier if these little creatures lived a full, long life. But, as an artist, to get a chance to hold a little wild bird, examine the feet, feathers and wings carefully, the patterns on the face and feel the smoothness of the little beak, well, it really helps to create a more accurate picture.

 Notice the lay of the feathers, the wonderful little "hair do" and the shape of the beak.

 These little birds will all have a special place in this illustration.

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 It didn't take long for the little chipster to become "thawed out" enough to be pliable...

  Just look at his darling little feet...

 I wish this little guy (or is it a gal??) had been able to marry, raise a family and push his little grandchips in a tree swing, but alas, such is the way of nature. When you live in the country, you become used to the ebb and flow of life.

Although I love realism, and actually started out as a wildlife artist, realism is not my goal in illustrating storybooks. I want these figures to be physically accurate  like REAL chipmunks. but with a hint of fantasy and whimsy.

Normally, in my books, most of the critters are dressed in 17th and 18th century clothing, but not on this page. I only left my 2 main characters in attire, and thought it a better idea to concentrate on what these little figures are doing, rather than what they are wearing.

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They range in size from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch and you can clearly see WHAT they are doing.

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   Those long thin fingers can easily grasp any size acorn...

 Little squirrels look so similar to chipmunks in the head shape, fingers and toes.

 There are 39 tree folk in the artwork, I hope to finish this drawing tomorrow. It is a full page illustration of a fairly large size, 12"x24" and very busy.

 

My little chippy has gone back into the freezer, I will retrieve him when I am ready to paint this piece.. And everyone will receive a proper burial.

Hoorah!  I am only 3 pages away from finishing my drawings for this book. Because of the detailed drawing, the painting atop will take much less time.
 But it is a good thing I have some dvd's to keep me in the house, doing my job, instead of out in the beautiful weather poking about in my garden.

 I "listen/watch "  these as I draw. I highly recommend the 4 on top if you want to drool over some of  the most wonderful gardens in the world! 

 Back to the  drawing board.
Sweet tweets to you, till next time!

The unfortunate demise of the chipmunk

The guilty party, doing jail time. 

    A naughty puss has brought about the untimely death of a dear
little chipmunk and has deposited the poor creature on the stairway. She is now pouting on the porch, as I have seen fit to deprive her of any further satisfaction from this act of , of..... hmmmm what do you label the wanton murder of little darling creatures perpetrated by the feline species? fuzzycide? tweetycide? Well, whatever it is, those cats do get away with murder, no doubt about it. .

     Now, I have another little body to dispose of. Birds, squirrels, tiny srews and mice have all had proper burials around here. After all, it would be so unseemly to do anything less. But then I had a thought, why should this little feller have died for naught? I remembered that Tasha Tudor said in an interview that she  kept similar unfortunate victims in her freezer. She said she had a whole freezer full of little mice! When she needed a life-like model (forgive the pun) to create a painting, she would just pop on over to the icebox and get one.

Working from "life"

     Well, my goodness! I've been collecting bug bodies for ages to use in my paintings, so why not? If it's good enough for Tasha, it's good enough for me! It just so happens, I need a little chipmunk model for the  book I'm working on....
      I told the man of the house, "Dearest, there is a little chippy in the freezer, he's in a marked baggy." Dearest says,"Not next to the ice cream, I hope." He is so understanding.

He will live on in my book, this little chipster.

    Now, here's the question, when I need to "use" my little model, do I:

      A. Thaw him out and then put him in the proper position?

      B. Put him in position and draw as quickly as I can before he               thaws out?

      C. How many times can he be thawed and refrozen? What

           about freezer burn, yikes!

      D. Should I just take him to a taxidermist? Naw.

                Oh dear, I wish I knew how Tasha did it.