Monday, July 9, 2012

IF … Suspend

©2012 Mardi Speth • All Rights Reserved • Watercolor & Ink
   Yippee … let's eat! 
    Lunchtime is the perfect opportunity to practice our Cirque du Soleil act.
    Sometimes there's even a bonus to our precarious positionings. If we end up
    nose-diving, my fur becomes a lovely shade of pink for at least a week.
    (Peet, however, is of a different opinion, as he believes the color brings
    his manhood into serious question).
                                  Peet, more to the left and … whoa …"
                            "Peet, more to the left and lower! Whoa …"
                                 "Peet, more to the left and lower! Whoa …"
                                      "Peet, more to the left and lower! Whoa …

34 comments:

  1. Nice work with the lazy zig-zag of your visual path; it parallels the bouncy back-and-forth we know they've been dangling with.
    Looks like Buttercup has had some raspberry accidents before as is evidenced by her raspberry tutu...Peet will never live down a pink tail, and he seems well aware of the dangers looming.

    Interesting how he matches the flower, and she the berries, probably says something about their personalities.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Richard. Actually, a friend helped me with the composition, and it's infinitely better than my original concept. If I'm lucky, next week's word prompt will provide me the creative license for using pink.
      Lots and lots of pink.
      Oh, poor Peet.

      Delete
  2. The reward definitely worth all the suspension effort. :)
    Your works are so beautiful and delicate. I'm dazzled whenever i step in your blog.
    Thank you for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your skilled hand with watercolor.
    Very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Mardi:)You always make me laugh with the beautiful story's that comes with your beautiful drawings. Great art!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great composition, great colors...just great!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, the action and suspense! The serious look on Peet's "I refuse to be pinkified" face. Really neat how you've framed the plants each partly outside of the frame to indicate the larger world (and berry patch) beyond. Love the sunflower. And overall adorable, of course!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peet is definitely the reluctant participant when it comes to raspberry plucking. However, when it comes to hunting for carrots, Peet takes the lead. Thank you, Cindy!

      Delete
  7. Wonderful action and text. Such fun to visit this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mardi, your work is always so much fun! I love the arc of the sunflower...and Peet and Buttercup look so very determined! Love it (as usual)! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is a really wonderful piece, so full of movement. And, of course, I love that it has a "botanical" theme as well! I like how you created a thumbnail of sorts for the IF page...i"ll have to figure out how to do that...I miss them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sarah! I'm not sure about the new IF website format either. I think it's unclear that people need to click the enlargement to get to the blog. The enlargement does take away the surprise, and I think it will diminish traffic to the blog. Anyway, I thought I'd try 'my way' for a while and see what we shall see.

      Delete
    2. and the scrolling ( and loading the older entries ) is very very slow on the new IF site ...:(

      Delete
    3. I asked Penelope at IF about this, that we no longer will get traffic automatically to our blog, but she said the same thing; double clicking will send them there. But who will do that after seeing the piece? And most dont even know about the double click. She said the plus is that you art is more easily shared in social media. That doesnt really benefit our blogs, though.

      Delete
    4. Maybe if a whole bunch of us complain?

      Delete
  10. This is great! I sure hope that petal Pete is holding onto, will hold....

    ReplyDelete
  11. I always love your work for Illustration Friday and this one is up to your usual very high standard.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I see (almost) the swinging movements of mouse and the slight vibration of the bending (Sun)flower stem ...

    nicely done

    ReplyDelete
  13. I found this particularly amusing, since I drew something very similar with my IF entry! http://almiart.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-stretch.html

    I love the rabbit's face!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha! It's interesting how creative minds circumvent the same perimeters. Your mouse's pose is VERY similar to my first pencil comp, which I ended up changing.

      Delete
  14. This is so much fun! I love your characters they are totally gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So much fun, I want some of the berries for my morning yogurt, too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh this is so cute! I have missed your last few posts but just looked back through them...I really love your sweet style. Such happy work. I'm following you now so I can keep up! :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm tickled pink by so many nice comments! Thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to leave a remark. You make my day!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Very good story telling here, Mardi. Sorry it took me so long to notice.

    But your shade of pink fur reminded me of the time when I was a kid, when I tried to dye our siamese cat red. She came out pink, which wasn't the hue I was going for at all. But she was the talk of the feline community for a week, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  19. So cute, I love the rabbit's expression. Just beautiful :D

    ReplyDelete
  20. WOW
    30 comments already!
    you must have really hit a chord with this one...

    .

    ReplyDelete
  21. Another winner, Mardi!! Such charming characters - no one can resist them!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sweet illustration. it has a nice bouncy energy to it.I love the Tutu!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Love it! Gorgeous illo and beautifully done. They look so determined too. Mmm... rasberries... :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Aaaah, so this is how it started... fun story and perfect fit for IF!

    ReplyDelete