Illustration Friday: Boundaries

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes • Prismacolor Pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum

"Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

The animals around my garden have not been heeding their mothers' admonitions about respecting boundaries.  What started as a tentative nibble on a spaghetti squash, has escalated to bold beheading of sunflowers, and brazen feasting on tomatoes.  Are my nighttime visitors squirrels, raccoons...or maybe even rats?  I'm not sure, but when I see their handiwork in the morning, I can't help but picture them more as Beatrix Potter characters than as garden pests.  Fortunately, there are plenty of vegetables for all of us.

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While on the topic of boundaries, I was thinking about how Illustration Friday really transcends all geographic boundaries.  I want to mention two artists and fellow bloggers, well-known to many of you, from distant points on the globe (well, distant from where I live). They're both very generous with their comments, very prolific (I'm convinced that neither one sleeps) and if you haven't visited their blogs, now's the time:

From Hokkaido, Japan: Check out DosankoDebbie's Etegami Notebook. Her artwork is so beautiful and unique. She has multiple blogs (!) and amazing talents, and I learn something from each and every post.

From Newscastle, NSW, Australia, Andrew Finnie. He creates fascinating, beautiful (and sometimes surreal) digital illustrations, and his accompanying text is just as entertaining. And recently, he has blogged about an exhibition of his paintings, which are completely different than his digital work, and are simply sublime. Oh, and he's a surfer and an optometrist in his other life.

Enjoy!