Illustration Friday - Chicken

Here's one in honor of Jannie Ho aka @Chickengirl, a new friend from twitter!  I really am loving twitter for the networking and being able to find and follow lots of illustrators who are working and fabulously talented!!  And Chickengirl, well, her work is really great and so...with no further adieu, here is my chicken...well, actually it would technically be chickens but who's counting?

I actually did these illustrations a while ago.  It's kind of a funny story...a cautionary tale I think for all of you newb illustrators out there...

So, I was living in southern Indiana and every year in a little town called Corydon, IN (the FIRST capitol of Indiana as the residents proudly say) they have a Cock-A-Doodle Days celebration!  This is probably because the town's main employer is Tyson Chicken.  Anyhoo...I knew a guy who owns an art and frame shop there and he sets up a booth for that weekend.  So I go home and whip out these 4 illos and give them to him in hopes that he'll be able to sell them and I can make a little "scratch" for my artwork!

Well, I didn't know this guy very well, and it turns out I never saw my little chickens again.  Every time I went back to his shop and asked for them, he would tell me he had them put away somewhere and would get them out for me "next time" I came by.

So the moral of this Chicken Tale?  Don't ever give away your originals without getting some cashola up front first!!!  I suspect he sold them and just didn't want to give me any credit.  Or somebody pinched them from his booth, or maybe he was telling the truth and he misplaced them.  I dunno...I'm moving back there soon...so I'm gonna look him up again and bring a baseball bat this time!