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monicamcfawn

I absolutely love using scissors to cut out extrem

I absolutely love using scissors to cut out extremely tiny things. I realize a razor would be more practical/clean, but for some reason I love using scissors. I like the drama of how difficult it is and how it feels to strategically rotate the paper to make tricky cuts. A few years ago I never could have predicted that something as mundane as a pair of scissors would inspire so much art and joy in me. As a teacher of creative people, it reminds me of how important it is to just to encourage students to try as many disciplines, styles, mediums and materials as possible. It’s impossible to know what could open a new path or passion. Scroll to see Mia the lil horse standing on my thumb unassisted 😻🐎#cutpaper #equineart #creativeprocess #childrensbookillustration #ektools #scissors

I did my first in person event since Covid began—the Rally of Writers—- a very cool writing conference in Lansing MI. I talked about staging and fiction writing, as well as brought books and magnets of my drawings to sell. It was a bit overwhelming after so much time away from the writing conference life, so much time away from crowds and mingling and all that. I felt rusty but happy for the familiar feeling of nerves..of awkwardness…of chatting with strangers. I can tell that my depression—and the isolation that was both a cause and an effect of it—is lifting a bit every day. One thing I’ve done to help me turn this corner is simply make color a bigger part of my life. I’ve started to decorate and arrange my house with more inspiring colors and patterns for my eyes to land on. I’ve done the same with my wardrobe, donating the drab muted colors I sometimes wore and replacing them with the warmer, brighter colors and patterns that inspire me. I love the yellows I’m wearing here, and the happiness that I can see in myself again. #depressionrecocery #depression #colorful #newme #clothing

Ssshh…don’t startle 🦄The Frilled Unibird🦄 #childrensbookillustration #picturebooks #fantasticalcreatures #unicornart #unicorn #artoftheday #tombow #illustrator #illustrationoftheday

I don’t know WHY I’m not posting more drawings

I don’t know WHY I’m not posting more drawings here. I’ve been making all kinds of art and paper critters but some weird perfectionism or reticence is stopping me from sharing them. I want to change that, so here’s Pauline the Pegasus bursting through a space scape of exploding color. I want to share more work because it not only helps me become less inward and perfectionist, but it also serves as a record of production and progress 💪❤️ #childrensbookillustration #scbwiillustrators #markerart #alcoholinkart #yupopaper

Praline brightens up winter. I really love this b

Praline brightens up winter. I really love this bird 😍 Something about the way the light plays off her feathers…#markerart #paperart #photography #fantasticalcreatures #unrealart #childrensbookillustration #avianart #birdart #colorpop

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while…but

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while…but now it’s time to introduce my new kitty, Cricket! I got him several months ago because I just couldn’t stand how quiet the house was without Jake’s bellowing meows. Cricket is almost two years old and was listed as a “munchkin mix” at Upaws…meaning he is a very small adult cat. He is sweet, funny, smart and extremely trainable. I credit Jake for helping me understand how to communicate and motivate cats to do tricks…he helped me understand so much that I can now give to Cricket. Check out Cricket’s training highlight reel. How cool is it that he obeys outdoors even?! Thanks Julie Mahan for enabling me when I went to @upaws pretty soon after Jake’s death. I was worried it was too soon for another cat, but Julie made me feel it was okay to start a new partnership even as I was grieving. Best decision ever❤️🌹 #adoptdontshop #munchkincat #trickcat #cattricks

My wonderful, brilliant, in-your-face, hilarious a

My wonderful, brilliant, in-your-face, hilarious and unforgettable cat Jake passed away August 21 at 20+ years old. I’ve been trying to write this post since then, but I just couldn’t do it until now.
Jake 2000-2021
“I’m not set up for a cat,” I said when Jake’s previous owner offered him to me after he’d tried to break into my apartment. Even though Jake had an owner, he was really a 17 year old“neighborhood cat,” who had friends and households all up and down the block. After he’d tried to chew/howl his way through my apartment door, I found his owner to let her know in case she was missing him. “Do you want him?” she said, as I handed him to her. I told her no. I didn’t need the complication of a cat in my life.
A few months later, I wrote his owner a letter to ask to adopt him officially. And soon I was “set up for a cat”-- to put it mildly. Jake had stairs to climb up on the bed, a special senior litter box, elevated food bowls, two fountains, etc etc…Best decision I ever made. Random things I’ll always miss:
*I miss the way he always had to sit on my right side on the couch. If I sat on to the right of him, I’d get nipped until we were in the proper orientation.
*I miss his care for me. When I was dealing with a painful chronic illness–sometimes crying in bed for hours, Jake would be there. He’d lay across where I was hurting, hug me with his paws, and lick me. He also helped me with my anxiety. Noises at night can make me really nervous, but every time I flinched his paw would tighten on my hand.
*I miss his confidence and adventuresome spirit. In his final days, I drove him to MSU Veterinary college in a last ditch effort to save him. It was a six hour drive. One of my favorite last memories of him is when I stopped at a rest stop to check on him. When I looked in the back of the station wagon, he was sitting there purring, his eyes sparkling with interest in his new surroundings. I took a picture of him, and that’s the photo I based my drawing of him on.
P.S. Jake had a lot of friends in his long life other than me. If you were a friend of Jake, message me your address and I’ll send you a magnet I made of my picture of him.

Ghosts of Lighthouse Point @marquettemaritimemuseu

Ghosts of Lighthouse Point @marquettemaritimemuseum is a wrap! What a wonderful evening of chilling fantasy, awesome volunteers, and wonderful guests! I had so much fun…really wish I got more pictures. I was too deep in character to take them apparently. 👻 I’m proud of drawing this seagull on my face three nights in a row, bettering it each time. Also you can see in this before and after shot both how well the makeup held up and how I go from a bit anxious beforehand to exhilarated by the end. So glad to get to perform again! Looking forward to haunting again in 2022! #facepaint #makeupart #seagullart #halloweenghost #marquettemaritimemuseum

I really like this pic @sailordn took of me in McC

I really like this pic @sailordn took of me in McCarty’s Cove. I’ve spent a lot of my life not liking photos of myself or my image in a mirror. I have no trouble seeing the beauty in my art or writing…it’s long overdue that I start seeing it in myself. For those of you who struggle with body positivity, what has helped you? #bodypositivity #portrait #photography #waterylight

Belinda the blue horse wades through clover. I too

Belinda the blue horse wades through clover. I took this on my trip to North Carolina, and I made Belinda using a elegant writer pen on the back of an index card. I just love this photo for some reason, something about the play of the foreground and background. #equineart #elegantwriterwatercolor #indexcardart #photooftheday #papercutout

Here’s project #2 for my @svanyc class. The brie

Here’s project #2 for my @svanyc class. The brief was to reimagine Goldilocks and draw a scene from your version. In my version, “Lily and the Luna Moths,” a mini-Pegasus (Lily) becomes lost and ends up in a Luna Moth (The Mothingtons) family home. In this scene, she is trying various bowls of flowers to eat, settling on Baby Moth’s favorites. Later she’ll fall asleep in Baby Moth’s cocoon where she’ll be discovered by the Mothingtons when they get home. This is my first attempt at blending narrative scenes into my love of taking paper animal pics outdoors...I made the sign, rebuilt a mini chandelier from Micheals with leaves and greenery from the yard, gathered a bed of pine needles and a rock for the table and floor. I made Lily from paper and bought the paper bowls and mini coffee cups from Micheals. The flowers were all growing wild in the yard. It was like shooting a movie to get everything in place...happened to be a windy day and Lily kept falling over. And after all this, I had to redraw/remake everything for the color version, since my chandelier, flowers etc are ephemeral. Swipe to see B&W rough draft. 🌸🌟#papercrafts #scbwiillustrators #picturebookillustration #lunamoth #fairygarden #natureart #handcrafted

Here’s the color/revised version of my @svanyc i

Here’s the color/revised version of my @svanyc illustration assignment. I changed the composition slightly in response to class feedback (including fluffing the tails and curling the leaf) This was so difficult to make...I had to redraw multiple squirrels to try out different colors and mediums to see what works. This is made out of watercolors, water markers, alcohol markers, and an elegant writer pen. Going to make a few tweaks still but I wanted to share what I turned in. See my stories for some pictures of the elaborate trial and error process! It was a regular squirrel factory in here for a while 🤣 #creativeprocess #childrenspicturebooks #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #groundsquirrel #flyingsquirrel #mixedmediaonpaper #collage

Here’s the first piece I made for my @svanyc cla

Here’s the first piece I made for my @svanyc class. The assignment was to rewrite/reimagine Aesop’s “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” then illustrate a scene in black and white. In my version, it’s about a ground squirrel (Mo) and flying squirrel (Loni) who envy each other’s habitats and lives (Mo longs for the treetops, Loni is enraptured with burrows). I envision the book being part life lesson/ecological education, as I’d use real facts/habitats of both species...anyway, this was a tough assignment because we were to work in black and white before making a color version. I don’t normally work like this at all—I never really plan out drawings this way, nor do I remake the same image in color after B&W. I bet this is how my writing students feel when I give them all kinds of prompts and preliminary work to disrupt their normal process. I’m not sure where this project with go...do you think I should make this a book? #creativeprocess #childrensbookillustration #thirteenlinedgroundsquirrel #flyingsquirrel #picturebookillustration #picturebookart

Linden the deer naps in the ground cover. I made L

Linden the deer naps in the ground cover. I made Linden several months ago, but I was feeling too perfectionist to post her...Covid times/chronic illness has really messed with my self-esteem and sense of worth. I’m slowly feeling better (physically and about myself), and making a bigger commitment to art has helped with with that. I’m taking a children’s book illustration class online @svanyc and I’m feeling challenged in the best of ways. Plus it’s wonderful to be a student again after such a hard year of teaching. Looking forward to sharing the first assignment I completed here very soon...hint..there are rodents involved.✨🐿✨#childrensbookillustration #watercolor #paperart #newchapter

Shh...Roberta the Felimoth is resting. Made with t

Shh...Roberta the Felimoth is resting. Made with the markers @bad_bad_kitty_show got me for my birthday. Here’s to 42! 🎉🌟😻🦋#birthday #newmarkers #moth #cat #mcfawncats #fantasticalcreatures

Bryn canters off. Made with the #elegantwriterpen

Bryn canters off. Made with the #elegantwriterpen , an extremely unusual tool that writes in black ink, but when touched with water it splits into the colors you see here. I picked up this technique by watching a YouTube tutorial by Karlyn Holman and was amazed to see how a single little calligraphy pen could create images like this. #artexperiment #watercolorpainting #elegantwriterart #horseart #equineart

You’re somebunny in this bunniverse. ✨🌎🌌

You’re somebunny in this bunniverse. ✨🌎🌌🐇 #celestialbeing #rabbitart #markerart #mixedmedia #bunnyart #inspo

Lyric the Big Horn Sheep 🐑 suns himself on one

Lyric the Big Horn Sheep 🐑 suns himself on one of the last snowy days. I made him using a mix of markers and watercolors. He actually stands very well on his own, so I had a lot of fun posing him on various rocks and trees. See my stories for more from our photoshoot ✨📸✨#bighornsheep #markerart #watercolors #drawningoftheday

A few critters I drew this week with a COPIC pen a

A few critters I drew this week with a COPIC pen and some alcohol markers—just playing. Being sick—and then the months of rehab, diet changes etc to get well—have interrupted all my plans, including for my art. But there is something to be said for detours, even unplanned ones. Before getting sick, I was driven by anxiety and a sense of inadequacy. I thought I was “well,” because I was outwardly okay. Being forced to slow down and take care of myself made it clear how problematic my thinking had become. As I get better, my next step is to make sure that the choices I make in my life are driven by joy and not fear. Like these little random critters 🤩#creativeprocess #chronicillness #doodlesofinstagram #monsterdrawing #rehabilitation

River the Tiger escaped from the Passages North ba

River the Tiger escaped from the Passages North back cover to remind you to submit to the Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize and the Ray Ventre Memorial Nonfiction Prize by April 15! Winning authors will receive a $1000 prize and publication in the print issue of Passages North. See the Passages North website for full details ✨🐅✨ #tigerart #mixedmedia #literarycontest #passagesnorth #markerart #paperart #colorpop

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