The Herd Moves On Down The Trail

You know, I love this time of year. The anticipation is almost too much to bear. Waiting to see what you'll get, wondering what wonderful surprises await when the big day finally comes.

I speak of course about the arrival of the official Irish Fest cow. Our volunteer cow artist is hard at work as we speak creating the 10th cow in our herd and we'll unveil it here early in the new year. He or she will join the impressive roster of talented illustrators and also me who have created Irish Fest's bovine beauties over the years. I know who it is of course since I do the commissioning of the work each year, but I don't know exactly what we'll get, other that something in this artists very distinctive style. Here is pretty much all the art direction our 2013 cow artist was given:

What do you need to do? Draw a cow! Easy! She can be standing on four legs or two. We've had dancing cows, musical instrument playing cows, just standing there cows, cows alone, cows with people, cows with little friends. We've had cows in environments and cows on their own. The only requirement is that she have at least one prominent shamrock-shaped spot on her somewhere (a shamrock has three leaves, not four as a reminder). The medium is up to you.

On occasion after I've asked for a tweak or two here and there, but mostly, that's it. For an illustrator used to an art director nit picking every little brush stroke or pixel, it's actually kind of a dream job...except for that "we're not paying you anything" part. Don't get me wrong, our cow artists don't pay for much Irish Fest weekend. But mostly, we pay in glory.

Won't be long. Stay tuned for the unveiling.