Krewe of Black Bayou

Wheeeeew- This one was tough, tough, tough. Wanted to give up many many times and just say we will pass on this, but something inside me just wouldn't let this design go. I think I worked the longest on this one than any other design so far.
  We thought it would be fun to do a Mardi Gras shirt and I knew we should have animals involved but that was the extent of it. We also knew we wanted to print another long sleeve shirt and this one be a tri blend long sleeve shirt-Super super soft against your skin during these colder days.
  And then, it hit me one day while talking to my mom..."Krewe of Black Bayou" I blurted out!!! We weren't even discussing this shirt or Mardi Gras,  But she looked at me and said "That is it!!"
  Research time!!! What animals are at Black Bayou??? Who would know this first hand, but Robert Eisenstadt aka BOB. He is the treasurer of The Friends of Black Bayou (www.friendsofblackbayou.org) and friends with Rebecca who owns Miss Persnickety Joon (they are one of our retailers). Through many texts back and forth between Rebecca, Bob and I, I learned that Black Bayou has Gators, Alligator Snapping Turtles, Anhingas, Coons, Coots, Herons, Hawks, Eagles, Snakes, Deer, Possum, Blue Wing Teal, Nutria, Bull Frogs, etc etc etc.. WOW!! (and what in the world is a "Coot"??? A "coot" is a very cool water fowl that is also known as a "water chicken". Interesting~ learn something every day. :)

(photo taken from internet)

That Coot has some big ole feet!!!

 
  Now off to sketching... I first just started out drawing a bunch of the animals out there.

 But Brent was adamant that it needed to have a gator standing up leading the parade. So, here he is..

Def needed more. I tried scanning it in our our computer and playing with the colors and added a few swampy trees....My sweet husband and Mr P's Co owner informed me that it looked like a Frat shirt-OUCH!!!

 Next, I tried drawing out a bunch of these animals and moving them around on the paper. Wasn't working. Then, it hit me, what business do I have doing a shirt with animals from Black Bayou when I haven't even visited it!!!  So, the next day, I picked sweet Phoebe up from MDO and headed out to 165N.

 This place was nice-much nicer than I had envisioned.. and bigger too.

I was impressed and highly recommend anyone to go visit it.

The weather was terribly cold that day and I didn't get to take a tour, but I will be back.... I would love to take the kids on a canoe ride.
  So, back to the drawing board.  I added my own personal font was added.

After talking to my graphic friend Jeff, I worked on adding more of the animals out at Black Bayou and livening the design up.

Isn't that what Mardi Gras is all about-One Big PARTY!!??? I worked on the swamp scene some more and added a sax to the gator, rather than the wand. The shirt now consists of the gator, a snapping turtle, a coot, an anhinga (also know as a snakebird), and a coon.  Congrats to Kelly Jaubert and Lyndsey Avery for guessing the correct animals on our Facebook contest. The decision was made to keep it all in purple and not try to cheese it up with a ton of color.
 Here is the final product...

Yay! Hope you love it as much as we do!! These shirts will be available in about 2 weeks. Adult sizes S-XXL $31 and Youth 2,4,6,8,10 and 12 $26. The shirts look like this.. Adult

 and then youth

Thanks for reading!

To get to Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge, take US HIGHWAY 165 North and turn right onto Richland Place. This is about 1.5 miles north of CenturyLink.