Posts Tagged ‘cbig’
Friday, August 20th, 2010
I’ve been experimenting with my digital style to make it more painterly and yet retain the flat color that I like so much. This first piece of new art is an example of that experiment and works for the CBIG blog prompt this month (outside) and the Illustration Friday prompt for this week (atmosphere). Instead of raining cats and dogs, it’s raining on the cats and dogs!
Dogs and Cats and Umbrellas
The other new piece of art I have is a drawing of a lantern fish that I did for Ripple. It sold before I could post it here, but I still wanted to share the drawing because it works for the WaWe oceans prompt. Plus, it cracks me up. Hope it gives you a laugh too!
Fishy With A Built In Flashlight
The third piece of new art you may have noticed already. I have a new avatar because my hair is all chopped off. 
It will grow back (eventually) right? What happened was that I got a really bad haircut, which I tried to grow out for two months. Then I went to MN and asked a friend of mine that’s a hairstylist if she could fix it. She said no, so she chopped it all off and I’m starting over. The new avatar will be around until I have more hair again (I’m guessing 6 months, or maybe 9 … or 12). Eep!
Updates and new plans: A while back I announced that I was taking a break from Twitter, Facebook and the BlueBoards. The break was supposed to be for four months. Shortly after my update for the first month I had to answer a message on Facebook (for a commitment I’d previously agreed to). Since I was going on to Facebook, I also decided to visit Twitter and the BlueBoards. It was really hard to tear myself away again. For me, a month wasn’t long enough. After two months, I was cruising along, getting work done and blogging. Now it’s three months later and for me, three months is enough. I miss my friends and the industry news and the fun of hanging out online. So, I’m going to start (slowly) getting back into things. I might still take a few days off here and there, or a week, or maybe even a month if I have a deadline. That seems like the smart thing to do when I need to work and/or clear my head. However, as important as it was for me to step back and catch my breath, it’s even more important for me to jump back in. It’s more fun, not to mention more inspiring and productive to be surrounded by all the wonderful and creative children’s book people online!
p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon! 
Tags: art, cats, cbig, charity, dogs, drawing, if, illustration friday, my art, ripple project, watercolor wednesdays
Posted in art, children's books, fun stuff | 16 Comments »
Monday, June 28th, 2010
The sea birds have set up a satellite location in the country while the Gulf oil spill is being cleaned up. Have you ever seen seagulls, pelicans and chickens all under one roof? Me neither, but here’s how I imagine it would look:
The chicken coop has a few visitors.
The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was “satellite,” and the prompt for the CBIG Blog this month was “country.” I decided to combine the two in a painting for the ripple blog (to help animals affected by the oil spill). Click here for more info or to purchase this painting.
There’s still a whale print and two paintings, seagulls and pelicans, by me for sale from previous weeks.
Tags: acrylic, art, cbig, charity, chickens, if, illustration friday, my art, pelicans, ripple project, seagulls
Posted in art, fun stuff | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
After I sketched this out, it occurred to me that Dr. Seuss had already drawn a cat wearing a hat. I decided to finish the picture anyway.
Cats Wearing Hats
After finishing the drawing and I realized that it works for three illustration prompts. Here’s my reasoning: The CBIG blog’s May theme is, “Dream.” This picture is obviously a dream. No self respecting cat would ever wear a hat (at least not without a fight). WaWe’s challenge this week, is “Outdoor Fairs Festivals and Markets.” These cats are obviously on their way to a festival. Why else would they be wearing hats? Finally, it also works for the Illustration Friday word this week, “early,” because the early cats get to wear the hats (and that’s an early bird in the upper left, going home after getting her worm).
What do you think? Does it work for all three prompts?
* For those that like to know art supply details, I used Prismacolor pencils, acrylic paint, and acrylic inks (one of my ink bottles spilled all over the table, almost ruining the drawing – I was lucky to be able to save the table and the drawing).
Tags: acrylic, art, cats, cbig, colored pencil, drawing, if, illustration friday, my art, process
Posted in art, children's books, fun stuff | 9 Comments »
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
The prompt for the CBIG blog this month is green, and the prompt for Illustration Friday this week is detective. I thought that any literary detective worth his salt would wonder where green eggs came from, and if he used his sleuthing skills, he’d come up with the answer.
Green eggs come from green chickens. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
The chicken that lays green eggs.
The next question the detective should answer, is which came first, the green chicken, or the green eggs? (I think the green chicken came first. What do you think?)
p.s. The prompt for WaWe this week was The Little Red Hen. Hmm, I’m thinking that history got it wrong. It was really The Little GREEN Hen!
Tags: art, cbig, chickens, digital, drawing, if, illustration friday, my art
Posted in art, fun stuff | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
I’ve been painting tiny pictures lately (see the elephant here and the bunnies here), in order to fit painting for fun into my schedule. My third tiny painting was a girl blowing a bubble with her bubblegum. I broke out my watercolors and colored pencils and painted a picture so horrible that I had to rip it up. Seriously. All it takes to ruin a small watercolor painting is a couple of misplaced brush strokes. However, I still liked the sketch, so I made the bubblegum girl into a digital illustration. The image is 2″ x 2″ like the paintings.
Bubblegum Girl
I like how she turned out, but I still wanted to paint something. A picture of a cow blowing a bubblegum bubble seemed like a fun take on the original, and worked out well, because it fits several art prompts all at once (see list below the picture). I used watercolor and colored pencil to make the image. I’m happy with the way both pictures turned out, but I have to say, the more I look at them, the weirder they look. Of course, if you looked at a photograph showing a side view of someone blowing a bubblegum bubble, that would probably look weird after a while, too.
Bubblegum Cow
The CBIG prompt this month is fantasy – a cow blowing bubblegum bubbles is definitely fantasy! Bubblegum Girl also works for fantasy. She wants to blow the biggest bubble ever and win the national bubblegum bubble blowing contest (which they actually have – I saw it on TV a couple of years ago).
The Watercolor Wednesdays prompt for last week was to create a greeting card image for a child – the bubblegum sort of looks like a speech balloon, where the cow could say, “Happy Birthday!” Bubblegum Girl also works for this week’s prompt, to illustrate a favorite toy or game … not that gum qualifies as a toy, but trying to blow the biggest bubble could be a game, so I think that counts (or at least it works for me – I went to art school; I can justify anything).
The Illustration Friday prompt this week is brave – that cow is really brave to be blowing bubblegum bubbles. What if it pops and goes all over her face? Bubblegum Girl also works for brave. She knows what will happen if the bubble as big as her head pops!
Are tiny paintings the next big thing? Maybe not, but I’m having fun with them
Tags: art, bubblegum, cbig, cows, digital, fun, girl, illustration friday, kids, my art, process, watercolor, watercolor wednesdays
Posted in art, fun stuff | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
It’s chicken week here at sruble.com, which means new chicken art! They’re all pictures of Daria (the chicken in my picture book), except for the IF sketch, which features lots of chickens.
Did you notice the first picture of Daria the chicken? It’s on my shiny new blog header above. It’s based on an image from the PB dummy and is in my portfolio too.
There are also two new pictures of Daria. You might have already seen them on my CBIG portfolio, but they look a little bit different now. I changed a few of things to make them better. What do you think of the new images?
Daria the snowboarding chicken
Daria the skydiving chicken
And finally, the prompt this week for Illustration Friday is, “wilderness.” The first thing that popped into my head was this sentence: It’s a little known fact that the wilderness is full of chickens. I started sketching right away! (Yes, I do know I’m a strange; people tell me that all the time.) Since I don’t have time to paint this week, the sketch will have to do for now, but I am going to paint it later because the idea totally cracks me up. 
Doesn’t the idea of chickens in the wilderness make you laugh too?
chickens in the wilderness
It’s been a chicken sort-of week around here. What kind of week are you having?
Tags: art, cbig, chickens, Daria, digital, if, illustration friday, my art, pbs, picture books, portfolio
Posted in art, children's books, writing | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
The prompt this month for the CBIG blog (Children’s Book Illustrators Group) this month is family. The birdie family from my portfolio fits this theme well. Mother Goose is protecting her five goslings from the rain:
Birdie Family
Speaking of CBIG, I have new images up in my CBIG portfolio, including the two elephant illustrations I did recently. Click here if you want to check it out.
Tags: art, birds, cbig, digital, my art, portfolio
Posted in art | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
I decided that a black dog for Halloween might be an interesting change from the usual black cat. I might have to tell a story about this puppy. It also fits the “autumn” prompt for the CBIG blog this month.
Autumn leaves and Halloween pumpkins
Tags: art, cbig, dogs, fall leaves, Halloween, my art, pumpkins
Posted in art | 5 Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
These two paintings for Watercolor Wednesdays and the CBIG blog are from a YA zombie graphic novel I’m working on, starring Sheila the Zombie Cheerleader. The graphic novel isn’t in watercolor, but I thought I’d do some zombie watercolors this month because Watercolor Wednesdays has school prompts every week.
Sheila’s first day back at school was yesterday. (She wouldn’t let me post her first day picture last week. If I did, she said she’d, “eat my brains!”) Sheila’s best friend Amanda suffered through the first day with her. Here’s their first day picture, which Sheila said I could post today:
Sheila the Zombie Cheerleader's first day of school
Sheila and Amanda are talking about the new teacher in the next picture:
Zombie High staff changes ...
The black line for both images is acrylic paint and the color is watercolor crayon. I love watercolor crayons because they make me feel like a kid again. I get to color with crayons, then paint. Fun!
Maybe next week I’ll do crayon resist … or maybe not. Halloween is coming, and ghosts are a whole lot of fun for crayon resist.
Tags: art, cbig, chickens, my art, Sheila, watercolor wednesdays, zombies
Posted in art | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
It’s chicken week here at sruble.com! There are chickens for Illustration Friday, Watercolor Wednesdays, and the CBIG blog! But they are all different as you can see below
Illustration Friday: Caution – Sheila says, “Beware of Chickens!”
If: Caution - Sheila says, "Beware of chickens!"
This is from my mini comic, Sheila The Zombie Cheerleader in: Chickens. The original is b/w line art (pen and ink), but I colored it for IF. Speaking of which, after I colored it, I thought it might look cool without the black line. I like them both. Which one is your favorite?
IF: Caution - Beware of Chickens 2
For the CBIG (Children’s Book Illustrators Group) blog, the theme this month is vacation, so I sent the chickens on bungee jumping vacation. This image is from my new portfolio.
Chickens Bungee Jump on Vacation
For the Watercolor Wednesdays blog, usually a weekly theme, is “Anything Goes in August.” So I painted a chicken dancing, using waterlogged acrylic. The effect is very similar to what my watercolor looks like.
Chicken Dancing
If this week was chickens, I wonder what next week will bring?
Tags: art, cbig, chickens, if, illustration friday, my art, Sheila, watercolor wednesdays, zombies
Posted in art | 5 Comments »
