Posts Tagged ‘if’
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 »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was paisley. I’ve never really been a paisley person, but when I read the word for the week, I thought of a whale illustration I’d done a couple of years ago (probably because I’d just finished some paintings for the ripple project):
Happy Whale
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do so I just started working. I made paisley-like swirls and filled the centers with fishies, sea turtles and jellyfish. Then a couple of happy accidents happened and I decided to create 2 paisley whales:
Paisley Whale #1 (Unhappy)
Paisley Whale #2 (Singing)
I’ve decided to donate digital prints of these three images to the ripple project. Click here for more info or to purchase these images. Each print is 3″ x 4″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them. The copyright notice is for the web only and won’t be on the prints, but they will be signed.
Note: There are still two paintings from my original series available for purchase here (the seagulls and the pelicans). Both paintings are 2.5″ x 3.5″ and are the actual paintings, not prints.
seagulls and pelicans
Tags: acrylic, art, charity, digital, drawing, if, illustration friday, my art, ocean, paisley, ripple project, sea, whales
Posted in art, fun stuff | 13 Comments »
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Last week I heard that illustrator Kelly Light had started a sketch blog called, Ripple Sketches, where artists could donate art to help the animal victims of the gulf oil spill. Each piece of art is 2.5″ x 3.5″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them.
I started sketching right away, thinking that it would be a quick project. Ha. I kept painting and painting and painting, until I felt the pictures were ready to be sold (see the painting process below the finished pictures). It took me a week to paint these four paintings, and in the meantime, Illustration Friday chose “Ripple” as the word for the week to encourage more artists to create ripple sketches for Kelly’s project. There’s a lot of really really great art and more keeps getting added each day. So far Kelly Light and other artists have helped raise over $3000! At $10 per piece of art, it’s a real bargain and helps a great cause. Here are my four ripple paintings (link to purchase these paintings.): Update: The Sea Turtle and Hermit Crabs have sold. The Pelicans and Seagulls are still available!
1 Sea Turtle
2 Hermit Crabs
3 Brown Pelicans
4 Seagulls
All four paintings are done in acrylic paint and are 2.5″ x 3.5.” Here’s the painting process if you want to see how they were created -
Step One: sketch
Step Two: blue
Step Three: Yellow
Step Four: final color
Because I always like seeing how other artists work, here’s my paint palette when the project was complete (I kept the acrylic paint wet by putting it in a Ziplock bag between painting sessions:
Paint Palette
For more information on how you can help animals in the gulf by purchasing art, or to purchase these paintings, please visit this page on the Ripple Sketches blog. Thanks!
Tags: acrylic, art, charity, if, illustration friday, my art, painting, process, ripple project
Posted in art, fun stuff | 9 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 »
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
It’s amazing what you can get done on a rainy day with sporadic internet service (like yesterday). One of the things I did was this pencil sketch. Then I colored it in digitally. I thought I’d post it for Illustration Friday this week. The prompt is, “equipment.”
Rainy Day Chicken Concert, Under An Umbrella
When you’re out in the rain, you need the proper equipment, which in this case is an umbrella and some ear plugs. A couple of the chickens look like they might have forgotten their ear plugs. Either that, or the singer has just hit a particularly high and squawkish note.
Tags: art, chickens, digital, drawing, fun, if, illustration friday, process
Posted in art, children's books, fun stuff | 16 Comments »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is, “Fearless.” It reminded me of a series of images I’ve done over the years that I continue to revamp, because I like the visuals but haven’t found the right story yet. The images below are from the summer of 2007. There’s a more recent version, but I like this one better. There are also older versions, but I couldn’t find them in time for this post.
Here is, “Fearless Mouse” (a.k.a. Circus Mouse, Adventure Mouse, etc.)
A distant relative of the Hickory, Dickory, Dock mouse.
What time is it Ms. Mouse? It’s time to be brave …
This elephant isn't scared of a tiny mouse!
…and slide down the elephant’s trunk! Then it’s off to the Big Top, sporting her top hat and tails, because Ms. Mouse is FEARLESS! Only a fearless mouse would dare to …
They fly though the air with the greatest of ease!
… perform with two daring young sheep on the flying trapeze! After a long night at the circus, Ms. Mouse likes to go back to her tent and relax.
Bath time is better with bubbles.
She slides into a nice warm bubble bath and relives her adventures, while planning for more tomorrow.
Update: After posting this late last night (actually early morning), I had a brainstorm about where and how this might work! It won’t star the mouse, but she’ll still be running around the circus. I scribbled my ideas down and put them away for when I’m done with my zombie novel and chicken graphic novel projects. I love when solutions suddenly present themselves after years of not quite working out!
Tags: art, circus, if, illustration friday, mice, mouse, my art, painting, picture books, portfolio, process, time, watercolor
Posted in art, children's books, fun stuff | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Last year I did a couple of butterfly paintings that were inspired by my trip to a butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, and my new friend (a Paper Kite butterfly), as seen here:
Paper Kite Butterfly
This is what I wrote about my new butterfly friend last year (on my old blog):
“I’ve seen butterflies and I’ve even been to a butterfly exhibit before, but this time was different. I made a friend! They released new butterflies into the exhibit while we were there, and this little one flew right to my hand, crawled on top of my camera (which made it hard to take pictures – Paul took the one above). She stayed with me until we were ready to leave, when they coaxed her onto a leaf.”
Here’s the first painting I did, obviously inspired by the Paper Kite Butterfly:
Heart Butterfly
We saw so many cool butterflies, but none of them were exactly like the next group I painted (which were inspired by the butterflies at the exhibit, and a tattoo I saw on a girl sitting across from me on the subway):
Butterfly Swirls
When I saw that the prompt for Illustration Friday this week is “cocoon,” I started to wonder what the cocoons of my painted butterflies would look like. Here’s what I came up with:
Cocoons for my painted butterflies.
Sometimes it’s fun to give new life to old ideas!
Tags: acrylic, art, butterflies, digital, fun, if, illustration friday, my art, process, watercolor
Posted in art, fun stuff | 12 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, 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 »
