dogs in Hawaiian shirts, pugs in tulips, and hippos with tattoos and sunflowers

Today is a "Dogs In Hawaiian Shirts" kind of day. From the art archive:

Makes me want to break out my watercolors!*
(Update: Got out the watercolors! Two new paintings at the end of the post!)

Or maybe it's a "Hippo With A Tattoo" kind of day (also from the art archive and for the Illustration Friday prompt, tattoo):

Maybe those dogs are wearing Hawaiian shirts to hide their hippo tattoos!

Or maybe the hippo and the seagull have Hawaiian shirts, but took them off to go swimming!

So many possibilities!

That's how stories start, with a silly idea.  

(Or at least that's how my stories start. YMMV.)

What kind of day are you having?

* Couldn't resist pulling out the watercolors and painting! So much fun! Apparently it was a "Watercolor Painting" kind of day, inspired by the two images I posted above. :)

#1 - It was also a "Pug Puppies Tiptoeing (and bounding) Through The Tulips" kind of day:

I've never drawn pugs before (not even the year I drew a dog a day all year). Fun to try. Might do it again some time!

#2 - And a "Tiny Hippo Stops To Smell Giant Sunflower" kind of day:

Hope you have a wonderful and creative day, whatever kind of day it is for you! 

creative challenges, drawing with your opposite hand, and art for IF

I've been thinking a lot about creative challenges lately. Not the challenges we face while doing creative work, but challenges that push your creativity, like inktober, Illustration Friday, PiBoIdMo, and NaNoWriMo, to name a few. (Note: I have participated in all of these challenges in the past and maybe will in the future too.)

Many artists and writers also come up with their own creative challenges that fit what they need to work on at the time. In the past, I've made art for wacky and traditional holidays and did drawings every day for a year as a creative project. I did the year long project two years in a row, the first year was drawing cows and the second was dogs (I almost added a third year). 

7 Reasons To Do A Creative Challenge:

1. It could push your art in new directions. Every time I've done a challenge, it's expanded my art in ways I never would have imagined.

2. You could have fun. Writing or making art that's not for a specific project but just for playing around, like you used to do when you were a kid or you just started being serious about it, can be freeing.

3. It could give you a break from a project that is giving you the other kind of creative challenge (meaning frustrating).

4. Creativity begets creativity. Writing and making art can lead to new ideas and/or help renew your passion for making art and writing.

5. It can give you a sense of community in a field where you sit alone at your desk most of the time. There are many online challenges, like the ones above, where you can talk with others doing the same thing and cheer each other on.
6. Announcing your goals publicly may help you to achieve them, either with people checking in on you along the way to ask about your progress, or the fear of embarrassment if you have to admit that you didn't do what you said you would.

7. For personal projects that you don't announce, it can help you work toward a goal or give you a sense of satisfaction for accomplishing something you wanted to do.

Have you ever tried writing and/or drawing with your opposite hand?
Recently, one of my creative challenges has been to draw with my opposite hand. The first time I tried this was in college, and it was because I had to after I broke my right elbow. It didn't last long because I was very bad at writing and drawing with my left hand (which challenged me to find a way to write and draw with my right arm in a cast). Over the years, I've come back to this challenge. It fascinates me just how hard it is to draw and write with the opposite hand. I've gotten better over the years, but it's still nothing like drawing with my right hand.

This week I drew a village for an Illustration Friday prompt. I drew it with my left hand. I haven't been able to do a sketch ahead of time left-handed, so this was drawn by starting with one house and seeing what happened. Here's the black line drawing of my village:

The lines are a bit wobbly, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately, then I decided I would try to color the drawing, with colored pencil.

Coloring a drawing with colored pencils with your opposite hand is a nearly impossible feat physically (at least for me - YMMV). The reason it was so hard is because I don't have complete control over what I'm doing when I use my opposite hand. It's like learning to draw all over again. (Note: I totally get why kids drawings look the way they do now!) Don't know if I'll do any left-handed coloring in the future, but if I do, maybe I'll try a different medium, like paint. Here's my village all colored in:

It really looks like it's a picture I pulled out of my file of art I did when I was a kid!

There's another creative challenge I just started, but am not sure I'm going to complete it, so I'm not going to announce it just yet. The reason I'm might not finish it is because I'm not yet sure if it's a worthwhile project that will help my creativity, or one that will just take up time without any benefits.

Not every creative challenge is worth finishing.

But it is worth trying creative challenges. Sooner or later you're bound to find one that spurs your creativity and takes your work to someplace you didn't even know it could go.

What creative challenges have you tried? 

Which ones worked for you, or didn't?

Hope you enjoy your next creative challenge! (Or your first one if you've never done one before!)

dog day, pictures of people, portfolio tips, and other news

Today is National Dog Day! This day is to help bring awareness to all the dogs that need rescuing. It seemed like a good day to do some dog sketches, so that's what I did. Here's a sample:

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is: people.

This is a great prompt for me as I've been working to add more people to my portfolio (right now I have a LOT of animals in my portfolio, and a few people too). I have a few new pieces that I'll be adding to my website soon. Until then, I'll give you a sneak peek here. I had two postcards printed for mailing and for the SCBWI LA conference. Both sides of both postcards had people on them! Here's the color postcard front:

And here's the back:

Roberta likes robots and ballet, but isn't as fond of taking baths! She also likes to draw. Here she is drawing on the front of the black and white postcard:

The back of the black and white postcard featured a different girl sharing her snacks with her puppy (which is perfect for national dog day):

I really like the pretzel stamp on this card! I like the robot on the other card too. Too bad the ones I mailed had to have the stamps covered up, but I don't think the post office would mail them with my stamps.

Working on a portfolio?
Here are a couple of posts I've written that might help:

* If you're having trouble figuring out what to draw, here's a post on ten tips to help you choose what to draw and ten ways to find inspiration.

* If you're just starting out, or are trying to get your work to the next level, here's a post I wrote for illustrators on five things that helped me (and will hopefully help you too) on my path to my first picture book.

* If you're an illustrator (or writer) and want to write a picture book, but aren't sure where to start, here's a post on how to write a picture book in twelve easy steps (the title is tongue in cheek, but the post is hopefully helpful)>

In other news:

* Mr. Schu and I talked about picture books, art, reading & EWE AND AYE.  It was fun to finish his sentences!

* Author / illustrator Eliza Wheeler put up an amazing post on moving forward in your art, having fun, and banishing feelings that your work sucks. A must read for artists (and writers) who are having doubts about their work or are trying to push through to the next level.

* Author / illustrator Dani Duck is hosting Smart Dummies in September. It's a month dedicated to helping illustrators create picture book dummies. There will be guest posts (including one from me) and prizes too! Sign up here.

trains, lost socks, birds, bears, readers and triangles

I'm continuing to make art for unusual holidays. Here are a few recent holidays you may or may not have ever heard of:

Today is 3 holidays! It's Lost Sock Day -and- Train Day -and- Migratory Bird Day, so the birds are following the sock train (driven by the bear who liked blueberry pie in April, and who is confused by coconut pie below). Note: the car with the lost socks has single socks looking for a match, and the found car has pairs of socks!

Yesterday was Coconut Pie Day. The bear is confused about which pi day it is:

On Thursday, I celebrated Get Caught Reading Month and Children's Book Week with a tree full of readers. (Note: the colors of the original painting are better and have more contrast. I think I might need a new scanner.)

Did you see Ewe and Aye in the tree? Here's a close up:

 The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is triangle. I noticed recently that I like to draw and paint triangle shaped ears for dogs (probably because many dogs have triangle shaped ears - cats too). Here's a blast from the past picture of puppies with triangle ears (the image also has a triangle shaped design, formed by the crossing of the soda pop bottles on the bottom and the puppies on the top). This is also the only gouache painting I've done that I've ever liked (not a huge fan of painting with gouache - I like the colors, so I wish I liked the medium better):

Here's another old example of a puppy with triangle ears (this painting is acrylic, not gouache):

If you want to see my previous holiday art, please click here. I'm still making art for unusual holidays, so if you enjoyed these, please visit again!

To learn more about my books or see my portfolio art, please visit my website, sruble.com.

Independent Bookstore Day, guide dogs, shelter pets, and Mother Goose!

Today is Independent Bookstore Day! It's a great time to show your local indie some love if you can. Lots of stores are hosting events or have special gifts with purchase today, and of course, they have books! I've been continuing to make art for unusual holidays, and couldn't resist making one for Independent Bookstore Day today:

Yesterday was a holiday mash-up, with three holidays all combined into one piece of art! It was Mother Goose Day, Tuba Day, and Space Day ... so here's Mother Goose playing the tuba under the stars:

Thursday was Adopt A Shelter Pet Day, which made me want to juxtapose a puppy and kitty waiting to be adopted with images of them after they found homes (for more information on shelter pets and where to find a shelter in your area, check out The Shelter Pet Project):

Wednesday was Guide Dog Day. I couldn't resist painting a few little guide dogs in training (they have to start somewhere):

There are many more unusual holidays coming up, so I might have to make art for those too! If you want to see my previous holiday art, please click here.

To learn more about my books or see my portfolio art, please visit my website, sruble.com.

dogs reading at the beach and world read aloud day

Today is World Read Aloud Day, which celebrates the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories around the world. This is such a wonderful celebration! Check out Lit World's site for reading kits and other resources.

Pam Allyn, Lit World's Founder and Executive Director, talks about the importance of reading aloud to children, in this article on the Huffington Post site today.

If you need more incentive to break out a book and start reading, how about a few pictures of dogs reading books? (People like pictures of dogs playing poker, why not reading books?)

These drawings of dogs reading at the beach are a little old (from 2004!), but perfect for a day that celebrates reading (also because it's winter and reading at the beach sounds wonderful, and warm):

Today is a day to read stories aloud, even if the only one around is your puppy, or a bird, or the wind and the waves!

Happy World Read Aloud Day!

p.s. Tomorrow is World Book Day - another excuse to keep reading (not that we needed an excuse to read)!

puppies, bats, pumpkins and cats, with a witch and mouse under a full moon too!

Two new drawings  (for #inktober and Illustration Friday)! The drawing from Friday, October 3rd features flapping bats. Poor puppy! He doesn't know the bats don't want to scare him; they just want to play.

The next drawing, from Saturday, October 4th, features a puppy in a pumpkin patch. There's lots to look at: a full moon (with a cat and a witch), bats, boats with dogs, and a mouse eating pumpkin pie!

Here's a detail of the two dogs in a boat:

The dog in the back looks like he's wearing a hat (he's not - just a slip of the pen). The puppy in front looks like a rabbit, according to my dad (she's not a rabbit - just a dog with long ears). Pretty good for inking a tiny boat (about 1" square) full of dogs at 2am! Next time I should use a magnifying glass. First I need to get a magnifying glass. ;)

My two latest drawings + weekly theme for IF (silence) inspired the lines below ... either that, or I've been thinking about horror films way too much (but it is October, so that's understandable, right?):

There's silence in the dead of night, when creatures creep and crawl, and flap and fly.

Then again, maybe I'm finally going to write a Halloween themed picture book! *crosses fingers*

Want to see my other inktober images? Click here to check them out.  

wheel: art for Illustration Friday

The topic for Illustration Friday this week was wheel. When I first read it, I thought it was Whee! I didn't have a ton of time, so I ended up doing a really detailed sketch, a black outline, and a crop of quick color sketch. No finished art in this bunch, but I like the drawing, so I might do another one in the future, or finish the color for this one. I thought people might like to see the process, so I'm posting all three images.

Mice! And Wheels! And ... hey, is that a cat? The original sketch:

The original sketch is a little hard to see, but you can tell that there are wheels everywhere. Or at least I hope you can see all the round circles.

After I scanned it, I re-drew it with black outline. I used thick black lines and didn't worry about fine details because I thought I was going to have time to do more with it before posting. Here's the black layer:

 You can see the line better now, but it's still not finished. I decided to do a small crop and play with color. Normally I don't do this step, but I knew I wouldn't have time to do finished art and wanted to do a quick color study for later.

I cropped the image where the car was to emphasize the wheel theme. Plus I like that there's also a squirrel, a dog, and a mouse reading a book in this part. Hmm. Looks like I forgot to color in the tongue of the mouse on the bottom. If I do final color, I'll make sure to add that in. Here's the color layer:

I've been thinking about wheels a lot lately for a book I'm working on. It was fun to draw them and play with a different set of characters for these sketches.

Tomorrow it's back to the drawing board for the other set of wheel images, but for today, it's all about the mice, and the squirrel, and dog, cat, ants, and birds!

BTW, I almost put a bat into the image, but it didn't work, so there are two birds. Maybe the Illustration Friday topic next week will be bats. We'll find out tomorrow! Until then, the bats are sleeping.

There's more art on my website: http://sruble.com

Good news: I have an agent!

Good news! I have an agent! I’m being represented by the wonderful Barry Goldblatt of bgliterary!!!
Some of you might be thinking to yourself, “I know that already, I saw it on Twitter!” That’s true, we did announce it on Twitter, in the middle of December, when everyone was busy with holiday travel, parties, and family visiting. Unfortunately, according to all the writer and illustrator friends I saw at the SCBWI NY Conference, they didn’t see that announcement. So I thought maybe I should say something about it on my blog.

You might be wondering why I didn’t announce it on my blog earlier. Here’s the deal. I didn’t want to say anything until I signed the contract,* which I did today! Maybe that’s old fashioned of me (or me being paranoid that it didn’t really happen). I just wanted to make sure before I announced it to the whole world (outside of Twitter, of course).

Now that I’m sure, I can officially announce that I have an agent! WooHoo! Yippee! You should have seen me dancing around the apartment when he offered!

If you were at the conference, you might have seen the announcement on my postcards. (The contract was at my house, so I knew it was real enough to put into print.) If you weren’t at the conference,** and want to see the postcards, here’s the written proof of my new agent!***



This is the front of the postcard. It’s an image I’ve been working on for a long time (I also have watercolor and acrylic paintings started for this image, but liked this version the best and decided to finish it for the conference postcard).




This is the back of the postcard. The cat came from a sketch I did on a dry erase board! The dog came from a regular sketch (using pen and paper).

So now that you know I have an agent, I can go back to posting on my blog again and not keeping secrets.****

2012 is off to a great start!!! Hope the year is off to a great start for you too!!!

*Why didn’t I sign the contract earlier? The day after I accepted Barry’s offer, I left town for three weeks. When I came back, Barry went out of town. Then he came back and I found out that I hadn’t given him my address so he could send me the contract! After he sent it to me last week, I couldn’t send it back because I was at the conference. So I sent it out today.

**I’ll be posting notes from the conference later this week.

***This post is a bit silly, but I am seriously happy about signing with Barry and excited to start working with him! I have a feeling that with Barry in my corner, 2012 is going to be a really good year.  

****I was crossing my fingers when I typed that, which makes it really hard to type, but also means that I can still keep secrets if I have to. Because sometimes you just can’t announce things (like agents) until you have a contract, you know?

New Art and New Hair

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!



p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon!

Art Cards for Bridget Zinn Auction

There’s an auction going on for author/librarian Bridget Zinn, to help her kick cancer. There are lots of great things to bid on, including books, art, critiques, cards (some with my art on them) and more! Bidding is open until 9pm (CST) Friday December 11. Go to – www.32auctions.com – Auction ID: bridget Password: rules (info about Bridget and the auction at the end of this post).

Here’s more about the cards I donated if you’re interested. There are five sets of cards, featuring: Animals & Birthdays, Chickens, Elephants, Puppies, and Reading &Writing. Want to see the cards? Here’s all 20 designs for the 5 collections (each set has 8 cards, 2 of each design).

cards for Bridget Zinn auction

Ooh, pretty. Actually, the cards turned out really well. I was worried for a bit, because when I donated the cards, I was going to have my local printer print them for me. He couldn’t do it because there were too many designs to print in a small quantity. Then I tried an online printer I trust, but they couldn’t get them here in time. I knew I couldn’t print them with my old printer (it was barely printing passable prints for my portfolio … ok, not even passable for that).

So … I bought a new printer and some great textured felt card stock (and envelopes). Then proceeded to print lots of test prints (and mistakes), before finally printing up a whole batch of cards for the auction.

All cards are hand printed, cut and folded and can be used to send as birthday cards, thank you notes, or even a handwritten note, because everyone loves to get snail mail once in a while.
There’s only one day left to bid on the items in the auction. Please bid before 9pm (CST) Friday December 11 if you want to help. Go to – www.32auctions.com – Auction ID: bridget Password: rules

More info about Bridget and the auction: Browse, bid, and win for a good cause at this online auction to raise money for Bridget Zinn and Barrett Dowell. Bridget is a 32-year-old writer and librarian who is currently being treated for stage 4 colon cancer – and her “healthy young person between jobs” health insurance does not cover many of her expenses. Read Bridget’s blog at http://www.bridgetzinn.com/blog for more information.

We have received dozens of generous donations of items to be auctioned off. Many authors – Bridget’s friends and acquaintances – have donated signed copies of their books; there are also a number of manuscript critiques and proofreading services for authors. But that’s not all – there’s something for everyone! We also have works of art, note cards, food and drink, baby gifts, jewelry, and more. Many of the items would make lovely gifts, just in time for your holiday shopping. Take a look – you may find just the thing you’re looking for!

Auction items can be viewed at http://www.32auctions.com/view_auction?id=bridget&pwd=rules – or just go to www.32auctions.com and use the Auction ID: bridget and Password: rules (as in: Bridget rules!!) to view the auction. You will need to create an account on the site in order to bid on auction items. (Creating an account simply requires your name, email address, and a password, and it is required so that we can contact you if you win an item.) Bidding started on Nov. 27 and will continue through 9 p.m. Central time on Dec. 11.

2 paintings: Puppy and Wild (chicken) Thing for WaWe

The Watercolor Wednesdays prompt for this week was to create a child or animal character. When I sat down to paint, this is who showed up.

Happy Puppy!

Does he look familiar? I think he looks a lot like the puppy I did for the Frankenstein prompt and the Halloween character prompt and maybe a little like this puppy too. They are all supposed to be the same kind of dog, so maybe they’re different puppies from the same litter.

The prompt for last week was Wild Thing. Originally I was going to do an image of the characters from the book/movie, but then I decided to do something slightly different in the style of Maurice Sendak. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to complete this painting, and honestly I could have spent another week or so on it to make it look the way I wanted it to look. Since I have other projects that I need to get done, I cut a few corners to finish the painting. There are parts I really like and parts I wish I could have spent the time to do right. I think I’ll be using some of the techniques and the palette in future paintings to see what happens. So, here’s my wild (chicken) thing painting.

Wild Chicken Thing and Max

CBIG: Autumn Puppy

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

WaWe: Young Frankenstein and his first monster

The Watercolor Wednesdays prompt for this week is to imagine Frankenstein as a child, so I painted Young Frankenstein with his first monster, FrankenTeddy, and his little dog Frankie. I think Young Frankenstein would have worn PJs with his lab coat over them.

Young Frankenstein and FrankenTeddy

Last day of BEDA and the Death Chicken Contest

It’s the last day of BEDA (Blog Every Day April), and my personal take on it, which has been to make art every day. Technically I started BEDA on April 2 (but I posted twice that day). If I post tomorrow for IF it will be a full month. Plus I’m posting twice today (14 week novel post later today).

The last blog art for April 2009 (it was going to be a different image, but then I drew this one and I like the idea that the puppy is saying, “What’s next?):



It’s time for the top 5 good and bad things about blogging / making art every day in April. Then we’ll have a contest to win a Death Chicken – remember the Death Chicken?

BEDA - the GOOD:
1. It was fun, and I really needed that after a couple of not so fun months.
2. Deadlines and discipline helped get rid of procrastination techniques.
3. Art builds momentum - It helped me turn out multiple color sketches for a possible new client and make sketches for a mini comic for my graphic novel class (I didn’t post all the art I did in April).
4. I started participating in Illustration Friday and joined Watercolor Wednesdays, which I might not have done otherwise. I think it’s been good for me to share my art, which I haven’t done a lot of on my blog.
5. It’s helped me to think about my goals for art and writing in the future.

BEDA - the BAD:
1. Not enough family time.
2. No days off for weekends, holidays or birthdays.
3. Taking forever to respond to blog comments and not reading and commenting as much on other people’s blogs, and working late many nights to get it all done.
4. Making art for my blog instead of my portfolio. (There’s a big difference. Although some blog art might be sketches for portfolio art later.)
5. Not having enough time to devote to other projects I needed to work on.

After all that, would I do it again? Absolutely. Although I might make some art ahead of time, so I don’t have to wait for paint to dry before posting.

And now for the Death Chicken contest!!! To win your very own Death Chicken (pictured here with a Sleestak), leave a comment on this post, along with the name for your Death Chicken and his little sidekick. (Note: If you're posting as anon, please leave your name and some way to contact you if you win, email, blog, website, etc. Thanks.)



Winner will be a random drawing from all entries on both blogs. Creative names, or explanations for regular names could possibly win second or third place prizes, like a Sheila postcard or a book or something else I think up before the drawing. (Winners for additional prizes will be picked on a purely subjective basis.) Contest is open until 10 pm EST on Thursday, May 7. The winner(s) will be posted Friday morning, May 8.

What did I name my Death Chicken? Glad you asked. I’ve decided to name mine Will, and his sidekick Holly (after Will and Holly in the Land of the Lost … and thus having an explanation for this wacky picture).