CBIG - Children's Book Illustrators Group

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is nose, so of course I thought of the old Froot Loops commercials with Toucan Sam following his nose (because it always knows). Though even as a kid, I knew that Sam's nose was really his beak. I was inspired to paint two characters from my current picture book project following two toucans while wearing toucan noses: I also posted another nose painting (of Little Red Riding Hood) for Illustration Friday on my blog.  Click here to see it. Please visit my website, sruble.com , to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

The CBIG prompt for this month, friends, and the Illustration Friday prompt this week, vocal, worked well with an old color sketch I did of a moose and girl. I made a few changes and polished up the art, and here it is: The girl and her moose friend love to sing and dance!   Please visit my website, sruble.com , to learn more about my art and writing projects.

I recently finished this piece for my new portfolio . It’s from a sketch I did last year of a witch girl and her puppy. They’re both happy because it’s the puppy’s first broom ride. Not only is he managing to hold on, he’s also loving every minute of the ride. It’s even better than being in the car because he doesn’t have to stick his head out a window to get air. I also have a black and white version. Please visit my website, sruble.com , to learn more about my art and writing projects. p.s. Halloween is only 77 days away

After the fun I had last week putting Franken Moo in a bottle , I decided to create another picture of him that would work for both the CBIG blog this month, “Earth,” and the prompt this week for Illustration Friday , “Journey.” I had tons of ideas, but decided to go with this one: Please visit my website, sruble.com , to learn more about my art and projects. I post more recent art on my blog , and posted about how this image idea took shape .

It’s a tradition for my husband and I to go out to the beach on New Year’s Eve at midnight to welcome in the new year. I imagine these three sand-snowmen are celebrating the new year too: This image is actually a crop of a larger watercolor painting. The painting is being used as the December banner for the Watercolor Wednesdays site. The three sand-snowmen in the crop are my favorites. Here's the full image: Please visit my website, sruble.com , to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

I love creating new art, but once in a while I like to take an old piece and breathe new life into it. When people think of revision, they usually think of text, but pictures can be revised as well. Many times the image gets revised as it goes from sketch to final, but sometimes you have a piece that just doesn’t work out, or a piece you always loved that doesn’t fit your current style. Those are prime candidates for revision. Things to consider when revising: composition, emotion, color, character, and what the illustration is for (fun, portfolio, job, etc.). Here's a piece I revised recently: First Snow of the Season What’s new: snow (instead of rain), the cat (instead of a stuffed toy moose and stuffed toy bunny), and multiple changes to the girl on the right. It’s a lot better than it was before, but not perfect. Maybe some day I’ll revise it again! If you are interested in more recent image revisions (including the paisley whale), I showed them here . Please visi...

The dragon and the fire breathing puppy: For this painting, I wanted to play around with primary colors, layering and texture. Here's a detail that shows those things a little better: If you're interested in the evolution of this painting, I showed the process of creating it here . Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

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! Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

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 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). Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

Whale Paisley Whale #1 Paisley Whale #2 I made these digital prints for the Ripple Project (donated art is sold to help the animals in the gulf oil spill). Click here for more info or to purchase these images. Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

I was devastated when I saw the pictures of the oil covered animals and wanted to help. The four paintings below were done for the Ripple Project and were painted with acrylic paints ( see the painting process here ). One Sea Turtle Two Hermit Crabs Three Brown Pelicans Four Seagulls Each piece of art is 2.5″ x 3.5″ and is available with a $10 donation to help animals affected by the gulf oil spill. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studie s 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. For more information on how you can help animals in the gulf by purchasing these paintings or other pieces of art, go to the Ripple Sketches blog . Thanks! Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see mo...

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. This is obviously a dream. No self respecting cat would ever wear a hat (at least not without a fight). Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

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! Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

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. 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, i...

I wouldn't want to mess with this elephant when she gets angry! This is a new image for a picture book dummy that's also in my portfolio . Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

Daria the chicken took up snowboarding this winter. This is a new image from a picture book dummy and my portfolio . There are three new images up in  my CBIG portfolio , including this image, Daria the chicken taking up skydiving, and an elephant. Please visit  sruble.com  to learn more about my art and projects, or  my blog  to see more recent art.

The birdie family from my portfolio fits this month's theme of family. Mother Goose is protecting her five goslings from the rain: There are new images up in my CBIG portfolio , including the two elephant illustrations I did recently. Visit my website to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

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.  Autumn leaves and Halloween pumpkins Visit my website to learn more about my art and projects, or visit my blog to see more autumn and Halloween art.

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 r...

This is from my new portfolio on my new website .