Tea Time

Staring Contest Day

Though he tried hard every time, Timmy could never win a staring contest with Jerome.

Birds of a Feather

I'm really digging brush pens and have been filling up my sketchbook with loose drawings. Just having fun and exploring lately. 

Weenie sketches from the sketchbook

A page from my sketchbook figuring out a character for a promo card through my agency.

Have a great weekend!

-Joy

Hugging Day

In Leticia's world, sharks and dinos are BFFs.   =)

~ Priscilla

It's a real Day!
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/hugging-day/

Brush Pen Sketches

Loving this new Pentel brush marker. Here are a few flowery doodles. 

I used the Adobe Capture app to turn then into vector images - awesome app by the way. My next task is learning how to color in Illustrator! So glad I have a Skillshare membership and school is in session every night. Off to push the pixels. 

Princesses wear neck braces too

Sometimes an odd request comes in that you feel you just must make happen.

A friend contacted a small group of illustrators, including me, about his friend who has a granddaughter, age 4, who just had surgery and needs to wear a neck brace.
The problem: This little girl loves princesses, wants to be a princess, and believes princesses don't wear neck braces. Especially ugly neck braces.
So the little girl refused to wear the one thing which would insure that she would heal quickly and properly.

Enter the request.

The grandmother wanted art of princesses which either the artist or the grandmother could Photoshop a neck brace into, to collect into a book of images for the little girl, in hopes it would inspire her to see that princesses do indeed wear neck braces when it's important.

I loved the challenge.

I didn't have any images of princesses that would work, though. Either a neck brace wouldn't fit into the picture legibly, or the image was too small or old. 

But I did have a drawing I did a short time ago of my youngest daughter with a cat.

Add a few princess accessories and -- voila! 

A princess.

The grandmother will add the neck brace.

Let's hope it works for the little girl. I love happy endings.

(And I think my daughter will be charmed by seeing herself as a princess.)

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Grey Fox

here is a quick sketch with a mepxy brush marker.

i'm looking forward to playing around with them 

some more, they are really fun to draw with!

A Good Day

It had been a good Headband Day after all, they both thought.

Margritte and Orangeline loved making up their own holidays to celebrate together.

~ Priscilla

Winter Transportation

My sketch from a painting I worked on over the weekend. 

Here is the finished piece in gouache.

And my inspiration - the view from our house. I prefer looking at the snow from inside my home rather than trudging through it! Brrr!!! 

New Years Resolution, promo postcard

Here is a little promo postcard going out soon. I included the finish as well as the sketch to show how it evolves when I paint it. Not shown in the sketch is the blue pencil that I always start with, then digitally I change it to black and white to keep a sketchier feel than my cleaned up black pencil line.

Thank for dropping by and have a great weekend!
-Joy

Meadowlark Sketch

I'm working on adding more nature images to my portfolio. Finding that sweet spot where I let go of source material and add in my style and point of view. It's a challenge! 

A New Year Begins

She sings the song of coffee and new adventures.

The Best to each of you as we head into 2016!