Character sketch for a book I am playing with...

This is a little kid character, meeting the second character of the story. I've been working on the story for about two years, but not continuously. I've drawn this main character probably 1000 times by now. And I really feel like I know him, now. This is a quick sketch, 2 minutes, probably, and it was drawn with a pencil and about 10 inches tall.
-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Spring is here!

It's Spring!
Warm temperatures turn our attention to baseball and gardening and sunshine and sketching outside. :)
-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

100 dogs

I was asked to draw a dog for a book. So I decided to draw 100, just to make sure I got the right one down on paper. Then I decided to make it 200 dogs. Here are the first 10:

Maybe cats will get a shot next -- millions of cats. ;)

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

A Spread From My Sketchbook

Life is so busy right now.
It's Reading Month in Michigan, and I find myself at a bunch of different schools every week. I carry a sketchbook with me, not just to show to the students but also to keep myself occupied in down time and to keep track of interesting things that pop up.

Here's a spread from my sketchbook.

Do you keep a sketchbook or journal? I highly recommend it!

Next Monday, June 8, is Best Friends Day

Monday is Best Friends Day.
These two chicks from one of my works-in-progress are not best friends -- yet.
Eventually they will be. :)

They'll have more friends in the book, too. I'm at the stage right now of inventing story. It's a fun stage. Anything can happen!

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

A change of character

I've been working on this book off and on for a year and a half. I thought I knew the characters very well. But when I returned to working on it I was inspired to change one to this:

Then two weeks ago I was inspired to change the character again, to this:

Then last week I was inspired to change the character to this:

I wonder what next week will inspire?  ;)

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Sketch + paint

I'm working on a new book idea, born out of a simple character sketch which I painted

and then inked,

and then decided deserved a whole book. We'll see where it goes...

- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Happy Rejection Day!

We all experience rejection at some point.
The goal is not to get all worked up about it.
Here are some of my latest rejected sketches.

New point of view wanted, to include the driver.

Rejected scene. (I know those parents on the right aren't well done. I liked the rest, though.)

Just nope.

Eh. Keep moving. Do better. It takes a stack of paper a few inches high to create the art (and writing, when I'm doing the writing) for one book. Lots of ideas never make it into a finished book. Maybe all those ideas go play someplace... (Actually that little fantasy was part of a novel I started writing, a few years back. It was... rejected.)

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Back to school!

It's back to school time.
And *I* am going back to school -- I'm taking art lessons.
Here's an example of what I am working on.

(This character is based on my son who's a new daddy. Nicklas Patrick was born last Thursday.)

- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Happy 'I Forgot' Day and Happy Fourth!

Yesterday was I Forgot Day.
Here's the quick sketch for a Ben-Ben style sheet I developed two weeks ago for the Kids Read Comics con in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Why do illustrators and cartoonists use style sheets for their characters? So they don't forget important details when drawing their character, and so the characters are consistent throughout a book.

I meant to bring this for the kids at my drawing session at the comic con, to maybe give them some ideas for their own characters. But, ahem, I forgot. Instead I just had a stack on my table in Artist Alley. I didn't bring many back home with me, so apparently lots of kids remembered to pick one up.

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, a major holiday here in the US. My family will spend it with a big group at my friend's birthday party (born the same day as our country -- cool. Different year, though.) and then we'll all go see the fireworks at the park. Two family members who will NOT enjoy the festivities:

This is Clarence and Hammy, my two dogs. Before we go to the party I'll stash their beds in a quiet, dark corner of my studio and I'll close the window and put on the radio so they barely hear the fireworks and firecrackers going off in the street. They really, really dislike fireworks. They love music, though.

This character loves both fireworks and music. I just discovered her last week. 

She's in one of the books I've been working on. 

I think she's unforgettable.

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Tomorrow is Donuts Day!!!

My friend Mike Jung is often caught talking about "doughnuts."We disagree on how to spell that word.
This art is for him.

And so is this...

See Mike and his band (including me!) here on Publisher's Weekly:
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=13192
- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Character sketches

I'm working on a picturebook.
Here's a sketch from it.

Here's another from the same book:

Only a few thousand more sketches and I'll have that book figured out. :)
-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Character Sketches

Character sketches in progress, still whittling away!