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

May I?

It's already the end of May. I've barely noticed the month slipping by because 3/4 of it was spent preparing for a trip to Vermont and 1/4 was spent *in* lovely Vermont at my literary agent's retreat.
Here's something I sketched while in VT, listening to a brilliant picture book manuscript being read aloud.

It's ball point pen ink which can be somewhat unforgiving of mistakes. I'll probably color it in (but first I'll fix a few little things, like that hand on the left).

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Joy of TV Sketching!!

So, you say you don't have a zoo near you? No pets you can draw? Oh, it's raining outside and you can't go sketch people at the mall, coffee shop, wherever? Well, here's a solution for you...

If you've got a TV set ( I think most of us do) and you have a DVD player, TiVo or even Netfix streaming you can sketch from a "model"! My husband and I like to watch shows with characters in great costuming or just interesting looking people. Twilight Zone episodes are the coolest! You can watch what ever interests you of course, but the costuming makes it even more fun. It's a good exercise for your eye in looking for great poses, too. When you see something you want to draw, you hit the pause button. Voi-la!

These sketches above were done in anything from blue pencil, regular graphite to black marker. The Twilight Zone episodes were fun to explore shapes because of their being shot in black & white. It's also fun to take real people and create characters or caricatures out of them.

If you want more action poses, try renting some of the Cirque du Soleil DVDs!

Priscilla ~ Vivid Inspirations!

I ask you, can one ever have too much of pinata fun, chiles, fiesta celebrations, and the delicious treats they provide?  Not talking about the food ~ I'm saying a fiesta offers a feast for our artistic souls!

One of my favorites are the very colorful handmade tissue fiesta flowers!

Either strung up as garland, or placed as a bouquet in a handpainted mexican clay pot.

I just love yummy fiesta colors and hues!