Today's sketchbook pages

Today Charlie and I visited our grandson Nick, age 4. The weather was sunny and warm-ish (low 50s) and Nick couldn't wait to get out to the sandbox. And I couldn't wait to start sketching him.

-- Ruth Barshaw

Secondary Characters

I'm working on sketches for another book idea. This pooch is just one character. I always start with characters before anything. To me it's of course the funnest part!

Have a great weekend!
Joy

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

Done with my book!

Ahhhh. Finally, after a year of work and a couple months of especially intense painting (plus balancing dozens of March-Is-Reading-Month school visits), I am done with the art for the lion book.

Here's my mentor, EB Lewis's favorite spread:

Here's my teen daughter's favorite spread:

Here's a detail from my favorite spread:

Here's the original sketch for that page:

And I am very happy to say that Louie the dog made it into the book:

Now, before I lose any momentum, I'm on to the next project. I have a few more picturebooks in the works, and I've learned so much from sketching and painting this book that I know it'll influence my work on the others. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

 -- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Evolution of a cover

You might be surprised at how a book cover changes.

Plan A: A combination of a few characters and a train car.

Not this image, but maybe one of these people.

(And not that train car. That's where they sell cotton candy.)

Plan B: Maybe the main character hiding.

Plan C: Something like this, maybe. (I blotted out the 

title and author/illustrator info. I'm the illustrator

and I know who the author is, but the title might change.)

Plan D: 

I think we're going with an expansion of this.

Whatever we end up with, it'll be my best work.

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

The lion's share

My lion is demonstrating the lion's share of sadness here, but he's not allowed to say why yet -- the final art isn't done yet. This is a detail from a sketch for the picture book I'm working on, but it probably won't make it into the final book; my next sketch will be this lion looking out a different window. We'll see how it goes. 

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

It's National Bubble Bath Day!

One of the books I'm working on has a bubble bath scene. Here are some of the sketches I did before deciding on the last one.

Now, back to work for me. I have 30 other pages to tend to...

-- 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

Sketch to finish

I'm playing with pencil, ink, and paint, to figure out the art for the picturebook I'm working on.
Here's a color version (though the values need a bit of tweaking).

Here's a black and white version (I forgot to scan the sketch before painting).

Here's another image, my two dogs.
I like how watercolor isn't 100% controllable (at least not for me) and there are little happy surprises in the paint.

I guess I've figured out how I want the art to look. Next step: 32 pages of sketches, turned to final art.

I'm excited to see how it turns out.

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Picture book deadlines loom

Usually I say it takes about 100 sketches to figure out a main character. I'm illustrating a book for Sleeping Bear Press and I believe I drew about 134 lions before I figured out what I wanted Leopold to look like. 

Leopold has a friend, an elephant. I was happy with sketch #8 but then I went too far. I added pajama pants. And my resident art approver, my teen daughter, said no, the elephant is better without them. She approved the fez, but just then I remembered the elephant in Disney's Aladdin movie wore a fez. So I changed this fez to a flowerpot (which looks a bit like an upside down fez -- so now it's a square).

I decided to see what the elephant looks like with no pants.

(Yay for fast Photoshop!)

So now the question is, does the dog wear clothes? 

By the time this art is due, I will have decided. 

-- 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

World Teacher Day

Sunday, October 5, was World Teacher Day.
Thank a teacher.
Here's a rare moment from me: I'm sharing work that isn't very good. This sequence is the thought process I went through in trying to illustrate one spread for a picturebook that comes out next fall.
My art mentor, SCBWI great E.B. Lewis, has been pushing me to see things differently, and now, after about 2 months of working with him I *finally* understand what he meant when he said I wasn't putting myself into the story enough.
I totally understand now that illustration is the same as writing.
I get it.
Because he's a good teacher.

 Wrong. All wrong.

A little better. But still no.

A little better but the reader isn't IN the story yet.

No.

No.

Yes.

This is just the rough pencil sketch -- the designer, art director, and various editors at the publisher will have their own opinions. But this is a lot better than I'd have done before taking art lessons. 

Thank you, E.B.!

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

'Tis Fall

It's fall already. In a few minutes it will be winter (at least in my neck of the woods).

I didn't mean for this little bird to look melancholy. 

And I didn't mean to feel that way myself. 

I suppose more drawing will fix my mood...

Wheeeee! That's better.

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

Happy Dog Day!

It was National Dog Day two days ago.
Coincidentally that's when we welcomed a third dog into our home, temporarily.
Here are my two dogs, Clarence (the big guy) and Hammy (the little guy).

The third pup, Rozzy, who is Clarence's sister, is in another room snoozing on the couch. Clarence sleeps under my desk and sometimes Hammy climbs on top of him to sleep. Also in the bed is an "indestructible" toy rabbit which Clarence loves but which is definitely destructible, and a cow femur which Clarence sometimes treats as a toy.
We have three dogs for a little while because -- yay!!! -- my son and his wife are in the hospital for the birth of their baby and we agreed to watch Rozzy for them.
Everyone at my house is crossing fingers the birth goes well. We should have news soon.

This is what my boy looked like as a baby.
This image is from a book about babies that I wrote for this new baby.

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw

It's National Rabbit Week!

Bunnies on our back lawn. One of these vignettes might be an exaggeration...

- Ruth McNally Barshaw

It's Teddy Bear Picnic Day!

Enjoy your picnic! 

- 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

National Sunglasses Day June 27

Happy Sunglasses Day!

(This is from a picturebook project I'm playing with.)

- Ruth McNally Barshaw