sruble Self Portrait

one2moo features art for licensing by illustrator Stephanie Ruble. Here's a brief Q&A with the artist.

Why did you name your company one2moo?
* I started drawing cows in high school and initially loved the contrast of black and white in Holsteins. When I needed to pick a name for my company, one2moo seemed like a natural choice.

Do you still draw and paint, or do you just create art on the computer?
* I still draw and paint; I can't help myself. I love the feel of a pencil on paper, a brush on raw canvas, and the unpredictability of watercolor. Photoshop is just another medium that I love to use to create art. Most of the digital art I do is in a style I call "Digital Papaer Collage." My digital images get the most response from people that see them and they get more sales in my shops than products with painted images, so they are the focus of the images that I'm doing for licensing right now. However, I'm working on some mixed media images that I hope to turn into a line available for licensing next year.

What is Digital Paper Collage?
* Digital Paper Collage started out as an accident when I was working on my children's book portfolio. I liked the mistake enough to keep experimenting with the style. The process used to create this style is a combination of drawing with a pencil and paper and drawing on the computer. Sometimes it takes lots of revision and redrawing to make the images look the way I want them to look. Here are two of the first images I created in this style:

Do you have any digital styles other than Digital Paper Collage?
* Yes. I also have a cartoonish style, which is perfect for some of my characters, especially the ones that are also in the graphic novel I'm working on and my new characters, The Meadow Monsters. Digital Paper Collage is great, but sometimes I like something that looks a bit more like what I might see in a comic strip in the newspaper.

Have you always been an artist and have you always wanted to license your art?
* I've been an artist for as long as I can remember. In grade school, I loved to create my own pictures and also try to draw my favorite comic strip characters. In high school, I started designing programs and T-shirts for the activities I was in and did a few other images for groups I wasn't in. I majored in art in college (my focus was large acrylic abstract figural paintings). I had several group and solo shows in college and after. I had always wanted to see my art on products and to illustrate children's books. When I got serious about children's books, I had to change my art to make more recognizable figures. I still like absract art, but I love illustrating people and animals even more, especially animals. I've been told by many children's book art directors that my style is very commercial, so I started the sruble shop on cafepress and the sruble card store on zazzle and began to think more about licensing my art. Now I've made a commitment to licensing with my company one2moo.

What's New at one2moo?
* Click here for info about art that's ready to launch, art that's being made, and art that's still percolating.

How do I get started licensing my art?
* I'm new to licensing so I can't give a ton of advice yet, but I have set up a licensing resources page where you can find more information from the people and things that helped me. Click Here to go to that page.

How can I contact you if I have more questions or want to license your art?
* Send me an email: stephanie at one2moo dot com. Please put "one2moo inquiry" in the subject line so I know it's not spam.