Toronto portrait artist Barbara Muir was introduced to Skype in June.

She has put her own spin on art Skype-style.

Here's how happened: Muir found last June that Skype Video is a great way to stay in touch with her son Christopher, who went to Seoul, South Korea to teach English.

At least once a week, she catches up with Christopher "despite the 14-hour difference. My morning is his night."

Christopher has shown his mother his Seoul neighborhood "in the heart of the city" by holding the webcam on his laptop up to his window. "I also can see my son's headboard and pillow when he talks to me," said Muir.

Video is a two-way street: Muir's husband Steven comes in for chats, along with the cats, Timbah and Fiona, and the dog, Zoey.

Muir who blogs at Barbara Paints has added an artistic angle to her Skype. She calls it "Sketching a Skype."

Muir stays sharp by drawing all the time. Once, she was talking with her friend Flora Doehler, of Nova Scotia, a fellow artist, and started a sketch. Friends and family can tell she's up to her Skype sketching when she bows her head down.

"While we were talking, I was sketching. I kept showing her every 60 seconds or so, and she was egging me on saying, let me see, let me seeee!'"

On an actual portrait commission, Muir has 10, two-hour sittings. But her Skype sketches provide "instant gratification - just like Skype.

"This was my wonky view of (Flora, below) in her kitchen, with the shelf to the right. Of course it's got that caught in the headlights feeling that a Skype image has, but it's also got a nice,' Are you really drawing me?' serious look to it. And it was a very fast sketch..."

Muir said the Skype drawing helps fill her blog: "Blogs are hungry for images."