Why I Paint Birds (Or How I Feel about Portraiture)
People have all sorts of involved, ecological, and philosophical reasons for drawing and painting birds. Years ago, participating in a group show of nature art I was faced with writing an artist’s statement about why I paint birds. I thought long and hard. I was an outlier at the show because all my […]
Sketching
In Context: Not the Time To Explain a Vignette
As an artist, you know whether it’s the right time to introduce the concept of “vignettes” or not. Pick your battles.
Greens, Grays, and Canson Heritage Watercolor Paper
Tuesday I met up with a couple artist friends for lunch and afterwards we trekked across the street to Wet Paint, each with some art supply on our list. For me I was picking up some white gouache to test. Funny how that goes, I ended up sorting my paints when I got home and […]
Looking Back at InkTober 2018
I frequently work for days and weeks at a time in ink only. I have an early, childhood love of dip pens and inky fingers. I love working with the brush pen directly, and taking chances with bold brush lines. This year I was also getting ready to go to a sketching conference and wanted […]
Visual Journaling
Book Arts
Book Arts
Packing for a Trip or Class
Recently a blog reader who is going to SketchKon (see the note later in this post) wrote to me and asked for tips on packing for such a trip. She wanted to know which supplies to bring and what the perfect pack for carrying supplies might be. Very simply keep the following in mind: • […]
In Context—Fixing A Face
When you sketch directly in pen the lines aren’t always put down exactly where you wanted. But because it’s ink, at some point you decide not to correct your lines and create muddiness, but instead you simply finish the sketch and accept the loss of likeness. This isn’t a tragedy, it’s just part of the […]