Currently Browsing: Animals 526 articles
In Context: Meet Elvis a New Drawing Model
It has been awhile since I added to my menagerie of realistic animal and dinosaur replicas. This spring after a physical therapy appointment Dick and I stopped in at Hub Hobby to see what they had on offer. It was literally one block off the highway and I didn’t even have to pout or cajole. […]
In Context: Mixed Media Chickens
Sometimes it’s late and you want to get one more sketch in. I find this especially true when I’m trying to take a looser approach. Past bedtime—too tired to be fussy about details and accuracy—it’s a great time for one more sketch. But if something isn’t keeping you up I suggest you get to bed […]
Zines: Another Way to Record Your Life, Interests, and Events
What is a zine? Well “Factsheet 5” defined a zine as “A small handmade, amateur publication, done purely out of passion, rarely making a profit, or breaking even.” We’ll start there. I’ve been making zines my entire adult life. I’ve made zines about food, shoes, snow piles, dogs (of course), movies, literature, and of course […]
Remembering My Budgerigar and the Naming of Pets
When we lived in Australia I had a budgerigar—a.k.a. budgie, a.k.a. grass parakeet. They are native to Australia and fly in great flocks over the iron-rich red desert of the interior of the continent. I thought I loved birds until I saw these in their natural habitat and then everything clicked together for me—geology, geography, […]
Book Arts Pocket, Some Dogs, and Some Beans
Make your journal work for you by utilizing your book arts skills and make a pocket! Sometimes there are scraps lying on the drawing table and I sketch on those scraps. (And yes, tape scraps together to make bigger scraps if necessary [bottom right].) These dog sketches on scraps of Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media […]
Improving Your Eye: Working through Corrections
I write a lot about working directly in ink and embracing the wonkiness that results. I encourage my students to work in ink and embrace the wonkiness—but that doesn’t mean we stop training our eye, and stop refining our work. I’ve seen hundreds of students who believe the only way to improve is to start […]
Found Some More Grids
Sometimes life can seem very quick, agonizingly slow, and full of all the wrong things—all at the same time. If your life feels like that it’s important to pick up your journal and start writing notes about your life and activities; and to keep drawing (or start drawing if you haven’t already). These activities will […]
Doodling: Let Your Mind Play—Remind It of the Value of Play
I’m often doddle and draw on non-art papers—simply because I’m sitting at my desk working and all that I have immediately around me is office supplies—bond copier paper and Post-It Notes™. (You see both of those types of paper in the first image today.) I wrote earlier this month, and many other times in the […]
The Value of Creative Exercises Lingers
It might seem that a short, creative exercise of 15 minutes can have no real impact in your daily life. But the value of a creative exercise lingers and resurfaces, enhanced by time—opening our minds to new ways of thinking and new questions to ask. This post is about those lingering effects. I’ve advocated painted […]
Studies: When You Don’t Have Paper with You
I admit that there are rare occasions when I leave the house without my journal. And without a decent camera even. (My iPhone may be capable of photographic excellence, but I’ve not been able to eek any out of it for either macro shots or bringing distant objects closer!) This page spread is the result […]