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Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators (And More on Magnani Portofino)
After my initial tests with Magnani Portofino I tried different pen and ink only tests. For today’s post I did a quick pen sketch of actor Mark Benton who stars in “Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators.” It’s a fun mystery show set in Stratford-upon-Avon where everything is Shakespeare-related. Benton plays Frank Hathaway, and the […]
“Revamped” Magnani Portofino Watercolor Paper Part 2
Today here’s another portrait I painted on a piece of Magnani Portofino Watercolor paper. I’m not one to give up a fight easily. With so many quality art paper mills being bought up by non-paper making conglomerates who evidently don’t understand what watercolor artists want to do with their papers, I have to push […]
Looking at the “Revamped” Magnani Portofino Watercolor Paper
This week I’m going to be showing examples of work done on a new block of Magnani’s Portofino, a 100 percent cotton, 140 lb. hot press watercolor paper. In the downsizing I came across a block of this paper when emptying my flat file. I’ve had blocks of this paper that I’ve worked from […]
Sketching on Any Old Paper You Have At Hand
Sometimes we can get into our heads. We can spend time telling ourselves all the reasons we can’t take time right now and paint. As a teacher for over 30 years I think I’ve heard every excuse there is: no space to set up, don’t have the materials I want to work with; I don’t […]
Visiting Minnesota—A Drawing Student’s Question
Recently a former Sketchbook Skool Student wrote to me asking me what to see when she was in Minnesota. (Evidently she was traveling here to go up north in Wisconsin for a drawing class at one of the resorts.) Of course whenever you ask someone a question like that you are taking into account their […]
Making Neutrals with a Secondary Triad
Update: May 14, 2022. The paper used for this portrait was from a pad purchased in 2000-02. Magnani Portofino paper has been “revamped.” The current version of this paper is NOT one I would recommend for wet media work. You can see a post reviewing the currently available paper on this blog on May […]
A Different Sort of Wizard—Special Circumstances
Today seemed a good day to share another one of my wizard paintings because, well next month (April) on my Patreon blog I’m going to be sharing the full, realtime version of this sketch as a secondary demo. (You can already see the sketch silent and sped up to only 3 minutes long on […]
Snow Pile By Any Means Necessary
The weather is turning warm again, getting back into the 20s (Fahrenheit). I’ve been able to sketch a couple snow piles this winter, but I think it wasn’t until almost the end of December that I got one! Before the weather gets too warm and we want to think only of other things, I thought […]
Testing the Twone Sketchbook with Kraft Cardstock Covers
Do I actively seek out the most obscure commercially bound books containing non-art paper to test? No, it simply seems like that sometimes. I grew up with a small weekly allowance paid after the completion of standard house and family chores. That allowance had to stretch from candy to art materials. Let’s just say I […]
In Context—Sketch a Little, Chat a Little, Get Back to Sketching.
Hard to believe this is already a year ago.