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Demonstration Review of the Pilot Shunpitsu Pocket Brush Pen
Sometimes when I’m under the weather the best thing I can do is test new tools and materials. I find that it takes my focus aways from any aches, pains, or in the current case coughs and general systems failures. (I don’t have Covid, I just have a bad case of bronchitis which even with […]
Lines: Achieving a Likeness with Different Approaches
I love working in a series just in an evening—sketching the same subject over and over to see how I can approach it with different tools, media, or even just something like line which is infinitely variable. I’ve posted three sketches of British actor Robert Morley in this post. I became a fan of his […]
A Little Bit of Collage Can Be Your Friend
You know how I like to paint on drawing paper? Sometimes the paper complains. That happened when I put in the Montana Marker background on this page spread. The marker ink/paint saturated and roughed up the paper at the top of the page. I didn’t want the paper to be weak there because it would […]
Testing Langton-Prestige Watercolor Paper
I have just started testing Daler-Rowney’s Langton-Prestige Cold Press Watercolor paper. In the above video you can see my first experiments with it and my first thoughts. If the video doesn’t play you can view it on Vimeo at this link. Normally in my demonstration videos I include any photo reference or still life […]
On Deciding Which Version of a Sketch You Like Best…
Here’s the final version I did of this brush pen and watercolor sketch on toned (tan paper); with a little bit of white gouache for the highlights. (The cheek is actually the paper color.) Sometimes when I’m sketching I enjoy the plain sketch, or some early version of the sketch so much, that I stop […]
Direct Brush—On Inexpensive Paper
Here’s a direct brush sketch I made on Fabriano Mixed Media paper. It’s an inexpensive paper. I’ve written about it before on the blog. I wasn’t expecting much when I started this experiment. I thought the paper would give out. It didn’t. My patience for rendering the fluffy curls gave out. I was working with […]
Pen and Watercolor Portrait Video Demonstration
Below is the edited version of a live stream demonstration I did publicly several weeks ago. I’m posting it here on my blog because some readers may have missed it when I did it live in Facebook on my RozStendahl feed. It is no longer available there. I took it down so that […]
Sharpening a Pencil to an Ultra-fine Point
If the above video doesn’t play, please view it directly on Vimeo at this link. I’ve often been asked how I get an ultra-fine point on my graphite pencils. Some time ago I promised to make a quick video to show people the process. I apologize to all my students who just had rely […]
The April Demo—Thinking About Pattern and Texture in the Design of a Painting
This month on Patreon I do a graphite and watercolor portrait. I use this portrait to begin a discussion on thinking about how the texture of brush strokes and the use of pattern and other textures in a painting impact the readability of that painting. The discussion will continued in May when I look at […]
When Your Brush Pen Dries Out…Keep Drawing
There’s a moment when your brush pen starts to run out of ink, but it’s not quite dry yet. In fact if you let it rest for a little bit part way through a drawing it seems to get a second wind in only a few minutes. If you can’t wait that long, simply have […]