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Direct Brush Sketching with Another Rigger/Liner Brush
Last month I did another rigger/liner brush test—sketching Rick Niece again. While I missed the likeness I had a ton of fun with the line and shapes I could make with the Silver Ruby Satin Scriptliner 2. This was, and looks like it will continue to be, my favorite, or one of my favorites going […]
Stubble
Sometimes it is fun to sit down and draw stubble. Lots and lots of stubble. I find this entertaining, and joyful. I find noting the growth direction, the length, the density—all fun. But then I sat in the Bell Museum for a whole afternoon years ago, drawing every line of fur on a deer. This […]
This May on Patreon: Choices for Working Loosely
In May 2023 on Patreon I’m going to be demonstrating and discussing working loosely. What choices do you make? How do you go forward? How do you train your eye to be comfortable with looseness? You may have seen a speed video of this sketch on my Instagram account. On Patreon you can see […]
Two More Liner Brush Tests
I’ve got two sketch-tests for two different liner/rigger brushes. Both were executed in a pre-Covid Handbook that’s about 5.5 x 8 inches, with 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. (These pages don’t smell of wood and chemicals the way the pandemic purchased books do.) For these two I departed from my 3-color palette of the […]
For the Love of Negative Space
I hear all sorts of things from my journaling students. “How much negative space should I leave on my journal spread?” “How much space should surround my focal point?” “How much text and how much more illustration should I put on my page spread?” “How should I arrange these 5 things on my page spread […]
Journaling Predictions and Creative Momentum
Even after all the decades I’ve kept a journal I am still amused by the lack of accuracy in its (i.e. my) predictions. Constantly surprised in humorous ways how things don’t turn out as I suspect. Always amazed at how the conscious mind might be working at something and all the while the mind’s creative […]
In Context: Don’t Sketch When You’re Even Too Tired To Sit In A Chair!
A visual cautionary tale today. I was working from a reference photo on the Museum App (f.k.a. Sktchy) and I thought this person wearing bunny ears would be fun if I treated those ears not as attachable costume, but real ears! Sadly, I was so tired (sleep has been at a minimum lately) that when […]
In Context: Spur of the Moment Decisions Because of Paper
The end of 2022 was was a bit exhausting for me. And I made some spur of the moment decisions all because of how much I love working on Strathmore 500 Series Mixed media paper. You can read about it by clicking on the image. Sometimes we speed up to slow down. And sometimes we […]
Warming Up: Sketching Mullets
All hairdos are interesting to me because they are expressions of the individual and how he wanted to be perceived. I have to say next to 18th century wigs mullets are the hairstyle most fun for me to sketch. Did you realize that there are now “modern” mullets? All sorts of variations? I’ll leave you […]
In Context: I Invent a New Game for Two Or More
You can read the text on the page spread if you click to enlarge it. As to the brush and ink wash sketch—I was watching the Great British Baking show that evening.