Currently Browsing: Brush Pens 344 articles
Fun Sketching Hair Part 2
Hairdos in the 1960s were lots of fun. A range from short to long for men. Here’s an actor from an episode of “Perry Mason” with a short hairdo. 1960s hipster in a turtle neck—not a mock. For me, drawing this hair, it was all about finding a way to describe some edges and walls […]
Fun Sketching Hair Part 1
I can’t help myself. I love to sketch hair. Here’s a sketch from a 19th century photo. I only exaggerated only a little, really. Volumes of hair. Sweeping every upward. I love it. I wonder if he also wore a hat and what the wearing of a hat might do to his hairdo? Despite the […]
Two Things I’ve Just Learned
Since the pandemic started I’ve needed more containers for food. Just before the pandemic I had returned to baking bread after about a 6-year break. But with the pandemic I decided I’d rather make all the bread we eat than have Dick bring loaves home from the Co-op that had been handled and coughed on. […]
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 […]
Commit to a Line or Correction
A couple days ago I wrote about accepting wonky lines. Here’s a sketch I haven’t posted, but just came across in organizing my files. Sometimes I have so much fun with the ears I don’t reach quite high enough for the head—but I commit to the correction and just start adding the hair, or in […]
Warm Up Sketches Can Sometimes Be the Best of the Day
I think that the warm up sketches you make can often be the best of the day. You haven’t settled into the need to complete a task yet. You haven’t tightened out of play yet. And you haven’t had your vitamins yet—a healthy does of stubble (this time on the head instead of the chin). […]
Embrace the Wonkiness
Too many of my students fuss and fuss over a wonky line, or worse, stop a sketch altogether because a likeness is lost. But I think there is great fun in diving in with a bold pen and feeling about for the features, one wonky line after the other. Finishing something leads to something else […]
Ink Wash Portrait: I Miss Gelatin-Sized Watercolor Papers
This is another comic guest from “As Yet Untitled with Alan Davies.” I’m sorry I don’t remember his name, the book is in storage. A lovely 8 x 7.5 inch journal that always seems a perfect size to me. I used brush pen and ink wash on this sketch. And I did pause the TV […]
Sketching as Fast as I Can
Page spread from a journal I bound using the 90 lb. Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Paper. I was watching “As Yet Untitled with Alan Davies,” and trying to keep all the angles and values in my mind before they moved off one guest to another, but sometimes came back again when they were in a different […]
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 […]