Currently Browsing: contrast 9 articles
Keep Lighting and Contrast Always in Mind
Keep lighting and contrast always in mind when sketching—I couldn’t say it enough when I was teaching. In almost every instance where a student was having trouble with a visual focal point or showing form, what was lacking was a clear sense of lighting and a follow through with contrast. It doesn’t matter which medium […]
Another Grid
Lots of grids lately—something I like to keep coming back to. I’m including this grid, of sketches from Earth’s World Fairgoers, today because it will lead up to something later—a project post I’m taping for the end of the month. My point is to encourage you to look for patterns in your journaling and see […]
Cerulean Blue Chromium—Does it Stay or Does It Go?
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my friends like to talk to me about pigments. A couple years ago my friend Paul started talking to me about Cerulean Blue Chromium (CBC). In the Daniel Smith line it’s PB36. There is no standard usage of paint names in the industry so in a different line a different […]
What Happened with the Excess Stamp Ink from Yesterday’s Post?
Yesterday I showed you what you could do in 15 minutes with some rubber-stamp ink to prepare some background textures in your journal. You’ll remember there was a scrap of watercolor paper I also painted with the leftover ink. (See the bottom right of the above photo.) Here’s a bit of pattern/texture making fun you […]
Vintage Hair—Mixed Media and Palette Organization
Today it’s a photo step-by-step and not a video as I paint a mixed media portrait with a vintage hair style. Since I’m not teaching currently I sometimes turn the drawing table camera on for my own benefit to look at how I progressed through stages. But sometimes I simply take photos at various stopping […]
Drawing One of My Favorite Noses
Things have been getting away from me the past few weeks. But I always make time to draw one of my favorite noses. That’s what you see on this page spread of a journal I hand-bound with the now defunct Nideggen (which is a lovely toned paper with flecks in it). I worked with direct […]
More Fun with a Not Quite Dried Out Pen
Since I started the week writing about my favorite brush pens I need to put a plug in for the Sakura Pigma Professional Brush Pen FB. This is the pen I probably use a little more if not as much as the Pentel Brush Pens I discussed in Monday’s post. There’s a physical reason for […]
Let Yourself Push Your Sketch Marks Now and Then
OK, we can’t get the whites of the paper back when we are working in pen and ink (unless we resort to the X-acto blade, or ProWhite gouache), but it’s still a useful endeavor to keep pushing with the lines. I find that working with a dried out pen pushes me to be a little […]
Another Dog Portrait…
As we leave July and my Patreon discussions about dog portraits I simply wanted to make a case, through one more portrait, about contrast. It’s vital, it draws the eye, it’s fun to build up. Here’s a sketch from 2018. I liked the textures (and suggested textures) so much that all I wanted was a […]