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Sewn-on-the-Spine Bookbinding Class Registration Opens Today
I’m excited to announce the launch of the online version of my Sewn on the Spine Book Binding class. The above video tells you about the structure and shows you various examples so you’ll know what to expect. (If the above video doesn’t run please see it on YouTube at this link.) The first […]
Registration for Textures Class Closes Friday
I enjoy pre-painting journal pages with a variety of media. I work ahead in my journals this way. Then when I turn to a pre-painted page I use that page to challenge myself to come up with a visual solution. It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to build layered, rich pages, with […]
In Context: Handling the Page
Sometimes our brain just clicks on an automatic timer. That happened the other day when thoughts of my last Alaskan Malamute Dottie bubbled into my mind exactly on the day 16 years after she had died. How you handle an image or text, or both, on a page or page spread is going to be […]
Textures: Backgrounds for Visual Journaling and Mixed Media Begins June 1, 2019
“Textures: Backgrounds for Visual Journaling and Mixed Media” registration is now open. Class begins on June 1. There are 6 weeks of lessons in which students work through the process of creating backgrounds for their artwork. I share my favorite materials and approaches and provide detailed information on those materials so that you can […]
How You Can Use Visual Journaling to End Arguments
Let me begin this post by stating: this is not an April Fool’s Day prank. I’m serious about the ability of visual journaling to end arguments. First you have to keep a visual journal. Next you and whomever you’re arguing with have to have a good sense of humor and a developed ability to […]
Project Friday—Let’s Collage
In this post I’ll walk you through a recent collage I made. This isn’t something that I preplanned. It’s simply something that I worked on with the materials at hand, moving from one thought to the next. I’ve turned the step-by-step into a Project Friday because I hope you’ll get up from the computer, make […]
Do You Stop Or Keep Pushing?
One of the things I’m asked most frequently by students is, “When do I know I’m finished with my [painting/sketch]?” I’ve heard many people give the flip response, “When you realize that you’ve gone to far, then you know you should have stopped.” It’s actually more simple and more complex than that. First, yes, if […]
What’s the Deal with the 2019 Celebration of International Fake Journal Month?
In January I decided that after 10 years of a public celebration of International Fake Journal Month I’d end the public portion of this project. You can read about my reasons at the above link to the official blog. So this year there is no button and theme/tagline and most important, nothing for me to […]
Online Class: “Drawing Practice” Registration Opens Today
Registration for “Drawing Practice: Drawing Live Subjects in Public” opens today. (Click on the link to read about it and register.) Pre-class information will be available to all registered students immediately upon registration so that you can begin to set your goals and organize your time. (See below for a link to the supply PDF […]
The Daily Potato: A Look at a Daily Drawing Project
At the end of September 2018 Jennifer Okano brightened everyone’s day by posting this wonderfully dimensional sketch of a sweet potato in a group I host for past students. She wrote: This month my focus has been on contours. Outside, inside, cross. Picking the oddest Japanese sweet potatoes at the market has given me a […]