Currently Browsing: creativity 439 articles
Flood Debris Part 3—Rubber Stamp Masking
From the 1980s until November 2016 I gathered a rather large rubber stamp collection. I used the rubber stamps for mail art and as art tools in my journaling and art. While I gave most of the stamps (and storage boxes and index) to a young stamper in 2016 (in a move I realize now […]
Brush Forensics
A few years ago I was asked to create an illustrated love letter for a show of such letters at a local gallery. At the time I wasn’t traveling much. For me a really good love letter requires time and distance to ferment. I chose instead to write a love note to Dick about the […]
Flood Debris Part 2—Art Pack
I know I have hobby horses—those pet schemes and interests that you keep coming back to over and over. And nothing has preoccupied my adult life more than the efforts to get other people to draw. (I’m just bossy that way.) What’s funny and fun for me to see, while going through the water-logged debris […]
What I Did During the Pandemic: Thinking about Frames
Of course one of the things I did during the Pandemic was to keep sketching and painting. There didn’t seem much point to stop, since it’s a life-long habit. But also I got to the point I couldn’t have stopped if I had wanted to because I started getting obsessed with gallery walls. The downsizing […]
Review: “Look Again: A Memoir” by Elizabeth A. Trembley
Books do contain essential information—sometimes. And when I read a book that does contain essential information I go around telling everyone about it—urging them to read it. That’s how I feel about Elizabeth A. Trembley’s “Look Again: A Memoir.” It contains essential information about life, creativity, and balance. Everyone alive experiences trauma a some point […]
A Cut Above—Wood Carving Competition Show
Spoiler alert, I’m going to write about who won “A Cut Above” season one. Don’t read if you want to watch a chainsaw-woodcarving composition and be surprised. First I just have to say I love Adam Beach. He’s a great actor and now we know he’s a great TV show host too—who absolutely […]
More Journaling Fun
Sometimes you read a bit of text in a magazine and it just happens that it goes with a sketch. I love it when that happens. What discoveries are you making today about your mind, your interests, your use of color, your language, your process…? The journal is a wonderful place to learn more about […]
Eyes—What I’m Looking at in June on Patreon
Whether you work in pencil, gouache, watercolor, pen, acrylic, eraser carving, silverpoint, color pencil…it doesn’t matter—rendering eyes is critical to the success of a portrait. The eyes show the character and soul of your subject. You want to get that down for your viewer. You want the gaze of your subject to draw the viewer […]
Leftover Paint
Sometimes I’m just in a mood. I might have a lot of paint leftover on the palette, I might start drawing with a tool I don’t usually draw with and want to cover it up; I might… On this day it was a little bit of all of that—just exploring and experimenting. When the red […]
Excitement over Lard
You’d think it was a slow day from my excited comment about lard on this journal page. It’s wistfulness. I bought two types of lard from “Fat City.” They reached expiration date (even stored in the freezer!) because I didn’t have the kitchen space to set up to make some savory pies, during this downsizing […]