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Mark Your Calendar: The 11th Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out
The 11th Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out Is Coming! Join us for two great, fun days of sketching: Saturday, August 24 and Tuesday, August 27, 2019. Location: Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota. See this link on the Fair Website for driving instructions to the Fairgrounds, and a printable map of the Fairgrounds. (These […]
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 […]
Practice: Thinking about Ricky Jay
Writer, historian, magician, performer, actor, Ricky Jay died on Saturday, November 24, at the age of 72. While a man who knew how to run all the classic short and long cons might not seem the ideal role model you need to take a closer look. Here is someone who spent his life observing […]
The Things You Learn Watching TV
I like to watch “QI” with Stephen Fry. Topics of all sorts get brought up. Other people have taken over as host in recent years, but I haven’t seen any of those episodes yet. Acorn streams episodes. Someone is always saying something funny as they try to answer Fry’s questions. For me it’s a good […]
Throwback Thursday: My Favorite Necklace and Fun with Holiday Cards
Left: The full holiday card, probably 1985 because we didn’t have the girls yet. And they became the focus of our cards. You can see the cover, inside panel, and back panel. Our cards always had a back panel. That “Priceless” bit—didn’t I ever tell you about that? When I first came into the family […]
Art Materials Nostalgia—Work It
Above: The set of 24 with some extras of my favorite colors—Berol Karisma Colour Pencils. In the front, a Global padded pencil case. Decades ago a large portion of my artwork was in color pencil. It's a labor-intensive medium (stroke after stroke after stroke) but it allows for looseness and detail, and it's fun to use. […]
Join Us for the Eighth Great Minnesota State Fair Sketchout
Above: The button for this year's sketchout. Artwork copyright 2016 by event organizer Marty Harris. Participants in the sketchout will receive a fabulous rectangular pin-backed button with Marty's great artwork. Wear it proudly at the Fair as you sketch, save it as a memento—along with the great sketches you put in your sketchbook! It's time […]
Eyebrow Update: My All-Time Favorite Sketch of Richard and His Eyebrows (so far)
Above: Dick, sketched from life using a non-photo blue pencil, on an 8 x 8 inch page in the Seawhite journal. The writing at the bottom reads "Caran D'Ache Sketcher, non-photo blue; 6.12.16, 5 min. sketch; Dick standing in kitchen, overhead light and side." There seems to be a piece of lint on the scanner, […]