Currently Browsing: Direct Brush Painting 31 articles
Short Painting Sessions Yield Impactful Results
Don’t let your internal critic, or your busy schedule tell you there’s no time to paint. Pick up a brush and soften some dark-valued watercolor (which can be diluted for lighter values) and make a quick sketch. Focus on the shadow shapes you see, don’t think about anything else. Even if your end result isn’t […]
Mixed Media Experiments Continue
This dog portrait was my warm up sketch to continue my mixed media experiments. I started with a brush pen sketch from a Sktchy muse reference photo. I used leftover gouache and then the dry media you can see listed on the recto page. I then searched for another photo reference on Sktchy and did […]
Remembering My Budgerigar and the Naming of Pets
When we lived in Australia I had a budgerigar—a.k.a. budgie, a.k.a. grass parakeet. They are native to Australia and fly in great flocks over the iron-rich red desert of the interior of the continent. I thought I loved birds until I saw these in their natural habitat and then everything clicked together for me—geology, geography, […]
Vintage Hair in Portraits
Vintage hair, I’ve been painting a lot of portraits of people from the 1800s and from the early 20th century. I am fascinated especially with women’s hair—typically piled into what look like impossible constructions. And then of course I’m equally fascinated with that happens to a 19th century man’s heavily creamed hairdo when he takes […]
More Fun with Journal Grids
Here’s a finished grid from a journal in May this year. I worked in a Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal (7.75 x 9.75 inches, soft cover). I pre-painted the grid squares using Nichiban masking tape and Montana markers. The spaces on the recto page were brushstrokes of acrylic color. Sean was glued down […]
Thumbnails: Working Out Ideas for a Series
Sometimes thumbnail sketches come after you’ve made a painting or a sketch. The sketch you just completed sparks ideas for a series, or thoughts on page composition, or in today’s example—what to do with ears if you want a certain scale of portrait on the page. So what you see today is a painting that […]
Direct Brush Studies in a Grid
Here’s a page spread of direct-brush studies from a journal I worked in last September (2024). Some days I find it is useful to do multiple studies in “miniature.” (The small squares are about 2 inches.) You work quickly and get to test things like scale, pigment, the way the paint works on the paper, […]
Painting Multiple Portraits of the Same Person (Or Other Subject)
People ask me all the time why I paint the same people (or dogs, birds, rocks) over and over. I find that it’s interesting. And challenging. A way to take another look. A way to learn something more about the subject and get it down on paper while developing some way to do that with […]
Lighting As You See It
In a week where I’ve written about creative momentum and using any space of time for your drawing habit, I wanted to remind you that simple, quick (30-minute) sketches can be so valuable if you follow through on your intention. The two direct brush portraits I did on this page spread were my end of […]
Making Time for the Steps that Support Your Goals
I have been pushing to spend a little more time on opaque paintings, but I don’t have the available time to do large paintings. To satisfy the urge to work opaquely, and to continue working on stylization, I’ve been focusing on smaller paintings like this three-portrait grid (ruled with pink Uni Posca Marker and filled […]