Currently Browsing: Drawing Practice 37 articles
Three Views of Actor Michael Sheen
Actors can be mercurial, artists can change the way they want to see things just as quickly. In the span of an evening last February I tried out three ways to look at actor Michael Sheen on paper. (When I drew these sketches I was watching an episode of “Prodigal Son,” which I enjoyed and […]
Why Keep Sketching the Same Subject?
A friend of mine once said he couldn’t understand how I could draw the same subject over and over. I do that a lot. Most notably daily drawings for 4 and a half years of my dog Dottie. But my life is full of drawing the same subject over and over. Life drawing models I […]
In Context: Look and Look Again
Just a peek into one of my journals as I watch a baking show and sketch. I have the sketches numbered as to order. The first gets at some of the bland but noticeable details, but no likeness. The second goes a bit past likeness and captures something a bit more fun. Giving yourself immediate […]
Not a Landscape Painter
I’m not a landscape painter, but something about the new season hosta and the fresh wood chips pulled me to sketch a little plant life. One of my friends had told me that she envied me my hosta. (Deer eat hers.) I have to say it really does look very healthy.
Sketching on Any Old Paper You Have At Hand
Sometimes we can get into our heads. We can spend time telling ourselves all the reasons we can’t take time right now and paint. As a teacher for over 30 years I think I’ve heard every excuse there is: no space to set up, don’t have the materials I want to work with; I don’t […]
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 Potential Journaling Hiccup: The Perfect Time and Place
Blog readers and students often write to me about their hopes and deferred dreams for their journaling and their art life. They live with the hope that if they can “just get through to retirement,” or “Just get through this current crisis [fill in the blank as to what that is]” that the clouds will […]
OK, I Guess Sometimes I Do Doodle…
A couple months ago I seemed to be living through my own Brendan Gleeson film festival. On this day I was sketching without glasses (if everything is double vision isn’t blurred vision an evening out or smoothing out of the lines?) without stopping the movie. That meant I had to hold things in my mind, […]
Demonstration Review of the Pilot Shunpitsu Pocket Brush Pen
Sometimes when I’m under the weather the best thing I can do is test new tools and materials. I find that it takes my focus aways from any aches, pains, or in the current case coughs and general systems failures. (I don’t have Covid, I just have a bad case of bronchitis which even with […]
Different Drawing Approaches for the Same Subject
Just this week I was asked by nine people how I start my drawings. I use different approaches to start my drawings depending on what pen I’m using, the paper size, and even just how I feel my eyes are doing on any given day. For a more detailed response I explain that I have […]