Currently Browsing: Ears
Playing with Lines, Scribbling…
As the caption states, I was trying something new when I drew this. I used a couple different pens and then added watercolor washes. But when I was working with the pens I didn’t try to consider my lines carefully and keep them to a minimum—I scribbled. It was great fun. And I felt that […]
Step By Step: Pen, watercolor, and Collage
I make sketches I call piecemeal portraits because I end up running out of paper and have to add paper to them. Typically I do this on loose sheets. But recently I’ve found myself doing it sometimes in my journal too. Today’s portrait is one that I made in my regular journal. The journal is […]
Limited Choices Lead to Successful Projects
After my post last week about doing creative projects many people wrote in to tell me that they were inspired to start a project. One accomplished artist wrote in to ask advice: Just looking for advice. After listening to the podcast on projects I’ve decided to take up the challenge. Over the years I’ve […]
More Changes for CR
It has been a long weekend of change. Friday we got a call from the care facility that CR would need to move into the memory ward. We had expected this day would come, but it still seems like it happened very fast. His short term memory disappeared a couple years ago. Both Dick and […]
New Winsor & Newton Watercolor Paper Part 3: Professional Hot Press
This is the third and final part of my three part series on the new watercolor paper lines from Winsor & Newton: Professional, which is their wood-free fine-art line; and Classic which is their wood-pulp (but acid free) paper. See part one in the series here. Note that this is the NEW Winsor & Newton […]
Mixed Media—Working Loose When Your Ink Runs
It can easily happen to anyone at any time—you do a really cool ink sketch, get the watercolors (or other water-based medium) out, start to paint, and watch as the ink color dissolves from the line and spreads into your paint. This bothers a lot of my students. I’ve even heard them gasp, cry out, […]
What’s on the Table?—The Curl of the Paper
I just love working in my favorite Japanese Lined Journals from APICA. The paper loves the Pentel Brush Pen. Sometimes I work in gouache on this paper, but sometimes I leave the sketch as is and turn the page. Other times I put in an acrylic marker background. I used an orange 15mm wide Montana […]
No Shave November
Since I’m so interested in drawing beards I’m a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t keep track that “No Shave November” is going on. This is an event that seeks to raise cancer awareness and also raise money for cancer research. You can read all about it at the link. I was going to […]
In Context—Working in a Series While Coughing
I managed to catch a cold bug and then come down with bronchitis so coughing has made sketching a bit difficult this fall. (Gasp, there have even been some missed days!) Today’s image is an example of the type of thing I’ve been up to. Thank goodness for the Sktchy App when you’re ill. So […]
Using Photoshop to Quickly Change Background Colors in a Scan
Sometimes you finish a sketch and you wonder, what would happen if I did “this” or “that.” But maybe you don’t want to try “this” or “that” because you don’t want to lose what you already have. I tend not to use Photoshop to change my sketches just because I prefer to work with natural […]