Currently Browsing: Ears 44 articles
Notes to Yourself in Your Journal
I find the practice of making even brief notes during or at the end of a sketching session help me focus where I want to go next. If something turns out too elongated I try again, often with a different pen or tool, as I did here. And I might even make a small diagram […]
Upgrading Your Paper Choices for Sketchbooks, Visual Journals, and Art
To get the best results when sketching and painting it makes sense to use the best quality materials that you can afford. Then upgrade those materials as your budget allows. Recently a blog reader wrote in saying that she had upgraded her art supplies to artist level watercolors (mostly Daniel Smith), purchased some quality […]
Another Watercolor Sketch in an Arteza Watercolor Book
I’m still working my way through an Arteza Watercolor book. It’s 8.3 x 11.7 inches. I wrote a review of this journal and paper in a ninepart series (I think it was only nine). You can enter the words “Arteza Watercolor Book” in my blog’s search engine and all the posts will […]
In Context: Looking at the Arteza Watercolor Book Part 4
Since there is no writing on this page in my Arteza Watercolor Book—direct brush painting with watercolor. I used a 5/8 inch flat wash brush and also a size 10 watercolor round for some of this. I should have worked a little harder to make enough wash for the background to not […]
Project Friday: Go Ahead, Paint on Lightweight Drawing Paper
If there is one thing I would like to communicate to blog readers it’s that you need to go ahead and paint on whatever paper you have at hand. Simply because in the process of making the paint stick to paper that isn’t meant to have wet media on it you learn something about the […]
Using Watercolor Flats and a Bit on Back-Runs
In this experiment on Canson Heritage Hot Press 140 lb. watercolor paper from the end of 2018 I used only a 1 inch large flat watercolor brush. I’ve written other posts about how you can use the edge of the brush to do more linear bits, like the creases in the forehead, but in the […]
Painting on Canson Heritage Watercolor Paper
I’ve already written a little bit about Canson Heritage Watercolor paper in a couple posts on the blog. I’ve admitted that I like the way my pens work on its hot press surface. I’ve admitted that even though it has a non-gelatin sizing I enjoy working on it either with transparent washes or with […]
Flat Brushes for Watercolor
In this brush pen portrait from 2017 I used a large two-inch wide flat brush to lay in washes. Then a 0ne-inch wide flat for details. (You can turn a flat on its edge remember.) It was great fun. Flat washes on a rounded set of surfaces. I’d been playing with flat brushes before […]
Cooking Shows and Interesting Ears
Yep I sketch while I watch TV. I’ve written about it a ton on the blog in the past 11 years! Well one of the reasons I love to do this is I love EARS. I don’t know if there is a “season” for cooking shows. New competition shows in cooking seem to start all […]
Do You Stop Or Keep Pushing?
One of the things I’m asked most frequently by students is, “When do I know I’m finished with my [painting/sketch]?” I’ve heard many people give the flip response, “When you realize that you’ve gone to far, then you know you should have stopped.” It’s actually more simple and more complex than that. First, yes, if […]