Currently Browsing: Earth’s World 72 articles
Mixed Media Portrait on Toned Paper
If you’re going to play around with mixed media I encourage you to seek out toned papers. The strokes and values you achieve on the toned background make a fun departure from white paper. This sketch of an Earth’s World Fairgoer (who was wearing black lipstick) is in a hand bound journal I made with […]
Warm-up Sketches and Studies
I don’t think people spend enough time doing warm-ups and studies. I think part of the hold up is that people listen to their internal critics and buy into the “it’s got to be perfect” baloney. But part of the hesitation in doing more studies and warm-up sketches grows also out of a worry over […]
Mixed Media Portrait Supplies
Sometimes you work in watercolor and you pick up some color pencils too. It’s fun, why not? Especially if you spent your childhood working with color pencils. I started this portrait of a fairgoer from Earth’s World using a black grape Prismacolor pencil. (It’s not black, it’s not overly strident. I enjoy it. I also […]
Another Limited Palette Portrait
You can click on the image to see an enlargement and read the text. I’ve got the colors swatched: Saturn Red, a cool red which I think is Quin Pink (based on how it’s reading in the finished portrait), Indanthone blue (PB60) and Azure Cobalt blue (because I love the granulation), Green Gold, Burnt Sienna […]
Painting on Toned Paper Watercolor (Mostly)
You don’t have to work in gouache to paint on toned paper. I’ve written about this before. You can use your watercolor paints with less water and achieve rich, saturated colors that work well on toned paper. If you need a lighter color over a dark base you can of course mix a little bit […]
Limited Palette From Leftover Paint
At the end of last year I was sketching in a 10 x 10 inch journal I had bound with Strathmore 500 Series Printing Paper. This paper isn’t sized for wet media like watercolor. It’s meant to be printed on. But it was sent to me in large sheets and I thought, “Why not bind […]
A Short Review of Tonic Watercolors from Federal Color
“Why do you do this to yourself Roz?” you may be wondering? Sometimes I wonder too why I feel so compelled to test watercolor brands. I love my Schmincke Pan watercolors and I love my Daniel Smith Tube watercolors. I hope they never change the formula or quality of those paints. But because change happens […]
Another Grid
Lots of grids lately—something I like to keep coming back to. I’m including this grid, of sketches from Earth’s World Fairgoers, today because it will lead up to something later—a project post I’m taping for the end of the month. My point is to encourage you to look for patterns in your journaling and see […]
In Context: Still Good Advice
I found this Earth’s World Fairgoer in my digital file from October 2024. The advice is still good. In fact I think I’ll do that as soon as I post this. (Click on the image to read the text.) Meanwhile, more advice, this time from me to you—if you want to think about color it’s […]
Cerulean Blue Chromium—Does it Stay or Does It Go?
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my friends like to talk to me about pigments. A couple years ago my friend Paul started talking to me about Cerulean Blue Chromium (CBC). In the Daniel Smith line it’s PB36. There is no standard usage of paint names in the industry so in a different line a different […]