Currently Browsing: Experiments
Still More about Scribbling
This is part three of a three-part series on some scribbling portraits I’ve been working on. Check Monday’s and Wednesday’s posts from this week for the others. After a few sketches it seemed obvious to me that I needed to try a female subject. I find it difficult to sketch women. Wait, not difficult, simply […]
More Scribbling
When I use an approach that appeals to me or interests me in some way I want to try it again to see if I can apply it to different subjects. After I sketched the image shown in Monday’s post I spent several days making experiments. I scribbled with all sorts of pens, with all […]
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 […]
Picking a Pen to Suit Your Paper
I write about picking your art tools and media to suit your paper (canvas, etc.) a lot on the blog. Lately I’ve been working in one of the journals I bound in #2017BigBind that I made with the OLD Gutenberg paper. (This is the Gutenberg paper made before 2017, before the cancelation of the paper […]
Testing Papers for the 2018 Minnesota State Fair
Before I go to the Fair each year I test a bunch of papers to see which bound book (containing that paper) I want to take and work with, or which loose sheets I want to carry and work upon. On this sheet I also worked with a Niji Waterbrush. I knew that for some […]
A Quick Review of the Leda Art Supply Sketchbook
Why a quick review of the Leda Art Supply Sketchbook? Specifically the “Baby Leda Pocket Sketchbook” which is what I purchased, but seems to be the same paper and construction as the larger version? The paper didn’t work out for me at all. It took three quick sketches to learn what I needed about this […]
It’s Fun To Change Media Now And Then
Sometimes if you’ve been working steadily in one medium it’s good to take a break and do some sketching with a totally different medium. I’d been sketching so much with pen and watercolor before the Minnesota State Fair that I decided to start a sketchbook for color pencil quick sketches. (I say quick sketches because […]
Warm Ups: Some More Thoughts…
I’ve written about warm ups many times, but readers still often forget how important they are. So I’m sharing some warm up pieces from my journals again today, before I get some more warm ups done and get my day going. My goal with warm ups is to check myself on my ability to correctly […]
Have Fun By Working on a Different Surface
Sometimes it’s fun to work on a toned surface, whether you create that tone (or texture) yourself by preprinting the surface, or your work on a surface that comes toned. Typically I’ll work on toned paper but I had some chipboard in the studio for another project and grabbed a piece to sketch on the […]
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 […]