Currently Browsing: Hahnemühle Sketchbooks 85 articles
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.
Getting Some Sketching Practice In
The other day I was writing about a friend alerting me to the fact that Amazon Prime is now carrying some of the seasons of “Portrait Artist of the Year.” I have loved this show from the moment I heard about it from one of my English friends. Here are a couple sketches I made […]
The Anti-gravity Properties of Hair
Sometimes you don’t need to finish a sketch, the idea just takes over. A red marker that was drying out, on a page spread in a large (about 11 x 8 inch) landscape Hahnemühle watercolor sketchbook. Pick up a pen and just go for it today.
Can’t Resist Those Almost Dried Out Brush Pens
Because of some equipment failures and other glitches in the system I’ve been behind in processing journal page scans. Here’s one of my favorites from 2020. This is a sketch, using a dried out brush pen, of the detective in “Dead Still.” I’ve written about the show before. It’s a favorite of mine. It involves […]
Lines: Achieving a Likeness with Different Approaches
I love working in a series just in an evening—sketching the same subject over and over to see how I can approach it with different tools, media, or even just something like line which is infinitely variable. I’ve posted three sketches of British actor Robert Morley in this post. I became a fan of his […]
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 […]
Now Use Even Fewer Strokes…
Did you spend your weekend working with your brush pen like I suggested on Friday? If so you’re ready to use even fewer strokes. Draw your subject with as as few strokes as possible. Think before you draw a contour line or make texture marks. Do you really need ink marks for that contour? For […]
As Few Strokes as Possible…
Pick up a brush pen. Get something down on the page in as few strokes as possible. Make each stroke count and enjoy the movement of the pen across the page. Repeat throughout the day as necessary. (Once an hour is great.) Have a fantastic weekend.
The Puzzle of Starbuck
Update: If you would like to see me sketch and paint this portrait it’s an extra August 2021 demo posted August 15, on my Patreon site—available to Tier 2 and Tier 3 subscribers. Look, I’ve read Melville’s “Moby Dick” three times in my life—I’m not about to read it again. But that doesn’t mean […]
A Little Bit of Collage Can Be Your Friend
You know how I like to paint on drawing paper? Sometimes the paper complains. That happened when I put in the Montana Marker background on this page spread. The marker ink/paint saturated and roughed up the paper at the top of the page. I didn’t want the paper to be weak there because it would […]