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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 […]
A TV Tip: Remaking Things
If you enjoy watching people tinkering to transform things from one state to another, and then also talk about the fixing and making you might have fun watching “Saved and Remade.” It’s a British show and at the time I am posting it’s on Amazon Prime. People bring in old items that are busted or […]
Limited Palette Portrait
This weekend think about limiting your color choices so that you can maximize your color mixes. Here’s a portrait with the colors I used listed. Four pigments resulting in a lot of different mixes. When you mix with a limited palette your color mixes have a relationship to each mix that is also on your […]
Television: The Big Bang Theory
For various reasons I’ve been rewatching shows I watched when they first ran. These days with all the streaming possibilities it’s hard some days to remember what TV used to be like, with the three networks and seasons, and summer re-runs and everyone in the office watching the same top shows. Then of course we […]
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 […]
Staedtler Pigment Brush Pens with Color Ink: A Brief Review
Since the internet and phone are always paying attention to everything I do sometimes they suggest things they think might be of interest. Typically what is suggested isn’t what I’m interested in at all, because I am interested in what I’m interested in and usually nothing tangentially related. But the other day the internet suggested […]
In Context—Sarcasm and Compliments
The page spread is the post. You can click on it to enlarge it for reading. (A brush pen sketch in a gridded journal from Hemlock & Oak.) I always think it’s a good idea to capture these discussions in my journal.
Planners—It’s Already Time to Plan for Next Year’s Planner
For a decade I used a certain planner which was the right size—and well the right everything else: layout and paper quality. When that company stopped making planners (or datebooks) a friend told me her search led her to Hemlock & Oak and she thought I might like them too. So I checked them out. […]
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 […]