Currently Browsing: In Context 177 articles
In Context: More Brush Pen Talk—Hair
You can click on the image to read the text note on the spread for this “In Context” post. More brush pen hair for the week. The bonus of stubble. When you are sketching with a brush pen life is really pretty great. (And you can cope better with all the times you aren’t sketching […]
In Context: Studies Are Also Thoughts about Color Mixing
A peek in my journal—that’s what “In Context” posts are. And typically not a lot of text in the post. Here you see a gouache painting on toned paper. This happens to be a hand-bound book I made with Annigoni Designo. It’s about 7-1/2 x 9 inches closed. (All my rulers have migrated downstairs where […]
In Context: Meet Elvis a New Drawing Model
It has been awhile since I added to my menagerie of realistic animal and dinosaur replicas. This spring after a physical therapy appointment Dick and I stopped in at Hub Hobby to see what they had on offer. It was literally one block off the highway and I didn’t even have to pout or cajole. […]
In Context: Mixed Media Chickens
Sometimes it’s late and you want to get one more sketch in. I find this especially true when I’m trying to take a looser approach. Past bedtime—too tired to be fussy about details and accuracy—it’s a great time for one more sketch. But if something isn’t keeping you up I suggest you get to bed […]
In Context: A Portrait and Some Beans…and Some Paint
You can click on the image to see an enlargement. This is an “In Context” peak into my journal. (Hand-bound journal with the now defunct Winsor & Newton Watercolor paper which had gelatin sizing. I do not recommend the current paper sold under this name.) Fill some journal pages this weekend!
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.
In Context—Painting Rocks
All my students are groaning right now as they read the title of this post: “In Context—Painting Rocks.” Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on about Ruskin, today. I just wanted to post this rock portrait because April marked a return to painting in color for me, after a long bout of pen and […]
In Context: Compliments from an Engineer
On the journal page in today’s post I’ve done a TV study (verso page) and a watercolor sketch of a man from a 19th Century photo (exaggerating his hair of course; recto page). But I’d like to call your attention to the top left corner of this spread when I jotted down the best compliment […]
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 […]
In Context: The Difference a Year Makes
The journal reminds us about our lives—what happened on a given day; what questions we’re asking ourselves; what answers we discovered… I thought this glimpse of an interchange between me and Dick, in a happier time, when I still skipped, would bring a smile. Despite the writos—”I careened into a wall.” And “a conversation I […]