Currently Browsing: Ink Wash 100 articles
Short Painting Sessions Yield Impactful Results
Don’t let your internal critic, or your busy schedule tell you there’s no time to paint. Pick up a brush and soften some dark-valued watercolor (which can be diluted for lighter values) and make a quick sketch. Focus on the shadow shapes you see, don’t think about anything else. Even if your end result isn’t […]
A TV Tip: Still Standing
Some television travel shows focus on scenery and local cheeses and such. “Still Standing” shows you the residents of Canadian towns through the eyes of comedian and actor Johnny Harris. I can’t recommend this show enough. Each half-hour show is packed with interesting people and a view of life in their town. The premise is […]
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 […]
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 […]
Beard Alert—Death by Lightning
OK, if you’ve been reading my blog for even 10 minutes you’ll know I enjoy sketching men with beards. And I enjoy sketching faces when I watch TV. So it’s no surprise that I loved every moment of “Death by Lightning.” It didn’t hurt one bit that along with beards aplenty to draw there was […]
In Context: My Life with Dried Out Pens
I am surrounded by dried out pens. I love that. Here’s a page that pretty much captures my day. Remember: If you don’t have “time to paint,” you’ve still got time for a sketch and some ink wash! (Brush pen and ink wash in a hand-bound journal made with the now defunct Nideggen. An Earth’s […]
Brush Pen and Ink Wash Meet Hair
Hair, wavy hair. I find it fascinating. It can be on the 1910 era women I’ve been sketching lately, or on actors playing gangsters on crime shows (which this actor was). Look about for what interests you. Draw that. The pages literally fill themselves.
Building a Journal Grid with Collage and Sketches
Here’s a journal grid I created last fall. We’ll start with the final view, with every portion of the grid completed. You’ll be able to follow along with the building of the grid in the images which follow. I was working in a handbound book which I made using the Old Gutenberg paper (pre 2017 […]
Thumbnails: Playing with the Page
Today is another pre-painted page with a thumbnail grid. The grid is only two spreads wide, but it’s also on one of those painting waste paper scraps. I chose to put it on this page because I had pre-painted the head and tail of the book and the colors on the scrap worked with those […]
Sketching Throughout the Day and Eating Steak Again
The other day I wrote about “sketching anyway.” I’d meant to follow up with another post about this topic. On this day I was sketching squash and chefs. But when I pulled up the file I was reminded that those pages also documented my jaw failure. (September 2024). I wasn’t quite ready to revisit that in […]