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The Daily Potato: A Look at a Daily Drawing Project
At the end of September 2018 Jennifer Okano brightened everyone’s day by posting this wonderfully dimensional sketch of a sweet potato in a group I host for past students. She wrote: This month my focus has been on contours. Outside, inside, cross. Picking the oddest Japanese sweet potatoes at the market has given me a […]
Simple Approaches for Backgrounds—A Five-Part Series: Part 2 Multi-color Backgrounds
This is Part Two of a five-part series on executing simple backgrounds in your journal or other artwork. Part One of this series can be found at this link. One of the simplest, yet most interesting approaches to a background, especially for a portrait, is to have broken color. This means that one or more […]
30 Pages/30 Days—A New Sktchy Challenge Starting March 1, 2018
I’m very excited to tell you about a new Sktchy Challenge starting March 1, 2018: 30 Pages/30Days. It’s an Art Journaling challenge. I’ve been asked to be one of the featured artists. I’ll even be live-streaming the creation of a journal page on March 13! Click here to register. What is Sktchy? Well, if you’ve […]
The Essence of Watercolour: A Book by Hazel Soan
Near the end of this past summer I received a note from Batsford asking if I would like to review a the Hazel Soan book: “The Essence of Watercolor.” (I provided the above link to Amazon so you can read more about the book and see a flip through one reader has put up. I’m not […]
In Context—Pumpkins
I really enjoy the fall because there are so many pumpkins around to sketch. I love playing with angle of where I’m sitting and how the pumpkin is turned because it can look so different. Mostly pumpkins give me an excuse to move the brush pen across the page. If you don’t have much time […]
If You Can’t Go Tight Go Loose
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Being Present
I’ve been organizing my files and clearing up the studio so I can move on to new projects. I found this loose journal page in the TV room on a stack of books. I also read in that room early in the morning while Dick is upstairs reading his newspaper and having his coffee before […]
I Didn’t Know It But I Was Starting A New Series
Often the idea for a new series comes to us by accident. We’re working (that’s when the muse can best find us) and things we’re working with combine in new ways, jog a memory, present a challenge, and bingo a new series pops into our minds. That’s what happened at the end of March this […]
Another Voice: Political Illustration of the Late 20th Century—An Exhibit at MCAD
This post was originally published on February 3, 2017 during my site transition. If you are interested in art or politics or both you need to go to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s new exhibit—Another Voice: Political Illustration of the Late 20th Century. It’s located in Gallery X, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis. It […]
Exquisite Corpse with Wet Paint
Above: An 18 x 30 inch acrylic painting I made on Stonehenge white. I began with a series of sketches and thumbnails. I blew elements up and composed them into place. I then drew my sketch with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and painted with Daniel Smith Acrylics, using large filberts—about 1- and 2-inches wide. At […]