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Tools Really Do Change the Way You Draw
I’ve met students who come to my classes who are totally frustrated with their materials and tools. They keep doing the same thing with their tools, using those tools, usually because an “expert” told them they were the best tools. Unfortunately the best tool for one artist might not be the best tool for another. […]
In Context: A Collage Doodle
I got to doodling one night in a journal I’d bound with 90 lb. Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper. And then I started to doodle with paper scraps. Pick up something you have at hand, just to break the rhythm, or simply because you want to play.
Reading Notes–from Delano Ames
What strikes you as important? Memorable? When you hear or read something do you jot it down? I’m always making reading notes. They have absolutely (usually, as now) nothing to do with my sketches on the page. They were just part of the same day. I jot them down, and move on. I do find […]
In Context: Everything Included on a Journal Page—How Do I Find It?
In my last two posts I wrote about just getting stuff down on the page. There’s one drawback to this approach if you have a noisy internal critic who likes to interrupt you and tell you what a mess of things you’re making. If you have 10 things on a page, many of which might […]
In Context: Productivity Matters in Visual Journaling
Productivity matters. I believe it matters more than pretty pages in visual journaling. I say this after keeping a journal almost daily for over 62 years. (I started very, very early because it was important to me to note down what I saw, and because my mother liked that I was occupied.) In my last […]
In Context: What Goes on the Journal Page?
There are a lot of ways to work out what needs to go down on your journal page. The most obvious way is to think about the overall design and layout of the page or page spread. I see a lot of visual journaling students tie themselves in knots as they compose a page—thinking where […]
In Context—Sketching Through Pain
Be sure to note the date—it’s last April! I’m doing just fine today and keeping up with all my physical therapy maintenance exercises. This is a couple sketches of Nic Sampson, an actor on “The Brokenwood Mysteries.” Click on this link to read my recent review of the series. (Hint, I’m a fan.) I […]
Snow Pile By Any Means Necessary
The weather is turning warm again, getting back into the 20s (Fahrenheit). I’ve been able to sketch a couple snow piles this winter, but I think it wasn’t until almost the end of December that I got one! Before the weather gets too warm and we want to think only of other things, I thought […]
Another Potential Journaling Hiccup: The Perfect Time and Place
Blog readers and students often write to me about their hopes and deferred dreams for their journaling and their art life. They live with the hope that if they can “just get through to retirement,” or “Just get through this current crisis [fill in the blank as to what that is]” that the clouds will […]
Journal Practice Hiccups?
I always tell people any day is a great day to start a journal practice. Start. But I know that many people think it important to have a milestone day like the first of the year for a starting point. If it gets them to start then I’m all for that. As a new […]