Currently Browsing: Life Drawing 32 articles
Project Friday: Working Quickly in a Series of Sketches
There is always a lot of paper around the studio. Recently when I was putting away the camera equipment I “found” a large copier paper-sized box full of packets of 9 x 12 inch toned papers. There are light colors and dark colors. Some of it is smooth, some is textured. I purchased these packets […]
Get Something Down on Paper, Even if You Think You’re Too Close to Your Subject
This post was originally published on January 30, 2017 during my site transition. Above: A page spread from my 8 x 9.25 inch Shinola Sketchbook. It has 112 pages of 100 lb. (148 gsm) acid free paper. I purchased it for $28 at Wet Paint in St. Paul. I’ve written about these whenever I post from it, […]
Change Up Your Tools to Discover New Mark Making Possibilities
Left: Direct brush portrait of Dick as he sat in the TV room with a light crossing him. (9 x 12 inch sheet of smooth yardstick). Read below for more details. Paintings of Dick often start with leftover paints. On this day I had some gouache leftover from a trip to the Bell Museum. Lots […]
Family Members Often Make the Best Models
Above: Dark purple Prismacolor Pencil sketch in an 7.5 inch square handbound book containing Nideggen paper. You can clearly see the wavy laid texture in the background and clothing. I love this paper. This is CR, Dick's 94-year-old father, sitting quietly, posing for me. I had just given him a hair cut. It wasn't […]
Proportions and Features: Eyeballing vs. Systems
Left: Selfie made while looking in the bathroom mirror. A 7 x 7 inch, approx. journal (turned on its side so I could have a vertical) I made with Niddegen. I used a fiber-tipped brush pen containing Platinum Carbon Black ink cartridges. I'm wearing my favorite T-shirt—a 25 year old Lake Street Shirt design, given […]
Minnesota State Fair Dreaming…
Above: I walk into the Swine barn first, every time I arrive at the Fair. Faber-Castell Pitt Calligraphy marker on watercolor paper card. 8 x 8 inches. The first thing I do when I get to the Fair is walk into the Fairgrounds entrance near the Swine Barn, then walk into the Swine Barn and […]
Dove Chocolate Days and What I Think of Cheery Messages on Labels; Oh, and Another View of Richard
Left: Bienfang Watercolor brush (magenta; also red on the collar), Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, Montana Acrylic Markers in various colors. (There's that lilac I mixed and love so much.) Dick watching TV while I sketched him on a page in a 9 x 12 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media wirebound journal. "It's a '10-pieces-of-Dove-Day," I […]
Warm Ups Matter—Continued
Left: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch of Dick as he watched Ken Burns' "Mark Twain." With Montana acrylic markers. (The light green background is Golden Green Gold High Flow Acrylic. And I did throw on a light watery wash of Indanthrone blue watercolor in a couple places at the end.) Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media […]
Richard—Out of Sequence; and Some Television Thoughts and a Movie Recommendation
Above: Quick brush pen sketch of Dick lying on the couch. Some watercolor washes were added, and then the background laid in with a pink Montana Marker. In a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia. (I had to scan it multiple times and stitch it together and the bottom left didn't get scanned.) After I'd […]
Wrapping Up The Week With Richard
Left: 9 x 12 inch portrait of Dick in a wirebound Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal. Sketched with a Bienfang Watercolor Brush Pen (Magenta) and then painted over with layers of acrylic Montana Markers (15 and 30 MM tips; but a fine tip on the white leaky Sharpie Poster Paint pen I used in […]