Currently Browsing: Monochromatic 27 articles
Keep Lighting and Contrast Always in Mind
Keep lighting and contrast always in mind when sketching—I couldn’t say it enough when I was teaching. In almost every instance where a student was having trouble with a visual focal point or showing form, what was lacking was a clear sense of lighting and a follow through with contrast. It doesn’t matter which medium […]
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 […]
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 […]
In Context: Engineer Humor—A Laugh Riot Here, Really
To understand today’s post you’ll need to click on the image and read the text I put on my journal page. It’s that simple. I’ve made markers to guide you, but you do have to work for it by reading the text, because in context the humor works. Just like much of my life works […]
Working with My Non-Dominant Hand
In January this year I was working in the kitchen. I just moved my right hand at one point while swinging my body in another direction and I caught the top of my hand on the underside of the counter overhang. Ouch. Is there a “funny bone” in the hand? Of course I put ice […]
Painting Multiple Portraits of the Same Person (Or Other Subject)
People ask me all the time why I paint the same people (or dogs, birds, rocks) over and over. I find that it’s interesting. And challenging. A way to take another look. A way to learn something more about the subject and get it down on paper while developing some way to do that with […]
Keeping Your Momentum in Art Practice
One of the things I found particularly helpful last fall (2024) to keep my momentum going was to do many practice portraits on one page. This is something I come back to every so often. At the end of 2023 I spent a lot of time working with pages that had grids of different kinds […]