Currently Browsing: Paper
Greens, Grays, and Canson Heritage Watercolor Paper
Tuesday I met up with a couple artist friends for lunch and afterwards we trekked across the street to Wet Paint, each with some art supply on our list. For me I was picking up some white gouache to test. Funny how that goes, I ended up sorting my paints when I got home and […]
Looking Back at InkTober 2018
I frequently work for days and weeks at a time in ink only. I have an early, childhood love of dip pens and inky fingers. I love working with the brush pen directly, and taking chances with bold brush lines. This year I was also getting ready to go to a sketching conference and wanted […]
In Context: Traveling
Wonder how much of a Paul Rudd fan I am? I keep this lip sync battle on my desktop. I recommend you blow it up full screen and watch it any time you’re tired, waiting on hold, pissed off at a client, stumped by InDesign’s bizarre (compared to Quark’s) tools and tricks, or just need […]
The Blackwing Notebook
Sometimes I simply can’t help myself when I find lined notebook paper. A few months ago I was in Wet Paint and they had small notebooks by Blackwing (the company that makes the pencils with the rectangular erasers—I use the soft lead version to do my daily sudoku). The notebook is about 3.5 x 5.5 […]
Why Drawing Matters
Drawing matters for a number of reasons. Last week I had a note from a past student who had recently lost her mother. The student had stopped drawing for months. Grief disrupts life in a thousand ways. When I was writing to her I was thinking about my own maternal loss this year, the death […]
Trick or Treat Sketch?
I live in a neighborhood of university students. I think there are only five home-owners left. We don’t get trick-or-treaters for Halloween. If you live in a neighborhood where you do I suggest you position yourself by a window, and draw the costumed visitors. (This assumes that you have lights on your porch or front […]
Housekeeping: I’ve Had to Clear Out Subscribers Whose Emails Bounce
Today I received a note from the plug-in company that sends out my blog emails—those notes you get from me now and then about non-blog topics (I haven’t had time to write many of those this year); and the newsletter which comes every time I post (typically 3 times a week). They’ve told me that […]
In Context—Just for the Fun of Feeling the Paper
I was having so much fun with this sketch on real watercolor paper, that I forgot to write down the date and time on the page! That’s a lot of fun. I started working late one night in one of the 9 x 11 inch watercolor journals I bound last fall. It contains Fabriano Artistico […]
Packing for a Trip or Class
Recently a blog reader who is going to SketchKon (see the note later in this post) wrote to me and asked for tips on packing for such a trip. She wanted to know which supplies to bring and what the perfect pack for carrying supplies might be. Very simply keep the following in mind: • […]