Currently Browsing: Perfectionism
Project Friday—Let’s Collage
In this post I’ll walk you through a recent collage I made. This isn’t something that I preplanned. It’s simply something that I worked on with the materials at hand, moving from one thought to the next. I’ve turned the step-by-step into a Project Friday because I hope you’ll get up from the computer, make […]
Limited Choices Lead to Successful Projects
After my post last week about doing creative projects many people wrote in to tell me that they were inspired to start a project. One accomplished artist wrote in to ask advice: Just looking for advice. After listening to the podcast on projects I’ve decided to take up the challenge. Over the years I’ve […]
Drawing Practice: Two Things to Try When You’re Sick
We all catch a cold, come down with the flu, sprain a muscle or two, even break a bone now and then. But it’s still important to keep up with your drawing habit. I had a particularly rough time keeping up my daily practice the past few weeks. A cold went to bronchitis and my […]
What Do You Have on Hand?
It has been hectic here lately. I notice I’ve been getting grumpy. It’s not because I’m busy. I love being busy. It’s because I miss the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (and the Pentel Colorbrush Pen cousins). All my projects involve other media right now. They leave little time in the day for my tired eyes to […]
Journaling Superstition #20: Your Text and Your Image Need to “Make Sense” Together
Students tell me all the time, “I can’t write in my journal, I don’t have anything profound to say.” Or they worry, “I don’t want to write on my pages because my handwriting is so bad.” Or they fret that, “What I’m thinking about right now and want to write about doesn’t have anything to […]
Maintaining Momentum and Fun in Our Daily Practice
If we want to create a daily practice, whether it’s exercise, diet, thought, or art related, we need to make sure that we contain elements of fun in that practice. It’s those elements of fun which keep us coming back to the practice. And ultimately it’s the fun that we bring into our work that […]
Someone Really Wants to Take Gouache to the Fair
Left: The scan of my second chicken test on the Canson Plein Air Watercolor Board (cold press). This is 9 x 12 inches and done with a Uni Posca Marker, the Pentel Pigment Brush Pen with the squeezy barrel, a Montana Acrylic Marker, and Daniel Smith Watercolors applied with a Niji water brush. Completed under […]
If the Pen Leaks Make It a Feature
Above: Sketch of actor William Talman playing Hamilton Burger on “Perry Mason.” Masking tape (left and top left), Montana Acrylic marker for pink lines and orange background (and some other colors); with Sharpie water based poster paint markers (a light blue and a white). In an 8 x 8 inch Seawhite Sketchbook. So on Friday […]
Project Friday: Just Get Something Down on Paper
Above: Selfie made with bold Uni Posca pen (orange, the tip is about 1/4 inch wide) and a Sakura Pigment Medium Brush Pen (solid tip). The drawing is in a 9 x 12 inch Dylusions journal—which I cannot recommend for structural reasons specific to how I work. I'm sorry, but when I've worked in it […]
Cynicism, Hope, and Painting’s Life Lessons
Above: Sketch of Dick sitting in the TV room next to a bright light. Read below for details. Friday was movie night and we watched “Welcome to Happiness.” It’s a quirky film that doesn’t have super heroes, mutants, or trips into galaxies far, far away. I enjoyed almost every moment, though more than once I […]