Currently Browsing: pet portraits 20 articles
Zines: Another Way to Record Your Life, Interests, and Events
What is a zine? Well “Factsheet 5” defined a zine as “A small handmade, amateur publication, done purely out of passion, rarely making a profit, or breaking even.” We’ll start there. I’ve been making zines my entire adult life. I’ve made zines about food, shoes, snow piles, dogs (of course), movies, literature, and of course […]
Mixed Media Experiments Continue
This dog portrait was my warm up sketch to continue my mixed media experiments. I started with a brush pen sketch from a Sktchy muse reference photo. I used leftover gouache and then the dry media you can see listed on the recto page. I then searched for another photo reference on Sktchy and did […]
Have You Done Your Warm Up Sketches Today?
I hear from a lot of frustrated students. “My drawings don’t work.” “I messed up the page.” And permutations of those thoughts. The best remedy for this situation is always to make more sketches and “ruin” more pages! Things to try: Start you sketching session with quick sketches on loose paper. (Don’t throw them away. […]
What Do You Want in Your Journal—Aspirational Grids Help You Decide
After decades of journaling, I know what I want in my journal; I know what matters to me. But like everyone else, life is sometimes too busy, complicated, and simply exhausting, to have the time to fill my journal the way I would like. I find it useful to think smaller in my goals, not […]
Let’s All Enjoy Dog Noses Together
Life interrupted my blogging plans. The series I’d hoped to finish didn’t get organized. While I reorganize I think it’s wise to suggest we all enjoy something we love—and I love dog noses, maybe you do too? If not why not? Have you looked at a dog’s nose? I mean really, really looked at a […]
Attitude
Attitude—is it a glance, a glare, the curl of a hair, the posture, the stance? The incorporated whole embodying presence.
Blick’s White Sulphite Drawing Paper
The other day a friend stopped over with some of Blick’s White Sulphite Drawing Paper. She was going to do some gel printing on it, but she thought I might enjoy testing it. I did. I videotaped my first drawing session using this paper. You can hear my opinions about the paper and learn other […]
Leftover Paint
Sometimes I’m just in a mood. I might have a lot of paint leftover on the palette, I might start drawing with a tool I don’t usually draw with and want to cover it up; I might… On this day it was a little bit of all of that—just exploring and experimenting. When the red […]
In Context: Bedtime Rituals
Sometimes, before I go to bed I like to sketch a dog. I miss having the girls around to sketch whenever I want to sketch. And I miss the fun it is to sketch a dog. So I find people on Sktchy who post photos of their dogs. And I sketch them before I go […]
Sketching on Any Old Paper You Have At Hand
Sometimes we can get into our heads. We can spend time telling ourselves all the reasons we can’t take time right now and paint. As a teacher for over 30 years I think I’ve heard every excuse there is: no space to set up, don’t have the materials I want to work with; I don’t […]