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In Context: Thoughts about Memory
Everything has been churned up in my life for the past several years. Covid slowed, to almost a halt, a downsizing that I’m just beginning to see the possible end to. But the last five years have had me also thinking a lot about memory. Then I find myself watching TV and another step of […]
Compositional Choices in a Journal
I was writing last month about choices on my Patreon blog and my mind keeps coming up with examples even though we’ve moved on. This one is about compositional choice. And we never really move away from compositional choices… First, nope, I didn’t suddenly get tired and give up on the rest of the head […]
Eyes—What I’m Looking at in June on Patreon
Whether you work in pencil, gouache, watercolor, pen, acrylic, eraser carving, silverpoint, color pencil…it doesn’t matter—rendering eyes is critical to the success of a portrait. The eyes show the character and soul of your subject. You want to get that down for your viewer. You want the gaze of your subject to draw the viewer […]
Direct Brush Sketching with Another Rigger/Liner Brush
Last month I did another rigger/liner brush test—sketching Rick Niece again. While I missed the likeness I had a ton of fun with the line and shapes I could make with the Silver Ruby Satin Scriptliner 2. This was, and looks like it will continue to be, my favorite, or one of my favorites going […]
Stubble
Sometimes it is fun to sit down and draw stubble. Lots and lots of stubble. I find this entertaining, and joyful. I find noting the growth direction, the length, the density—all fun. But then I sat in the Bell Museum for a whole afternoon years ago, drawing every line of fur on a deer. This […]
Another Liner Brush Test with a Direct Brush Portrait
Here’s another direct brush painting I did with a liner brush. I used only the Princeton Select Liner P3750L-1 #1 to make this portrait. I found it difficult to write with it (though not as difficult as some of the others I’ve tested), but just in case I’ll transcribe my notes: Soft, good pigment load, […]
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 […]
Sometimes You Want to Use a Fine-tipped Pen…
I love working with my various brush pens, but sometimes you have a subject that calls out for the use of a finer tipped pen. Besides that, Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media paper loves a fine-tipped pen. It’s a win-win. Explore the fine-tip pens you enjoy using today—what types of papers do they pair […]
This May on Patreon: Choices for Working Loosely
In May 2023 on Patreon I’m going to be demonstrating and discussing working loosely. What choices do you make? How do you go forward? How do you train your eye to be comfortable with looseness? You may have seen a speed video of this sketch on my Instagram account. On Patreon you can see […]
Two More Liner Brush Tests
I’ve got two sketch-tests for two different liner/rigger brushes. Both were executed in a pre-Covid Handbook that’s about 5.5 x 8 inches, with 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. (These pages don’t smell of wood and chemicals the way the pandemic purchased books do.) For these two I departed from my 3-color palette of the […]