Currently Browsing: Process
Warm Ups: Some More Thoughts…
I’ve written about warm ups many times, but readers still often forget how important they are. So I’m sharing some warm up pieces from my journals again today, before I get some more warm ups done and get my day going. My goal with warm ups is to check myself on my ability to correctly […]
Have Fun By Working on a Different Surface
Sometimes it’s fun to work on a toned surface, whether you create that tone (or texture) yourself by preprinting the surface, or your work on a surface that comes toned. Typically I’ll work on toned paper but I had some chipboard in the studio for another project and grabbed a piece to sketch on the […]
Step By Step: Pen, watercolor, and Collage
I make sketches I call piecemeal portraits because I end up running out of paper and have to add paper to them. Typically I do this on loose sheets. But recently I’ve found myself doing it sometimes in my journal too. Today’s portrait is one that I made in my regular journal. The journal is […]
Projects versus Series?
Sometimes in classes I have students ask me what the difference is between a project and a series. I believe the difference is basically slim to none depending on how the user of these words understands and defines them. Dictionary.com defines “project” as something that is contemplated, devised, or planned; plan; scheme. a large […]
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 […]
Everyone Needs a Side Project
A few weeks ago my friend Danny Gregory called me up to discuss my thoughts about projects. Most readers know my Daily Dots—daily drawings of my Alaskan Malamute bitch Dottie made the last 4 and a half years of her life. But friends and students know that I’m always engaged in whatever the latest project […]
Blast from the Past: Sketch in Any Moment
I was clearing out the flat file while under the weather and not fit for much. I found today’s sketch and scanned it. Readers know that from July 1, 1998 through January 26, 2003 I drew a sketch of my Alaskan Malamute Bitch Dottie every day. I sometimes forget that besides filling 43 volumes of […]
Project Friday: How To Deal with Crappy Days in Your Visual Journal
Here’s a question I’m asked frequently: How do you deal with crappy days in your journal? Not long ago a student explained to me that when she kept a written journal she would often write about the stress and frustration in that journal, but then never look back at it. She felt that her visual […]
In Contest—Paper Comparisons
If you are testing papers to see whether you like working on them then it is important that you test all your usual techniques to ensure that the paper will respond in ways that support those techniques. Since prepainting backgrounds is an important part of the play and puzzle aspect of my practice comparison tests […]
Simple Approaches for Backgrounds—A Five-Part Series: Part 4 Fold Outs
This is Part Four of a five-part series on simple approaches to backgrounds in the visual journal and paintings. See Part One here. Last December I was buried beneath the latest of the blog transfer issues. I didn’t get to post a number of images and posts I’d worked up. Today’s image falls well into discussion […]