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Who Says I Don’t Paint Selfies?
Yep this is a selfie of me. I was showing the painting in a Zoom meeting with an art group and I realized it was me—after I realized we no longer had rule of law in the U.S. Oddly it’s one of the first color illustrations I’ve made in the first 3 months of the […]
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. […]
Thumbnails: Working Out Ideas for a Series
Sometimes thumbnail sketches come after you’ve made a painting or a sketch. The sketch you just completed sparks ideas for a series, or thoughts on page composition, or in today’s example—what to do with ears if you want a certain scale of portrait on the page. So what you see today is a painting that […]
Another Reason to Sketch and Paint the Same Subject Multiple Times
Continuing my thoughts from Friday’s post I wanted to add another reason why it is a good idea to sketch and paint the same subject multiple times—the fun of trying different media out and seeing how the use of different media changes your interpretation. On this page spread I first sketched a a watercolor portrait […]
Sit Down and Work
I’ve frequently written about the need to sit down and work even if you don’t feel you have the creative juice to do so. Lately physical issues have been sapping my energy. But I have a not-so-secret weapon to combat lack of energy—a life-long art habit. It might not always feel comfortable or even […]
Thinking about Portraiture, Doodles, and Stylization
When I sketch I think about a lot of things. Not just the process of sketching. My mind turns over how I’m experiencing the sketching. Questions arise as to why am I sketching what I’m sketching. A thousand thoughts for every sketch. My brain is always going. Typically I write these thoughts on a separate […]
Just Having a Go—Adapting and Pivoting
This is my favorite painting of 2023. It’s a portrait of a muse on Sktchy (now called Museum by Sktchy). Chris Jones has one of the greatest noses on the planet and I’m always sketching him. I love the painting so much I framed it and hung it outside my studio door so I see […]
Wrap Up for 2024—Evaluating My Visual Journaling Practice
Despite the physical setbacks and challenges I faced in 2024, I see 2024 as a huge success for a reclaiming or recalibrating of my on-going journal practice. (You can read about the challenges in my December 30, 2024 post) I like to share my end-of-year evaluations with my blog readers because I hope that […]
More: Tools Really Do Change the Way You Draw
This is part two of the current series on tools changing the way that you draw. Specifically pens! You can see part one here. Today I’ve putting up three sketches of musician and artist John Lurie. He has had a series on HBO about his life on a Caribbean island. It’s a show where he […]
Getting Something Down on the Page
This is a sketch from 2020. I was four months out from the second cataract surgery and I think I’d already had one secondary operation to zap some cloudiness. (But it didn’t resolve any of the double vision issues.) I was frustrated early one morning, unable to sleep. I scribbled. It felt great to get […]