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Studying Other Artists, Or Dealing with a Plateau in Artistic Development
Recently one of my Drawing Practice students mentioned that she’d been discouraged to see the “before” and “after” artwork someone had posted on Facebook. Some of the artists included showed art from childhood and adulthood. Others posted work that was only a couple of years apart, yet showed great development of representational facility. All were […]
The Essence of Watercolour: A Book by Hazel Soan
Near the end of this past summer I received a note from Batsford asking if I would like to review a the Hazel Soan book: “The Essence of Watercolor.” (I provided the above link to Amazon so you can read more about the book and see a flip through one reader has put up. I’m not […]
Experimenting with Line Quality And Working Method
Typically I like to work with one pen throughout an image and get a variety of line types from that pen by the way I angle the pen and the pressure I use. In the past couple of years, because of approaches I’ve tried during life drawing co-op settings where I take a larger variety […]
Wil Freeborn’s New Watercolor Painting Book
I just purchased a copy of artist Wil Freeborn’s new book Learning to Paint in Watercolor with 50 Paintings: Pick Up the Skils, Put on the Paint, Hang Up Your Art. (Quarry, ISBN 978-1-63159-277-5) (The link is to Amazon for convenience, but I’m not affiliated, but it where you can.) I read half of the […]
Artist’s Sketchbook—A New Book on Sketching from Cathy Johnson
Left: Cover of the Artist's Sketchbook. Click on the image to view an enlargement. The publication of a new painting or sketching book from Cathy Johnson is always an happy and exciting event for me. Johnson is one of my art heroes. Like many other artists I was first aware of her work through her how-to-articles […]
Paris, Je t’aime—A New Sketchbook Facsimile from Lapin
If you’ve viewed the art on UrbanSketchers.org chances are you will have seen the lovely sketches of Lapin. He works in ledger books so column lines in red and blue printed ink show through the delicate colors of his ink and watercolor sketches. Periodically he has compiled these into journal facsimiles so that the reader […]
Landscape Inspirations
Above: A page spread from my Shinola Sketchbook in which I use gouache to play with new colors and the inspiration of John Harris' work. I’ve been experimenting with different colors selections based on inspiration from the work on John Harris, a science fiction illustrator who makes stunning land- and cityscapes. (I took a […]
Grief and Reading
Above: My view of the bedroom as I sit in bed and look towards the closet. Page spread from my 7.5 inch square Nideggen journal, cropped on the right for privacy. Faber-Castell Pitt Calligraphy Pen. (I started with a Staedtler Pigment Liner but it was drying out and no fun, so I grabbed the other […]
Overcoming Resistance in Your Creative Life
Above: Selfie made looking in the bathroom mirror, sketching with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, on Nideggen (in a handmade journal that's about 7 1/2 inches square). (Text obscured for privacy.) Vertigo or not, I'm going to sketch every day. It keeps me tuned up for those days when I can really pull out all […]
Proportions and Features: Eyeballing vs. Systems
Left: Selfie made while looking in the bathroom mirror. A 7 x 7 inch, approx. journal (turned on its side so I could have a vertical) I made with Niddegen. I used a fiber-tipped brush pen containing Platinum Carbon Black ink cartridges. I'm wearing my favorite T-shirt—a 25 year old Lake Street Shirt design, given […]