Currently Browsing: Roz Stendahl 2117 articles
Another Potential Journaling Hiccup: The Perfect Time and Place
Blog readers and students often write to me about their hopes and deferred dreams for their journaling and their art life. They live with the hope that if they can “just get through to retirement,” or “Just get through this current crisis [fill in the blank as to what that is]” that the clouds will […]
What’s Happening on Patreon in December?
This month on my Patreon site I’ll be discussing skin tones. In my demonstration I’ll discuss the color choices I’m making while I paint. In additional video chats and written posts I’ll be walking you through other color choice decisions. Since color choice is important in whatever you paint (or sketch with color pencils or […]
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 […]
Color Notes
Often I’ll make my color notes on the same page spread when I’m working. This is a brush pen sketch and watercolor in an Arteza Watercolor sketchbook that’s about 9 x 11 inches. (You can read my review comments about this sketchbook by using the keyword in this blog’s search engine. Basically, not a […]
Embrace the Wonkiness
Too many of my students fuss and fuss over a wonky line, or worse, stop a sketch altogether because a likeness is lost. But I think there is great fun in diving in with a bold pen and feeling about for the features, one wonky line after the other. Finishing something leads to something else […]
Annals of Downsizing: Why Not Fold Some Paper?
I’ve got 10,000 things to do, but why not fold 800 sheets of paper? While clearing out my storage room I found a box of pre-cut 17 x 11 inch paper with the grain running with the 11 inch side. I had it cut years ago to use for printing some zines I was making. […]
Get Serious about Pen Health
OK you’ve read over and over on the blog that I love drawing with pens that are drying out. BUT… Someone has to get serious and march around the house and throw out all the really dried out pens. It’s time to start fresh. On the evening of this drawing if a fresh pen had […]
Disagree with Yourself Now and Then
This is a quick sketch I made while watching “Dead Still.” (I’ve already written about how much I enjoyed the first season of this historical crime show centered around post-mortem photography). I wanted to put in values quickly and I used vertical lines. My note at the bottom of the page says I should have […]
Since I Was on the Topic of Hair…
Hair, it’s one of the things that pulls me to draw a portrait. How does that person have his or her hair? I am particularly susceptible to Jane Austen dramatizations—so much wonderful 18th century or 19th century hair depending on how the film decides to go with fashion at the cusp of time. Or anything […]
Ink or Paint, Either Way Thank Goodness for Hipsters
I am so grateful to the younger generination, especially the hipsters who devote real energy to their facial hair. There is nothing more fun for me than sketching beards, and there are great beards out there now to sketch. This young man actually had Dundrearies! Named after a character in the 1858 British play […]