Currently Browsing: Sakura Pigma Professional Brush Pen 105 articles
Fun Sketching Hair Part 1
I can’t help myself. I love to sketch hair. Here’s a sketch from a 19th century photo. I only exaggerated only a little, really. Volumes of hair. Sweeping every upward. I love it. I wonder if he also wore a hat and what the wearing of a hat might do to his hairdo? Despite the […]
Two Things I’ve Just Learned
Since the pandemic started I’ve needed more containers for food. Just before the pandemic I had returned to baking bread after about a 6-year break. But with the pandemic I decided I’d rather make all the bread we eat than have Dick bring loaves home from the Co-op that had been handled and coughed on. […]
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 […]
Ink Wash Portrait: I Miss Gelatin-Sized Watercolor Papers
This is another comic guest from “As Yet Untitled with Alan Davies.” I’m sorry I don’t remember his name, the book is in storage. A lovely 8 x 7.5 inch journal that always seems a perfect size to me. I used brush pen and ink wash on this sketch. And I did pause the TV […]
Series Television’s Response To The Pandemic
There have been numerous ways that series television has responded to the constraints and realities imposed on production by the Pandemic. This is one of my favorites: Comedians sitting on couches watching episodes of “House Hunters.”
Different Drawing Approaches for the Same Subject
Just this week I was asked by nine people how I start my drawings. I use different approaches to start my drawings depending on what pen I’m using, the paper size, and even just how I feel my eyes are doing on any given day. For a more detailed response I explain that I have […]
A Little Bit of Collage Can Be Your Friend
You know how I like to paint on drawing paper? Sometimes the paper complains. That happened when I put in the Montana Marker background on this page spread. The marker ink/paint saturated and roughed up the paper at the top of the page. I didn’t want the paper to be weak there because it would […]
Testing Langton-Prestige Watercolor Paper
I have just started testing Daler-Rowney’s Langton-Prestige Cold Press Watercolor paper. In the above video you can see my first experiments with it and my first thoughts. If the video doesn’t play you can view it on Vimeo at this link. Normally in my demonstration videos I include any photo reference or still life […]
Using Your Journal to Ask Questions
A journal is for asking questions. You can ask visually, and you can also ask written questions. To me, often the most interesting thing about my journal pages is not what I drew on the page or what I noticed as I went through my day and captured visually, but the questions and thoughts I […]
More on Hair—Some Beards
Beards, I tend to draw them all the time. Towards the end of my live stream while drawing a portrait of Rick in a top hat I mention why beards are so essential a feature to draw. Some crisp white watercolor paper, a pen, some paint, a little bit of winding down at the end […]