Currently Browsing: Sktchy App
Look Around for Elastic Faces
You’ll recall that last week I wrote about starting projects. My drawing examples were all faces. If you’re looking for muses to sketch and your family won’t pose for you (or can’t because your schedules don’t align) there are lots of folks on the Sktchy App who have elastic faces. Exaggerate them on not, it […]
Self-Assessment: 2018—Filling Journals, Using Up Paint
Some Background and The Brand of Paint I’ve Been Using Lately Yes, this painting actually has something to do with self-assessment and goal setting. First I want to say something about the materials… While I did sketch some more after painting this image yesterday (Dec. 31, 2018) this turned out to be my final […]
When Drawing Isn’t Fun
Recently a student wrote to my Drawing Practice group that she wasn’t sketching daily and wasn’t having fun when she did draw. Despite the fact that what she was drawing looked great and showed that all her hard work was paying off, she couldn’t see the value in it. This can happen to anyone at […]
Greens, Grays, and Canson Heritage Watercolor Paper
Tuesday I met up with a couple artist friends for lunch and afterwards we trekked across the street to Wet Paint, each with some art supply on our list. For me I was picking up some white gouache to test. Funny how that goes, I ended up sorting my paints when I got home and […]
Looking Back at InkTober 2018
I frequently work for days and weeks at a time in ink only. I have an early, childhood love of dip pens and inky fingers. I love working with the brush pen directly, and taking chances with bold brush lines. This year I was also getting ready to go to a sketching conference and wanted […]
Piecemeal Style Portrait of Two Dogs
Today’s sketch is one of my favorites of my year so far. I made it using a Sktchy muse photo for inspiration and in the photos of my working process you’ll be able to see how I pull a photo up on my iPad and position the iPad to work, whether at a drawing table […]
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 […]
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 […]
New Winsor & Newton Watercolor Paper Part 3: Professional Hot Press
This is the third and final part of my three part series on the new watercolor paper lines from Winsor & Newton: Professional, which is their wood-free fine-art line; and Classic which is their wood-pulp (but acid free) paper. See part one in the series here. Note that this is the NEW Winsor & Newton […]