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Direct Brush Sketching with Another Rigger/Liner Brush
Last month I did another rigger/liner brush test—sketching Rick Niece again. While I missed the likeness I had a ton of fun with the line and shapes I could make with the Silver Ruby Satin Scriptliner 2. This was, and looks like it will continue to be, my favorite, or one of my favorites going […]
Another Liner Brush Test with a Direct Brush Portrait
Here’s another direct brush painting I did with a liner brush. I used only the Princeton Select Liner P3750L-1 #1 to make this portrait. I found it difficult to write with it (though not as difficult as some of the others I’ve tested), but just in case I’ll transcribe my notes: Soft, good pigment load, […]
Leftover Paint
Sometimes I’m just in a mood. I might have a lot of paint leftover on the palette, I might start drawing with a tool I don’t usually draw with and want to cover it up; I might… On this day it was a little bit of all of that—just exploring and experimenting. When the red […]
Excitement over Lard
You’d think it was a slow day from my excited comment about lard on this journal page. It’s wistfulness. I bought two types of lard from “Fat City.” They reached expiration date (even stored in the freezer!) because I didn’t have the kitchen space to set up to make some savory pies, during this downsizing […]
This May on Patreon: Choices for Working Loosely
In May 2023 on Patreon I’m going to be demonstrating and discussing working loosely. What choices do you make? How do you go forward? How do you train your eye to be comfortable with looseness? You may have seen a speed video of this sketch on my Instagram account. On Patreon you can see […]
Two More Liner Brush Tests
I’ve got two sketch-tests for two different liner/rigger brushes. Both were executed in a pre-Covid Handbook that’s about 5.5 x 8 inches, with 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. (These pages don’t smell of wood and chemicals the way the pandemic purchased books do.) For these two I departed from my 3-color palette of the […]
More Direct Brush Painting With the Liner Brush
This is about sketch 4 or 5 in my series of testing liner brushes. I like this dog sketch (and it’s already on my Instagram page so I thought I’d round out the week with it). I’m still using Schmincke’s Ocean Grey with a warm and a cool red. The difference here is that I’ve […]
Journaling Predictions and Creative Momentum
Even after all the decades I’ve kept a journal I am still amused by the lack of accuracy in its (i.e. my) predictions. Constantly surprised in humorous ways how things don’t turn out as I suspect. Always amazed at how the conscious mind might be working at something and all the while the mind’s creative […]
In Context: Don’t Sketch When You’re Even Too Tired To Sit In A Chair!
A visual cautionary tale today. I was working from a reference photo on the Museum App (f.k.a. Sktchy) and I thought this person wearing bunny ears would be fun if I treated those ears not as attachable costume, but real ears! Sadly, I was so tired (sleep has been at a minimum lately) that when […]
Paint Advice: Filling Watercolor Pans with Tube Paint
Note: I’ll be published this post on my Patreon site in answer to some question. I think it is useful here as well because I do get a lot of questions on this aspect of my practice and many posts on RWU relating to it are now in the non-public archive. I hope this will […]