Currently Browsing: Drawing from life 18 articles
The Daily Potato: A Look at a Daily Drawing Project
At the end of September 2018 Jennifer Okano brightened everyone’s day by posting this wonderfully dimensional sketch of a sweet potato in a group I host for past students. She wrote: This month my focus has been on contours. Outside, inside, cross. Picking the oddest Japanese sweet potatoes at the market has given me a […]
Don’t Forget The 10th Great Minnesota Sketch Together
Don’t forget that the 10th Great Minnesota Sketch Together is being held on Saturday, August 25 and Monday, August 27. Come and sketch all day. Come to the meeting to share your work and stories. Come a meeting and get a button! All skill levels, all ages. It’s fun for everyone. You pay your entrance […]
Why Drawing Practice Matters and What Your Line Can Tell You
Readers of my blog know that I love observing my process. I can’t help myself. Even during emergencies. I think you can learn a lot about yourself and find ways to always sketch. On November 19 I fell in a friend’s foyer. I was rushing across the foyer to my fanny pack to change my […]
Waiting at the Dentist’s
I think it’s easy to always have a small pocket sketchbook with you so that you can make quick sketches of the people around you. When you’re somewhere it’s going to be impossible to get finished sketched (because either you or the model is going to leave quickly) find something you can focus on. I […]
Achilles’ Heel, Everyone’s Got One
My Achilles’ Heel, used to be the girls, and how quickly I could get them out of their crates (and with what tools) if there was an accident in the Bronco. Now it’s clear that my Achilles’ Heel is Dick’s eyes. Dick had cataract surgery almost a month ago. What should have been a quick […]
Working in a Series: Tootsie Pop Portraits
Above: Brush pen, Daniel Smith watercolor (on the Tootsie Pop) and Schmincke Horadam gouache background. In the Seawhite of Brighton square sketchbook I was using earlier this year. Sides masked with Nichiban Artist’s tape. I love Tootsie Pops. For years I couldn’t get them because we lived in Australia. They speak of very early childhood […]
Giving the Pentel Duo Point Brush Pen a Workout (and a bonus Eyebrow Update)
Above: A 12-minute sketch of Dick as he sat under a bright light on the couch in the TV room—9 x 12 smooth cardstock journal. While I’d done a shorter (time duration) first sketch with this pen, this was the first sketch where I explored all the different types of lines I could get from […]
Looking Back at Prepping for the Minnesota State Fair
Above: Warm up contour sketches of live finches in an aviary setting. I used a Tombow Calligraphy pen (hard tip) for the sketching and an extra bold (chisel tipped) Uni Posca paint pen for the purple background. I outlined the bird on the recto page with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen after the purple was […]
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 […]
Join Us for the Eighth Great Minnesota State Fair Sketchout
Above: The button for this year's sketchout. Artwork copyright 2016 by event organizer Marty Harris. Participants in the sketchout will receive a fabulous rectangular pin-backed button with Marty's great artwork. Wear it proudly at the Fair as you sketch, save it as a memento—along with the great sketches you put in your sketchbook! It's time […]