Currently Browsing: gouache
Textures 2018 Class Registration Closes February 3: Why Use Textures?
I am offering my “Textures: Backgrounds for Visual Journaling and Mixed Media” online again this year. The 2018 class begins on February 3. There are 6 weeks of lessons in which students work through the process of creating backgrounds for their artwork. I share my favorite materials and approaches and provide detailed information on on […]
In Context—Just Draw
In the “In-Context Series” I promised I wouldn’t write a whole lot of text. Just let the page spread stand for itself, but sometimes I feel the need to say a little more, and include a detail image. This type of spread is what you often see in my journals: a prepainted page with a […]
Hair—Something I Love To Sketch
One of the things that attracts my eye to a possible face to sketch is the hair of that person. I like it when people get inventive with their hairstyles. It’s a little bit of living vicariously for me, because as you might know I haven’t changed my hairstyle since I was in my twenties! […]
Carl Has Come Home
Confused about Carl Too (see Friday) and Carl? Carl was my first Giganotosaurus model. He’s a Schleich, but he’s really large. I’ve never seen another one of their models be this large. He’s the only one I’ve seen in person. The last at the hobby store and then there were none. But I’ve enjoyed sketching […]
Summer Chicken Sketch Out with Metro Sketchers
Earlier this summer a local Minneapolis couple who keep chickens invited Metro Sketchers over to their home—they have 6 chickens! Sketchers filled the yard on fold out and lawn chairs while the chickens weaved in and about nibbling on cracked corn sprinkled on the grass. One chicken decided that my wash water (which didn’t have […]
Getting Used to New Glasses
Since April I’ve been getting used to a new prescription in my glasses. This is always a stressful time. Since March I’ve had two new pairs of glasses—the first pair didn’t work at all (everything in the close vision was double!). Because I was working around the clock in the middle of two projects and […]
A Little Bit of Piecemeal Evolution: Dog Portrait
The other day I was working on a dog sketch from an image on Sktchy. I ran off the page with my green brush pen sketch and of course turned it into a “Piecemeal Style” painting, complete with washi tape and of course finished off with gouache. I didn’t think about taking photos at each […]
Looking at a Piecemeal Portrait
I’ve been writing about my “piecemeal portraits” for a couple years now. Recently I took a couple process shots while I was making one from a photo inspiration on Sktchy. My photographs aren’t taken with lights and so the color is off, but you can still get the idea. I’m working on setting up a […]
There’s No Undo with Traditional Media—But You Can Scan Versions!
Stressful times send me to the drawing board. We’ve got some family health issues going on right now, so after Dick went to bed last night I stayed up and played with paint for two hours. I was going to do a quick water-soluble graphite portrait sketch from a Sktchy image. But that didn’t satisfy […]
Maybe a New Project? Maybe…?
Recently I’ve been talking with friends. Things happen in life. We need to talk things over. If we are very lucky our friends give us warm, compassionate, heartfelt, and world-wise wisdom while we chat. I think it is important that we listen to that advice. Listen both as a person and as an artist. Sometimes […]