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In Context: Still Good Advice
I found this Earth’s World Fairgoer in my digital file from October 2024. The advice is still good. In fact I think I’ll do that as soon as I post this. (Click on the image to read the text.) Meanwhile, more advice, this time from me to you—if you want to think about color it’s […]
Finishing Projects and a Little Bit about International Fake Journal Month
After decades of teaching art and creativity classes the many disguises of the internal critic never surprise me. But one aspect of the internal critic makes me the most sad—the way he pretends to be your buddy and fills you full of ungrounded expectations (for skill level and time to execute); and jollies you along […]
Lots of Palette Changes
I intended to simply write about this palette chart today, but in preparing this post I found lots of photos and scans of different palettes over the years. I am posting them today as a sort of virtual tour through my palettes since I’ve had the blog (2009; oops, actually going back to 2003 with […]
Fun with Grids and Studies: Or Things to Do with Leftover Paint
You always have time to make tiny sketches. Don’t forget that! Even the tiniest of sketches allows you to work on your observational, paint mixing, and shape comprehension skills. And in my case, fascination with hair and beard styles. Background Events I’m doing the last bit of journal index catch up I had hanging over […]
End-of-Year Journal Wrap Up
Blog readers know I like to do an end-of-year wrap up. I look back at my journal productivity. It helps me see an overview of my creative practice and formulate new goals and directions for the future. I also can see at a glance what is happening with my practice and how I might need […]
Journaling on a Circle Grid
For eleven days in September this year I worked on a “grid” made of circles, just for grins. I thought you might enjoy seeing the process and how the project grew. The first image in this post is the completed grid. I’m going to lose the quotation marks around the word grid—I see it […]
Ink Only? Paint It? Or Let It Go?
Everyday we make choices in our journals. The simplest for me is stop at ink only? Paint over the ink (opaquely or transparently)? Or leave the texture alone all together? We get to make a different, individual decision every time we turn a page in our journal. Long ago I was more strict in my […]
Skin Tones on Ultra-Smooth Hot Press Botanical Watercolor Paper
This portrait was painted on the ultra-smooth botanical watercolor paper I reviewed in April this year. You can see a full review of the paper here. On this day I was playing with some different pigments for skin tones. This is a fairgoer from Earth’s World. Of course the stubble attracted my attention. And the […]
Building a Journal Grid with Collage and Sketches
Here’s a journal grid I created last fall. We’ll start with the final view, with every portion of the grid completed. You’ll be able to follow along with the building of the grid in the images which follow. I was working in a handbound book which I made using the Old Gutenberg paper (pre 2017 […]
Creative Ideas Stick with Us and It May Take a Lot of Thumbnails to Work Them Through
Creative ideas stick with us over time. Sometimes it’s just days or weeks. Sometimes it’s months, years, and decades. The time something sticks with you is not necessarily a clue that you’re on to something worth pursuing. But it is an indication that your attention is still engaged. It makes sense to recognize these themes […]