Currently Browsing: journaling 213 articles
In Context—Use Every Moment to Sketch
In December there were a lot of appointments and a good deal of rushing about. And I’d decided to fill a Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Soft covered journal (7.75 x 9.75 inch) in about 10 days. Of course. So it was important to use every moment to sketch. You can read about this moment […]
In Context: Spur of the Moment Decisions Because of Paper
The end of 2022 was was a bit exhausting for me. And I made some spur of the moment decisions all because of how much I love working on Strathmore 500 Series Mixed media paper. You can read about it by clicking on the image. Sometimes we speed up to slow down. And sometimes we […]
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 […]
In Context: Bedtime Rituals
Sometimes, before I go to bed I like to sketch a dog. I miss having the girls around to sketch whenever I want to sketch. And I miss the fun it is to sketch a dog. So I find people on Sktchy who post photos of their dogs. And I sketch them before I go […]
Tools Really Do Change the Way You Draw
I’ve met students who come to my classes who are totally frustrated with their materials and tools. They keep doing the same thing with their tools, using those tools, usually because an “expert” told them they were the best tools. Unfortunately the best tool for one artist might not be the best tool for another. […]
In Context: A Collage Doodle
I got to doodling one night in a journal I’d bound with 90 lb. Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper. And then I started to doodle with paper scraps. Pick up something you have at hand, just to break the rhythm, or simply because you want to play.
Reading Notes–from Delano Ames
What strikes you as important? Memorable? When you hear or read something do you jot it down? I’m always making reading notes. They have absolutely (usually, as now) nothing to do with my sketches on the page. They were just part of the same day. I jot them down, and move on. I do find […]
In Context: Everything Included on a Journal Page—How Do I Find It?
In my last two posts I wrote about just getting stuff down on the page. There’s one drawback to this approach if you have a noisy internal critic who likes to interrupt you and tell you what a mess of things you’re making. If you have 10 things on a page, many of which might […]
In Context: Productivity Matters in Visual Journaling
Productivity matters. I believe it matters more than pretty pages in visual journaling. I say this after keeping a journal almost daily for over 62 years. (I started very, very early because it was important to me to note down what I saw, and because my mother liked that I was occupied.) In my last […]
In Context: What Goes on the Journal Page?
There are a lot of ways to work out what needs to go down on your journal page. The most obvious way is to think about the overall design and layout of the page or page spread. I see a lot of visual journaling students tie themselves in knots as they compose a page—thinking where […]