Currently Browsing: Portraits
In Context—Fixing A Face
When you sketch directly in pen the lines aren’t always put down exactly where you wanted. But because it’s ink, at some point you decide not to correct your lines and create muddiness, but instead you simply finish the sketch and accept the loss of likeness. This isn’t a tragedy, it’s just part of the […]
More Scribbling
When I use an approach that appeals to me or interests me in some way I want to try it again to see if I can apply it to different subjects. After I sketched the image shown in Monday’s post I spent several days making experiments. I scribbled with all sorts of pens, with all […]
Playing with Lines, Scribbling…
As the caption states, I was trying something new when I drew this. I used a couple different pens and then added watercolor washes. But when I was working with the pens I didn’t try to consider my lines carefully and keep them to a minimum—I scribbled. It was great fun. And I felt that […]
Picking a Pen to Suit Your Paper
I write about picking your art tools and media to suit your paper (canvas, etc.) a lot on the blog. Lately I’ve been working in one of the journals I bound in #2017BigBind that I made with the OLD Gutenberg paper. (This is the Gutenberg paper made before 2017, before the cancelation of the paper […]
Draw a Beard, You’ll Feel Better
Draw a Beard, You’ll Feel Better—That’s my advice today. I have too many deadlines and I’m still working to organize the end of my year. I thought today’s image was a perfect way to stay in touch. I feel like I’m staring at my computer like this the past few weeks. But painting a beard […]
A Quick Review of the Leda Art Supply Sketchbook
Why a quick review of the Leda Art Supply Sketchbook? Specifically the “Baby Leda Pocket Sketchbook” which is what I purchased, but seems to be the same paper and construction as the larger version? The paper didn’t work out for me at all. It took three quick sketches to learn what I needed about this […]
What Happened to Rozwoundup.Typepad.com?
Over the weekend I killed my Typepad account. In October 2008 I started my blog on Typepad. For 8 years it worked well as a platform to share my work with friends and students. But the design was static and the features offered on Typepad didn’t match the needs I had growing forward. I decided […]
It’s Fun To Change Media Now And Then
Sometimes if you’ve been working steadily in one medium it’s good to take a break and do some sketching with a totally different medium. I’d been sketching so much with pen and watercolor before the Minnesota State Fair that I decided to start a sketchbook for color pencil quick sketches. (I say quick sketches because […]
Piecemeal Style Portrait of Two Dogs
Today’s sketch is one of my favorites of my year so far. I made it using a Sktchy muse photo for inspiration and in the photos of my working process you’ll be able to see how I pull a photo up on my iPad and position the iPad to work, whether at a drawing table […]
Working on Hahnemühle’s Expression Watercolor Paper
I would have sworn that I had already written a review of the Expression (100 percent cotton, cold press, 140 lb.) watercolor paper I’ve been testing. I received a block of this paper at the same time that I received a block of the Harmony paper which is also 140 lb. and is acid free, […]