Currently Browsing: watercolor 230 articles
A Watercolor Sketch of Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong’s character in “New Tricks” wears a knitted watch cap in many episodes. And so in March 2021 when I was sketching him every day I ended up sketching him in such a cap quite a lot. That’s fine because I think it’s fun to sketch knitted textures. Here is the sketch before I […]
Missing the Fair
I’m still feeling waves of Fair deprivation. Happily while I can’t go to a fair yet, Earth of Earth’s World has been going to fairs. I asked, and Earth is happy for artists to sketch from the photos up on the website if you give attribution. #Earthsworld if you’re on Instagram. Here’s a sketch I […]
Adventures with Unknown Paper
A few years ago I stopped in at Wet Paint and there was a box of 22 x 30 inch paper on the paper counter. “What’s this?” I asked. To make a long story short it was a mystery paper sent by a mill by mistake. When they called the mill to fix the order […]
Embrace the Wonkiness
Too many of my students fuss and fuss over a wonky line, or worse, stop a sketch altogether because a likeness is lost. But I think there is great fun in diving in with a bold pen and feeling about for the features, one wonky line after the other. Finishing something leads to something else […]
In Context: Some Relationship Advice from Ronny Chieng
Great advice from Ronny Chieng, when something goes awry and you and your partner have to get on with things— and then some pears, because there are always pears around to sketch.
Another Dog Portrait…
As we leave July and my Patreon discussions about dog portraits I simply wanted to make a case, through one more portrait, about contrast. It’s vital, it draws the eye, it’s fun to build up. Here’s a sketch from 2018. I liked the textures (and suggested textures) so much that all I wanted was a […]
The Case for Not Finishing a Sketch
I’m the first person to encourage people to finish what they start. In fact I encourage people to push past the point where they think they have finished, because until you “break” a few sketches you don’t really know where that point of finish resides. But I also wanted to put a word in today […]
The Puzzle of Starbuck
Update: If you would like to see me sketch and paint this portrait it’s an extra August 2021 demo posted August 15, on my Patreon site—available to Tier 2 and Tier 3 subscribers. Look, I’ve read Melville’s “Moby Dick” three times in my life—I’m not about to read it again. But that doesn’t mean […]
A Little Bit of Collage Can Be Your Friend
You know how I like to paint on drawing paper? Sometimes the paper complains. That happened when I put in the Montana Marker background on this page spread. The marker ink/paint saturated and roughed up the paper at the top of the page. I didn’t want the paper to be weak there because it would […]
Testing Langton-Prestige Watercolor Paper
I have just started testing Daler-Rowney’s Langton-Prestige Cold Press Watercolor paper. In the above video you can see my first experiments with it and my first thoughts. If the video doesn’t play you can view it on Vimeo at this link. Normally in my demonstration videos I include any photo reference or still life […]