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Another Green Sheet
When I’m testing a pen or a paper (or in this case both) I like to work with them for several days. So the day after that green lady from my previous post, I sketched this woman—again a fair goer from @earthsworld. My thoughts on this face were a bit different. I added a bit […]
Why That Color of Paper?
Artists make choices all day long. Sometimes the choices are obvious. I drew my dogs all the time, obviously because they were live in life models. I draw birds because they have occupied my mind my whole life. I work in watercolor and pen and ink because I love the notions and physical realities of […]
How I Use Gesso: Some Approaches and Thoughts
Recently a subscriber on my Patreon site asked me about a gesso comment I made during a webinar. It seemed easier to answer the question with a video response. And once the video was finished I realized a lot of readers here would probably like this information as well. It’s something I’ve discussed in past […]
In Context: Sketching to Work Something Out
The other day I sketched this white Chihuahua. I went in too dar with the ink to start, and at one point before much was down, I made a small circle at the top right to start again, but then I thought, “Just look at the hair.” And I went back to the main sketch […]
What I Did in the Pandemic: Journaling of Course
Roz: I used to go out and overlisten…can’t think of the word…eavesdrop. Dick: Yeah, “overlisten”: You made up a new word for overhearing. [Above: an actual conversation recorded on an index page.] Returning readers will know that there were some digital glitches just when the Pandemic got started. My Drobo died and had to rebuild […]
Hesitation: Reluctant to Start a New Project
Recently one of my students wrote to me that she was hesitant about starting a new project. Hesitancy springs from a lot of issues and conditions. Hesitancy can arise as resistance and part of the ongoing barrage of negative talk you might experience from your internal critic. It can also exist because you have […]
In Context: A Little Doodling
You’ll remember that in December I was trying to finish a couple journals so I could count the pages in my yearly total. By the start of December I knew that unless something drastic happened I would have no problems meeting that goal. Everything was progressing at a rational (i.e., no long sessions of drawing, […]
In Context: Beyond Likeness
I make a lot of notes about the blog posts I want to write. A couple days ago I drew this cat. One of my notes was sitting there on my desk. Together they seem to say succinctly what I wanted to say about “why draw?” and the search for likeness in portraits. I’ll stop […]
Working in a Grid
Last fall I started doing a series of talks and posts for my Patreon subscribers about working with grids. There are tons of reasons you might want to do this but the main reason is to keep your momentum going when you find you don’t have a lot of time to make art. Even if […]
How Things Line Up
When you post on Instagram your images shuffle over and your whole grid of images, all the way back to your first post shuffle over. Rows change contents. I know there are folks who really plan the organization of their posts so that there is some type of cohesive whole going on. But since my […]