Currently Browsing: The Drawing Life 213 articles
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 […]
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 […]
Trying Out Dagger Brushes (Part Two of I haven’t a Clue How Many Posts)
Now and then I get a desire to test something new. Sometimes I hear about a new product, or a friend mentions something to me. Sometimes I go to the store and see something and wonder what it would be like to use that tool or medium. Other times, like recently, I unpack brushes that […]
Don’t Be Limited
I couldn’t leave a week during which I discussed the use of space on a page, without including this portrait from the end of last year. I’m the queen of running off the page. Not planning sufficiently. This means in my haste I often miss the thing that engaged me most—the base of […]
Not a Waste of Space
The questions I get most from visual journaling students surround the issue of the use of space on a page or spread. There are a lot of factors that feed the questions, swirl around in the mind and stopping action. I like to remind students that the more they journal the more these questions will […]
What’s Coming Up on RozInterim/Patreon?
It’s actually difficult to talk about what’s coming up on my Patreon site right now. Despite the iliac vein dissection and recovery I’ve been pushing my work, but in smaller chunks. So it’s easier to present it in a continuous stream or stretch instead of specific themes each month. In other words, themes are spilling […]
In Search of a Pen, One Finds…
After sketching for a couple hours with a dried out pen I came into the packed up studio to find a new pen. I picked up a Sakura Professional Brush Pen FB and started to scribble a couple lines on a piece of newsprint that was sitting on the cutting table. The pen felt great […]
Snow Piles, We’ve Seen the Last of Them, for Now
Sometimes projects sneak up on us. Sometimes projects are simply the manifestation of a habit. Sometimes it’s fun to catch up on scanning your journal pages and seeing the massive amounts of snow you’ve just dealt with. (Actually I wasn’t doing much dealing with it—Dick was the one creating 7-foot tall snow piles on either […]
Stubble
Sometimes it is fun to sit down and draw stubble. Lots and lots of stubble. I find this entertaining, and joyful. I find noting the growth direction, the length, the density—all fun. But then I sat in the Bell Museum for a whole afternoon years ago, drawing every line of fur on a deer. This […]
What’s on RozInterim/Patreon in April?
April 2023 is all about “studies” on my Patreon site: RozInterim. I’ll demonstrate how I work with a pen sketch that’s way off base, and work it up into an opaque watercolor study, while making corrections to shapes, angles, proportions—all those things you need to constantly be thinking of as you work. Besides this demo […]