A Shady Character
As I work to improve my drawing skills, I’m learning more about shading techniques. But techniques are meaningless unless we know when — and where — to apply them. It probably sounds very foolish to...
View ArticleGetting Ready
It’s almost September… which means it will soon be October… which means Inktober will be here! Yes, surprisingly, I’m excited about Inktober, mostly because my little monkey mind and I have been...
View ArticleInk Dipping — A Catastrophic Failure
Yes, my new dip pens and nibs arrived. Yes, I got out my ink. Yes, I’ve been practicing. No, I didn’t do very well, so I’m chalking my first dip pen drawing up to a learning experience. Make no mistake
View ArticleWhy Are Eyelashes So Hard to Draw?
My Sketchtember plans — a graphite drawing each day — have changed a little bit. My first plan was to follow along with a list of things-to-draw from The Virtual Instructor website. The second plan was...
View ArticleLosing the Lines
I love drawing with graphite. More than oil painting, more than charcoal, conte, pastels, or watercolors, I absolutely love drawing with graphite. I’ve been practicing a lot lately with pens and inks,...
View ArticleA Bunch of Bad Apples
It’s said that it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch… and here I am with a whole bunch of bad apples! When I first began learning to draw, I prided myself on my apples. I couldn’t draw
View ArticleNature Sketching
Early this morning I drove to our City Park, one of my favorite places for hiking, sketching, and just communing with nature. There are several different shelter houses, some which have hiking trails...
View ArticleCreating Interest through Contrast
My drawing time this morning involved a rather technical concept, that of creating interest in a drawing through the use of contrast. In today’s exercise the contrast was one of value, although there...
View ArticleThe Same — But Different
One of my favorite jokes as a child was one about two women discussing fashion. The first had just bought a new dress and was showing it off. The second woman remarks: Oh, I have a dress just like that!
View ArticleCreating Illusions
I remember the first time I heard that art is an illusion. Maybe other artists have a natural awareness of that very basic truth, but for me it was an eye-opening, mind-jolting moment of realization....
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Fascinated by Faces
I’ve been fascinated with faces for as long as I can remember — not as an artist, but simply as an observer. People-watching has always appealed to me, and so much knowledge, information, and emotion...
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Faces from the Younger Generation
I certainly had fun drawing older faces like my “Old Man in the Hat” and “Old Woman with a Shawl”. I continue to be fascinated by faces, and I appreciate all the comments and suggestions I’ve received....
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Yes, You Can
Five years ago today I stood looking at a beautiful display of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. I’d purchased them — a complete set — to use with the new “grown-up” coloring book I’d recently...
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Because I Can
I’ve been doing quite a bit of drawing recently, and I’ve come to a beautiful realization. I love to draw. I love opening my little art box, taking out different pencils, gathering up my blending...
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“Through the Trees”
I love coincidences. They always seem to be a sign to me, a definite indication of something I should learn or do. I had an awesome coincidence happen on Wednesday afternoon. I was doing a bit of...
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Practice Makes…Progress
We all know that perfection does not exist in art. It especially doesn’t exist anywhere in my art, to be sure. So while the old saying may tell us that “Practice makes perfect”, as artists we know...
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Gettin’ Sketchy
Matt from “The Virtual Instructor” I’ve written many times in this blog about Matt Fussell, the Virtual Instructor whose tutorials and classes helped me become an artist. I was fortunate to have found...
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The A, B, C, and D of Drawing
I love landscape painting in oil. I also love drawing. So, putting these two loves together, you might logically suppose that I also love landscape drawing. I don’t. In fact, the natural world is one...
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Gray Skies
“Gray skies… nothing but gray skies… “ This drawing marks a bit of a first for me. While I’ve painted many skies — with and without clouds — I’ve never known how to draw clouds with graphite. Any...
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Bold, Broad Strokes
Learning new techniques is one of the most enjoyable aspects of art for me. It’s always fun, of course, to pick up a new medium, try new products, or even attempt some crafty new project. But...
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