• A wooden desktop showing a watercolor paint pan, brushes, a sketchbook page with an abstrack leaf pattern, and an fineliner ink pen.
    Intuitive Art,  Sketchbooks,  Traditional Painting

    Refilling the Well

    Friday, March 12, 2021 /

    Taking the time yesterday to just relax and have a nice date night was much needed. I’ve been pushing myself to post here every day, and while I want to post as often as possible, there is a balance in creating and then resting to refill the well of inspiration. And coming back into the practice, I sunk into a nice intuitive painting: free from any plans or expectations. Leaf shapes are still my current artistic comfort-food of choice.

    read more
  • A linear sketch of a woman raising one arm with her eyes closed. The line art has a purple gradient applied and the background is peachy colored. The sketch is oriented horizontally, as if she is laying down.
    Digital Painting

    Digital sketching progress

    Monday, March 8, 2021 /

    I think daily practice is starting to pay off a little. Two months ago, whenever I tried to sketch directly in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet, it felt so awkward; I scrapped drawings a few times in frustration. Tonight I worked while using a photo reference, but the sketching felt must easier. I was able to softly erase lines like a kneaded eraser, layering up an under sketch until I had the line I wanted. Then I would solidify those lines to be darker while erasing the rest. I worked on a single sketch layer. I also really like making the background layer something other than pure white – it…

    read more
  • Digital painting of a coffee cup, macaroon, and chocolate chip cookie
    Digital Painting

    Digital painting practice: coffee and sweets

    Sunday, March 7, 2021 /

    Living out my coffee shop fantasies through painting. Or maybe I’m painting my baking aspirations, in the case of the cookie. Tonight was another night where I had about an hour to paint. I found some photos on Pexels to study and then went to work, while watching the latest Critical Role episode.

    read more
  • The bottom of a sketchbook page, with a sketch of two women drawn in pen and marker.
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Marker practice and some quick digital drawing drills

    Saturday, March 6, 2021 /

    Followed through and finished adding marker to yesterday’s line art. I wasn’t sure how well the Ohuhu markers would blend, but I’ve been pleasantly suprised by how nice they work. They bleed all the way through the mixed media paper, though, which is a shame. Similar to Copics, I think they’re better suited to Bristol, marker paper, or even printer paper in a pinch. Mixed media paper is usually closer to a toothy watercolor type paper and absorbs more marker than necessary. At least, that’s what I’ve observed.

    read more
  • A sketchbook page with line art drawings of two female faces. There is a filter effect over the image making it green and yellow.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Line Art: Practicing Faces

    Friday, March 5, 2021 /

    Tonight’s drawing is a quick sketch that I inked in Copic multiliner (mostly 0.1, with 0.5 for the outer edges). I want to practice using the Ohuhu skin tone marker set. The upper half of the page was color blending practice from December, which I shared in my skin tone practice post. I want to make sure the ink is completely dry before coloring, so the markers will have to wait til tomorrow.

    read more
  • Three sheets of drawings of boxes. Ontop rest a pencil, pen, markers, a craft knife, and a three dimensional paper box.
    Drawing

    Drawing Drills Arts and Crafts

    Thursday, March 4, 2021 /

    After yesterday’s harried drawing drills, tonight I decided to make time for a different approach, to see how they would turn out. This was much more relaxed. I crafted a little paper box to study as I drew boxes rotated in space. Though after a while I switched to just drawing imagined boxes.

    read more