I learned to draw from a 1972 puzzle book! (watercolor dog portrait)

I learned to draw from a 1972 puzzle book! (watercolor dog portrait)

by | Sep 12, 2023 | Fine Art & Sketching, Watercolor

Let’s see how many readers have been around the block a few times….do you remember those ads in the backs of comic books and puzzle books? The ones touting art instruction scholarships or talent assessments?

This is not me, it’s a photoshopped image. But I kinda needed this little walk down memory lane!

Do you remember these kinds of ads? Did you ever “apply” to see if you had talent? I definitely remember Winky for sure, laboring to get that eye just right in drawing after drawing so I could be “seen” by all the right famous artists! ha!

I am STILL waiting for America’s 12 Most Famous Artists to get back to me and tell me I have piles and piles of natural talent….alas…..

Well I wasn’t discovered back then. But I still read those ads, and sent in to a bunch. I had hope! But the thing that I now realize as a mature artist that I didn’t know as a kid—there was an art puzzle that totally taught me a ton about drawing without realizing it. 

Tutorial: I learned to draw from a 1972 puzzle book! (watercolor dog portrait)

I packed a ton of info in a 12 minute video. The best bit comes at the end so stick around!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Happy Gotcha Day, G and V!

My babies arrived in 2016….hard to believe it’s been so long!

And now….classes!

I do hope these are worth the wait, some of you have been asking for years and years for this! I have a folder with over 30 more dog pics, and if these classes are popular I’ll get to them sooner – if you have a request for a breed, let me know!

Canine Companions I

Graphite & Watercolor Dog Portraits

Learn to draw three dog breeds first, then watercolor them to end up with lovely portraits of a Jack Russel Terrier, a Silver Lab, and a Yorkie! Gain sketching and painting skills that apply to all your art.

$39.99

*if purchasing 2 Canine Companions classes at the same time, you’ll receive 5% off both!

Go shop for it

Canine Companions II

Graphite & Watercolor Dog Portraits

Learn to draw three dog breeds first, then watercolor them to end up with lovely portraits of a Basset Hound, a Boxer pup, and a Cattle dog! Gain sketching and painting skills that apply to all your art.

$39.99

*if purchasing 2 Pencil Pups classes at the same time, you’ll receive 5% off both!

Go shop for it

Pencil Pups I

Graphite Dog Portraits

Learn to draw three dog breeds in graphite pencil: a Jack Russel Terrier, a Silver Lab, and a Yorkie! The course teaches sketching each dog, discussing how to render shapes, shadows, muscles, fur, and more.

$25.99

*if purchasing 2 Pencil Pups classes at the same time, you’ll receive 5% off both!

Go shop for it

Pencil Pups II

Graphite Dog Portraits

Learn to draw three dog breeds in graphite pencil: a Basset Hound, a Boxer pup, and a Cattle dog! The course teaches sketching each dog, discussing how to render shapes, shadows, muscles, fur, and more.

$25.99

*if purchasing 2 Canine Companions classes at the same time, you’ll receive 5% off both!

Go shop for it

Mystery Grid

This Mystery Grid is a throwback to my childhood when I loved puzzle books and got a thrill when one of these “grids” showed up in one. It’s how I grew to understand how the grid method works for transferring a photo or sketch into a larger size on a piece of paper—and you can download this one to try out! Instructions are in the PDF. Great project for young artists, too!

$00.00

Go get it free

WHEW!

It felt like a marathon getting all this ready before my upcoming trip – I hope my dog peeps are ready to have some fun!

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Caran d’Ache Grafwood Pencils
  2. Pencil Extender
  3. Faber Castell Kneaded Eraser 
  4. Electric Eraser, Mont Marte
  5. Arches Hot Press Sheet
  6. Daniel Smith Watercolors
  7. Winsor Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8
  8. Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 4

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Draw a Ford Fairlane | Wash & Ink (Urban Sketching)

Draw a Ford Fairlane | Wash & Ink (Urban Sketching)

by | Apr 1, 2023 | Fine Art & Sketching

To draw a Ford Fairlane can be…well, hard. Cars are not my jam – but that means it’s just the subject that I ought to be cycling into my subject matter from time to time! And since I’ve been thinking about my Uncle George a bunch lately, I thought I’d draw him a subject he LOVES – cars!

If you want to hear more stories about my uncle, read the post today in Artventure; I don’t want to post personal stories like that out here on the web, but behind the wall at Artventure, Google won’t search it out. 

I’ve been celebrating my birthday week with sketching! In this video I’ll be combining pen and ink with gouache but you can do the same idea with watercolor – perhaps even more easily since watercolor is typically very transparent. (Gouache is opaque watercolor and can affect black lines.) I’m putting my TWSBI Eco to work!

Tutorial: 1956 Ford Fairlane | Wash & Ink (Urban Sketching)

If you’d also like to sketch this picture, you can download it for free from Paint My Photo, (You just need a free account there to download and use the photo.)

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Properties of leftover gouache or watercolor

One of the nice things about both gouache and watercolor is that they’re re-wettable! That palette full of leftover colors is usable. Typically they do get more desaturated as all the colors mix; red blue and yellow make neutrals, and on average you’ll have all those on a palette at one time or another.

Note that I wash my watercolor palette before videos – not because you need to always start fresh, but because I want you to see colors mixing, and all that muck makes a mess. But be aware your colors can get muddy if you don’t at least occasionally clean off your  mixing surfaces.

Edit out unnecessary details

Determine what you want to include most – what made you choose that subject, that angle, that time of day? Emphasize THAT and let other things go. Create a “mass” of trees instead of leaving too much high-contrast detail in a background like this – once the final gouache wash was added, the trees became much less attention-getters.

Nervous about drawing in public?

Don’t be. The average person walking by will be truly impressed with you! I’ve made terrible drawings that shouldn’t see the light of day and had people ooh and ahh. Seriously – they WANT to compliment you! (I mean really, who walks around the world wanting to peek over an artist’s shoulder just so they can say, “Dang, that’s garbage!” NO ONE.)

Join a group!

Check to see if your town has an Urban Sketchers group. Any kind of drawing group! You’ll find there are people of all levels of experience – people you can learn from *and people who need you to help them.* Yes there will be people newer than you and they could use your encouragement and your presence! 

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Hahnemule Nostalgie sketchbook 
  2. TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen F
  3. Daniel Smith White Gouache 
  4. Random gouache on my mixing tiles:
    1. Daniel Smith Gouache 
    2. Winsor and Newton Intro Gouache Set 10 colors 
    3. Holbein Gouache set 18 colors 

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If rubber duckies were art models (sketching tips!)

If rubber duckies were art models (sketching tips!)

by | Feb 28, 2023 | Fine Art & Sketching

Today I thought it might be fun to let you watch over my shoulder – and maybe even draw WITH me – and give you some sketching tips while I do one of my daily drawings! I missed going to my Life Drawing group last week – so decided to make my rubber duckies pose for me….

If you’re wondering about the French girl reference, remember Titanic? Rose tells Jack, “draw me like one of your French girls”, referring to the nude portraits he’s sketched of Parisian women in brothels. So there’s that. LOL!

Tutorial: If Rubber Duckies were Art Models

Grab a piece of paper or a sketchbook, and a pencil – and draw a “French girl” duckie along with me!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

If you want more time…

Here’s a photo of the ducks so you can spend some time with it….and suggest some names for them too. Family name, individual first names, I’d love your suggestions!

Sketch along

Grab a piece of paper and a number two pencil – that’s all you need. As a matter of fact you can draw on lined notebook paper! Anything you’ve got. I used a Gamma sketchbook by Stillman and Birn – great surface for pencils, and I used a lead holder with a 2B lead, and a 9B Grafwood for the darks. The small sharpener for this pencil is this one. 

Size and shape relationships

Pay attention to the connection between shapes – where does the head of one duck meet up with the tail of another? How far down on the head are the eyes when looking at this angle?

Shadows and highlights are a fun thing to add to a quick sketch like this too. But that’s from this overachiever…if a line drawing is what you have time to muster up, that’s awesome too!

Don’t know what to draw?

There’s plenty of resources out there!

Draw what’s right in front of you

Pick up any object in your house, and draw that! Try the kitchen and garage, there are lots of very interesting objects in both.

Silly Holidays

If you’re stuck for what to draw, see what the goofy holiday is for the day! Last week I painted an easy card with tortilla chips for National Tortilla Chip Day.…one of several sites is here  to see what day it is today!

Doodlewashed

Charlie posts daily challenges at Doodlewashed every month – so if you don’t know what to draw, see what he’s got for the month and use those ideas!

Urban Sketchers

Sometimes it’s motivating to join your local chapter of Urban Sketchers – you’ll have lots of local folks to learn from, as well as someone else planning a day and time to go out, and they’ll point you at an interesting subject.

Plein Air Groups

Do a search in your area for plein air painting groups. Some have a presence on Facebook, others have websites.

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Gamma sketchbook by Stillman and Birn
  2. Koh i Noor Lead holder pencil
  3. Koh i Noor 2B/4B lead 
  4. Staedtler lead holder sharpener 
  5. Grafwood 9B, Caran d’Ache 

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Sketching with water soluble ink

Sketching with water soluble ink

by | Dec 28, 2022 | Fine Art & Sketching, Watercolor Pens/Inks

Water soluble ink can make sketching easier – learn to sketch a winter forest and vase of lavender in the video!

Studio cleaning and storage-swapping

But first….some BIG NEWS! (that few may care about, ha!)

I cleaned the STUDIO!!! A deep clean wasn’t done in here since 2021 and it was so needed. My huge counter was intended for staging projects. But it was buried in stacks of supplies, partly done projects, wanna-do projects, and so much more. The new tools I got this year didn’t have a “place” so they all sat on the counter….so…..

A year ago I added a drafting table to the studio, and reorganized in its wake. (a little footage coming next week!) I had some of my art supplies in the next room, but I found those just never got touched. Too far away! Things I rarely use like dies and sequins and glitter are now in the other room. New stuff can now fit in drawers!

I’m super excited for what this’ll mean for having several projects underway at once. Now I can lay them out without stuff falling over and keep on juggling everything! (Vienna steals pencils when things fall down, eeep!)

PLUS I found a bunch of STUFF! Things I’d been looking for. Watercolor dot cards. Brushes and other materials I was going to test. Inks that got hidden behind other things. Papers, papers, papers. I uncovered my pen storage box – and found my Visconti Mirage pen inside!! The box had been so buried I practically forgot it. But no more! And my dremel project is now back in sight – it lights up, so watch out for that in the month ahead, I think it would be a great valentines project. Can’t wait to get going on it!

Okay enough of all that now. Let’s get to some water soluble ink sketching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutorial: Techniques for Sketching with water soluble ink

Since my Mirage needed to come out of hiding – and get itself all washed and new ink put inside after sitting there for over a year! – it’s time to do a little sketching. These are easy so I hope you’ll consider trying one!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Related links

  1. Another Mont Blanc ink video, wicked cool technique with bleach
  2. Stamped Watercolor classes
  3. Stamped Watercolor YT playlist

Test water soluble inks and papers

You might have some inks that are water soluble and not even know it! Get some paper and do a couple tests like I did. Try one line first, so you know if you just do a single outline, how much black/grey ink wash will come from it. Will you need to do two strokes? Or if you scribble over an area, will the lines disappear on that paper or not? Make sure you’re testing on papers you might like to use. I’m going to be making some postcards this week to mail out to chilly friends, so I need to test the ones I’ve got. (I found them, yay!)

Winter forest in water soluble ink

Since most of my country is under a deep freeze right now I thought maybe some folks would sketch some frosty-covered trees out the window! Spritzing is an easy technique, and sometimes comes out with no need to do the second inking pass – just the spray may be enough. Try out a couple papers and see what works for whatever pens you have.

Vase of Flowers (Lavender) in water soluble ink

The vase is another simple idea – you can make a simple rounded vase. It doesn’t need to be fancy – and if you’ve got some AI floral stamps, then make some stems to watercolor! (Yes your watercolor markers count as water soluble INK!)

Have you done a year-end cleaning yet?

It’s always my favorite deep-clean, because I’m already in the new-year-new-me mindset. And finding things that I wanted to use and haven’t yet, well, that’s just downright inspiring!

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

 

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Drawing Lanterns in 3 different perspectives (and a giveaway!)

Drawing Lanterns in 3 different perspectives (and a giveaway!)

by | Dec 16, 2022 | Fine Art & Sketching, Watercolor Pens/Inks

Why hello there and happy weekend! I’ve got a bit of a drawing tutorial for you today, I hope you’re going to try it! I’ve found that my 3-layer-tutorials have become popular, since you can choose whether to start with the simplest, try one that’s going to push you a little, or go for it with a crazier one! In the tutorial I’ll show you how to sketch out the perspective first, then color it with water based markers.

At the end of this post there’s info about the giveaway – please only enter if you’d actually use the markers…they’re gently used and I’d love them to go to a home that’ll put them to paper! 🙂

This whole lantern idea was borne of a drawing idea I had – I’ve been wanting to play with my new graphite pencils, and give them a real test to stand up to! They didn’t pass it, necessarily; they’re “matte” pencils which means the glare will be kept to a minimum – but I didn’t like that I couldn’t get a really great dark from them very fast, so switched to charcoal. Which….reflects. So I had to find a spot in the studio with no light glaring on it, thus the strange place I shot the photo!

But after nestling my marshmallow-toasting mice inside, I realized this is a project few would replicate, and as I had some big challenges, it wasn’t good for teaching. So instead, you get one of my easy/medium/challenging perspective lessons! Which might be far more helpful to everyone. LOL!

Tutorial: Drawing Lanterns in 3 different perspectives

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

1. Easy / 1 point perspective

Looking directly at a lantern, not from higher or lower, and at a particular distance, you might not see the posts (poles?) of the lantern that are in the back. But if you raise the perspective slightly, and give it a little distance, the vanishing point can be in the center above the lantern – and that way you can see INTO the bottom of the lantern. It would affect the top (cap? lid?) of the lantern, but not enough to stress out if you’ve got a rounded top like this one!

2. Tougher / two point perspective

Two point perspective has two vanishing points, one on the left, one on the right. If you’re making something up as I am in today’s post, you can put those points anywhere – just put them ON the horizon. Here I chose the top left and top right corner of the boxes I drew. But sometimes (see next lantern) it’s totally off the page. Sometimes in the next room!

Each corner, though, has an edge that’ll join with the vanishing point, and those lines determine the interior bottom of the lantern. If the top has a fancy shape there are all kinds of rules that’ll apply – but use the rounded one I showed. Then you only need to worry about getting the “roofline” to join up with a VP.

3. Hardest / from below

The horizon line moves BELOW an object when it’s above your head. And in this case, the right hand side VP is off the page! And yes, I did tweak the bottom section after the video, I didn’t feel like posting the mushy one, LOL!

Card for patrons

I post videos (usually) weekly for patrons, sometimes just sneak peeks, and sometimes projects no one else sees….this is one of them. Join patreon to watch it get made!

 

And now, that giveaway!

The folks at Sketchmarker sent me a full(ish) set of their Aqua water-based markers, the Animal set, so now I can let someone else get some use from this set! I’m short three colors, but none are in the Animals set. 🙂 

How do you qualify?

  1. Go tap the like button on YT for this video, and leave a comment there if you have a sec. The algorithm needs a kick in the rear end and your engagement makes a huge difference!
  2. Join Artventure. I’m excited about the new community and would love for you to be part of it! It’s FREE, and you don’t have to get the app, you can just access it via the web. And starting in January, I’ve got a plan for fun activities and prizes, so you’ll want to be part of it all.
  3. Leave a comment telling me you’ve done the above, AND what YOU would like to learn to draw in 2023!

The winner will ONLY be announced here on the blog on Christmas Eve. So you might want to subscribe to my blog via email, which you can do below….just sayin’. 

 

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Bee Paper Mixed Media Sketchbook https://bit.ly/3QhOcWX
  2. Sketchmarker Aqua
  3. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8:  BLICK –  AMZ
  4. Pencil drawing:

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    Game-Changer Fountain Pen Tip: 1 nib, 2 line weights (ft Ellington Pens)

    Game-Changer Fountain Pen Tip: 1 nib, 2 line weights (ft Ellington Pens)

    by | Nov 7, 2022 | Doodling, Fine Art & Sketching

    I wish I could have made the title even longer to include And There’s A Cute Downloadable To Try For Your Christmas Cards and a Real Time Video Available Too! But I think the Googles would have my head. Ha! So even if you’re  not a pen and ink person, there’s fun for you too.

    Today I’ve got a great tip for you that I think I’ve talked about a little bit before – but I don’t know that I focused on it much. So let’s do that today! Note there are a couple projects here:

    1. A large fox piece with watercolor + ink, kinda crazy background. Available for purchase here.
    2. Smaller pen and ink only fox with mouse. Also a digistamp printable here.
    3. Drawing #2 is a realtime video at Artventure. Find it in the Pen and Ink Students group.

    First in the video is a deeper dive on the Ellington pens I showed last week. The only negative (minor) that I saw was that after using the pen for a couple days or carting it around to a sketch event, the nib section came ever so slightly loose and needed to be screwed back in a little. I mean a little. That’s no reason in my book to dislike a pen, it only happened after big usage.

    Tutorial: Game-Changer Fountain Pen Tip

    Testing your pens to see if they create two line weights is what I expect fountain pen peeps to go do after watching this. And that’s ok. Leave me a comment and tell me if you did! ha!

    Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

    A rather crazy idea

    I wanted to try something new. A realistic image for part of a wash-and-ink piece, but leaving the background not realistic….with a mix of linear, graphical elements and loose and flowy ones. You’ll have to let me know if you think I succeeded!

    I’ve posted the original over on my fine art site…or you can get prints (with or without frames), or cards over at Society6!

    Sweet fox

    This pretty little fox was drawn in pen and ink and colored afterwards–the opposite of my preference! But I wanted it to be available for folks to cover if desired, so I was lucky that the pencil wasn’t opaque enough to cover it – so be careful if using pencils with it. Some will give the detail a really cloudy look. However – this one pictured was colored on the Hanehmule paper, which is smooth and nice for pen and ink, but quite terrible for colored pencil! It’ll be easier to work with on a paper with more tooth. 🙂

    Draw your own…

    If you want to draw your own fox, head over to Artventure where the realtime video is inside the Pen and Ink Students group. It’s just got music in it – but the outline is there so you can try your hand at drawing fur.

    Or color one up!

    If you just want to color up this cute fox and mouse, head to Art-Classes to purchase the printable!

    Which one might you do?

    Are you fancying a coloring session with the printable, or maybe being brave enough to draw a fox yourself? Or perhaps you’ve got some holiday shopping in mind – you can get the Winter Fox as prints or cards….or buy the original if you’re the lucky first one to shop!

    Supplies

    Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art