One of the exercises I like to do with my students is what I call a pre-painted page. I have them wet a page in their sketchbook with clean water, put plenty of paper towels behind the page to protect the rest of the book, then do a colorful wet-in-wet wash, completely covering the page […]
Category: Lettering
Sketching in Bruges
On my first full day in Bruges, I went out to explore the city. Bruges is wonderfully walkable. All of the highlights of the historic district are within a 20-minute walk from the main square. Everywhere you look, there are beautiful old buildings, interesting architectural details, and tempting chocolate shops, making it fun to meander […]
Santa Barbara Travel Journal – Part 6: Lil’ Toot
Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were enjoyable and 2023 is off to a great start for you. My Santa Barbara travel journal project had to be put on hold for the holidays, but I’m back to working on it and I have a couple of completed pages to share today. It was Halloween […]
Santa Barbara Travel Journal – Part 1
The month of November usually conjures up images in my mind of dreary grey days, sodden brown leaves, wind, rain and sleet, but this year was different. As autumn gave way to wintry November, I found myself flying off to California for a 5-day workshop with a great group of painters. Happy painters at the […]
Floral Watercolor Monograms – Part 2
In my last post, I showed you the floral monograms and cards I made for my sister and mother for Christmas. For the past several days, I’ve been putting together a tutorial for you about the process I used to create the monograms and print the cards at home. I’ve taken pictures, scanned images, edited […]
Gettysburg Sketch
My husband and I went camping last week near Gettysburg, PA, and spent a day visiting the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and driving around the battlefield. We followed the auto tour through beautiful Pennsylvania farmland with fields of corn, split rail fences, and beautifully restored Civil War-era farmhouses. 5 x 8 Pentalic Aqua Journal […]
Three-View Rhododendron Sketch
It’s been a great year for rhododendrons here where I live in western Pennsylvania. FYI – The oranges & grape jelly on the bird feeder post are for the Baltimore orioles These bushes are right outside my kitchen window, so I get to enjoy these glorious blooms over the course of two weeks or so […]
Sketching Wildflowers at Enlow Fork
Come along with Leslie and her sketching friends as they walk, sketch, and enjoy a huge variety of spring wildflowers at Enlow Fork nature preserve in western Pennsylvania. (Includes a step-by-step painting tutorial!)
After the Walk: Finishing a Nature Sketch in the Studio
In yesterday’s post, (find it here), I shared how this page began with a walk in the woods and a “5-5-5 Sketch Challenge”, where I walked, drew, and painted one image at a time to create a composite sketch. The plein air sketching session gave me a good start on this page, but it needed […]
A Walk with the Boys
One Sunday in early spring, I decided to do a 5-5-5 Sketch Challenge: I would walk for 5 minutes, draw for 5 minutes, and paint for 5 minutes until I had filled a page (or two) in my sketchbook.
Come along with me and the boys, and see how a blank sketchbook page develops, step-by-step, into a complete sketch!
