I didn’t think I’d make it to this birthday. Last year, awaiting cancer treatment, I was so unsure if the upcoming 2018 Christmas would be my last. Now I get to stay around and make art for the next fifty years! This is gonna be a strange and wonderful week as I try to let…
art
My First Oil Pastel Painting
Yowza. This is my first oil pastel painting. Literally the first time I picked a stick of color up and used it. I’m pretty darn happy with it. I have a lot to learn though. It was incredibly fun moving the creamy pastels around! And BACKGROUNDS! Yay, I can do backgrounds without worrying. Watercolor backgrounds…
I’m A Zebra Pen Artist Ambassador!
The other day I was talking about some of the techniques I use to save paintings that otherwise would hit the bin. The Artichoke below would have been one of those duds without liberal use of Brilliant Opera Rose. I used buckets of it, lol. The purples just weren’t popping and to get that deep,…
Hyper-Realism & The Fork
I was working in my Greybook by Hahnemühle (Canadian shoppers try Jackson’s). I love this paper and find it endlessly fun to capture objects using my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. When I want to create something hyper-realistic, this is my place to come. I love working out every shadow and highlight. It makes my mind work…
Happy Chocolate Easter Bunny Day!
YAY! Happy Easter everybody. For some of you this weekend is a religious holiday and for others its a day to eat your weight in chocolate. For me, it’s both. I look forward to family and friends being close, cooking and remembering the love we share. I confess, I also love the chocolate. This time…
An Apple A Day…
As I’ve said many times, I LOVE MY Hahnemühle GREY BOOK!! The paper in this toned sketchbook is just awesome. No, you can’t paint in Greybook as it’s not made for watercolor but holy cow, the hand of this paper is wonderful. You get eighty pages of 120gsm grey toned paper bound into a beautiful…
Put A Bow On It In Nostalgie
Hiya. Currently, in bits and bobs, I’m working in my Nostalgie Sketchbook by Hahnemuhle. The one I have is the A4 landscape, I love that size. I haven’t been around as much as usual for a couple of good reasons. I’m working on two big projects that I can’t talk about but are so exciting,…
Review: Cézanne Watercolor Paper by Hahnemühle
This is some awesome watercolor paper! I have worked on Arches ever since I started using watercolors but then Hahnemühle sent me a block of their Cézanne watercolor paper. The paper is hot pressed, 140lb/300gsm watercolor paper and I’m absolutely HOOKED. This is such a beautiful paper to work on. The paper is mould-made of 100%…
Wanna French Fry?
The Ferry between the mainland & Vancouver Island I am inordinately attracted to feeding seagulls. I think it started because I was raised on the West Coast of Canada and rode the ferries back and forth from the mainland to Vancouver Island so many times as a young child. Back then the ferries used to…
When Any Talent You Have…
…seems to have left the building. You know that feeling when you wonder where your inspiration/talent/muse went off to when you were working hard trying to paint something? Why did whatever meager talent you seem to possess not run into your brush today? What the hell happened to that muse you pay so much money…