I’m back with more about Mom today, I hope that’s okay! She’s given me her art supplies over the years as she downsized, and while I visited her recently she also passed on the last of her vintage pastel pencils.  (Read more of that here.) Today – I have an art piece to share! It’s a pastel painting of a fur seal; and yes pastels are called, by most artists, paintings, and I think the technique here will show you why. Because I used a paintbrush for the technique! Tutorial: Colored Pencil vs Pastel Pencil (with Fur Seal painting) Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leav ..read more

At the risk of sending people running for the hills by talking about Mom again…I’m talking about Mom again. ? I mean, how many people can say they celebrated their 60th birthday with their mama after not having done so in over 45 years!? (Not because we didn’t want to, but spring has never been a time we’ve gathered. It’s always Thanksviging to Christmas.) First, in non-vintage, Mom had sent my birthday package weeks ago. She’s on top of it! I set it on the counter, and when packing for the emergency trip, I entirely spaced it, even though I had some consciousness that my birthday was going ..read more

Some of you may know I’m visiting my family on the east coast. My mom has been very very sick, and I’ve extended my stay to be with her longer. But that doesn’t mean I’m shirking my work here with my art!  I took a day last week, before Easter, when I could get away by myself to do something I love – sketching. And since I was in Washington DC, I took advantage of the free admission at the Smithsonian’s National History Museum to see the dinosaurs I “grew up” with! We had many a field trip to that place, and I wanted to see if it was as magical as I remembered. For today’s video I ..read more

It’s Good Friday. I’ll apologize now for the video voiceover….it was recorded before we knew about Mom, so it’s not me being callous. I think a nest with a couple yet-to-be-born eggs in it is probably one of the best subjects to honor Mom. She had me and my older sis on Good Friday of 1964. A third egg was added years later, but the bird sitting on this nest would have been…my mama. But I’d like to tell you my Mom/Good Friday story, so keep reading…..and enjoy the video as if the world hadn’t just crashed around me.      Tutorial: How to draw a bird’s nest Watch the vide ..read more

Some subjects are just….well, odd to me. We’re all different and that’s great, but frankly I’ve not understood artists who paint the same thing all the time. It’s totally fine if they do but – that’s not my jam. This particular rabbi, is one that’s ubiquitous no the web. In stamping. In home decor. In all sorts of places, a hare with eyes bulging out to the sides is just seemingly THE rabbit to paint. Why is that? I decided to paint it and see! Tutorial: Why do so many artists watercolor this rabbit? Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or clic ..read more

With the advent of these lovely first days of early spring – it’s time to get outside and sketch! I did so twice recently and you’ll see some of both; the main one that I have the most footage from is going to PowellsWood Gardens again (yes the same one in the class!) this past week to celebrate the spring equinox. The other is older from a few weeks back, a little jaunt to Snoqualmie Falls in a sketch session that ended up a soaking wet disaster! Tutorial: Sketching Outside (PowellsWood Gardens, Snoqualmie Falls) Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questio ..read more

PREFACE: I created this video yesterday – and have added an update today at the end. It’s time for some real talk. Art is easy, business is hard. That’s my conclusion right now. I love art, I love creating. But I am not loving running a business in this moment. So much so that it’s messing with my head, and taken me to a pretty dark place. If you’re familiar with Imposter Syndrome – you’ll perhaps have an idea where this is headed. Imposter Syndrome is that thing that happenss when you’re convinced that the world knows you’re a fake. That you don’t know what you’re doing. They may or may n ..read more

A few weeks ago I posted a graphite drawing I had created. And today – I’ve taken that same landscape and turned it into an alcohol marker drawing! Not an excellent one due to my color challenges, but I think I can say I rocked it nonetheless…..I’ll let you weigh in on that! Tutorial: Drawing Plants part 2: graphite vs marker 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! What I didn’t like….and what I loved I had mentioned I had some mixed feelings. The colo ..read more

St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner – and making art for holidays can be just for fun or perfect for a card to send good wishes to an Irish friend! Today’s project is easier than you might think it is – give it a try! What’s a Celtic Trinity Knot anyway? Celtic knots have a variety of stories associated with them – including Christian! The three points of the knot are symbols like the divine trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit;  love, friendship, and strength; and so many more you’ll find listed all over the web. The interweaving lines, without beginning or end, symbolize eterni ..read more

I’m a noob to acrylic inks and….I may be hooked. Previously I had avoided them. If I couldn’t put it IN a pen, what would I want to get a bunch of opaque inks for? I’d have to figure out dip pens, and since I hadn’t had a lot of success with the cheapo dip pens I had bought over the years, new inks would mean new pens and well – who’s got money for all that? Well I only bought ONE new pen. A new cheap glass pen (not used here because it didn’t do bupkus with the acrylic ink) – and for the rest I used some of the nibs and the pen holder that I’d already had. So at least that’s solved – e ..read more