From the yearly archives:

2008

Drawing, Creativity, and Depression

This is the first drawing I’ve made from life in a few weeks. It’s not very good but it felt good to sketch form and texture again.
I’ve always struggled with my moods but until now I’ve always been able to draw no matter what state my mind settled into. I reached such a low point [...]

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Tall Grass Sketch

This tall grass is growing right outside my front door. (Yes, I know. I know. We don’t trim as much as we could.) Anyway, the grass’ stems are dark purple-ish at the bottom and some of the leaves are bright green at the top. The seed head is light green. It’s beautiful.
I composed this as [...]

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New Sketching Workshop

I’ve just finished uploading a Sketching Workshop to my online classroom and it’s open and ready for students! The workshop was inspired by the members of my drawing club who wanted to know more about sketching from life. Originally, I was just going to do a “talk” at the club about sketching, but the thing [...]

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Dune and Grass at Lake Michigan

I sketched this scene at Lake Michigan today. The foreground is tall grass that grows near the shore and the background is part of an exposed dune with trails. This section of the dune was surrounded by dense trees.
I’ve sketched tree foliage a lot, so I was pretty sure I could draw that and the [...]

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Honeysuckle Leaves in a Cha Cha Beat

These Honeysuckle leaves growing around a stick had a rhythm that sung to me and, although the drawing is simple, I think I’ve captured the melody in this drawing. From the bottom up, the count goes: 1, 2 and 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, 8, and 9, 10.
I can hear this rhythm with my [...]

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Sketching Nature Simply – Lombardy Poplar

After a huge scare involving the health of our oldest cat, a long sleepless night, and an amazing recovery, I spent some time sketching outside last evening to come back down to earth. We have a few Lombardy Poplars in our front yard. They were planted there by the previous owner and we’ve watched them [...]

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Daisy Sketch

This daisy was another Drawing Day sketch and I must admit that I chose this flower because it was nearest the edge of the path in our overgrown meadow, and I didn’t want to search any further for a subject. After I sat down with it, though, it grew on me. Its petals went every-which [...]

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Drawing with Charcoal

This is a charcoal drawing of my cat “Freddy” that I did for Drawing Day. I don’t usually draw with charcoal, but a club member’s great success with the stuff inspired me to dig out my charcoal supplies and give it a try again.
I love the way charcoal moves on the paper. It lays down [...]

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Drawing Day At Toad Hollow Studio

June 7th is Drawing Day and I’m going to be drawing all day. Our drawing club is going to be drawing, too, and I’ve created some sketching demonstrations to get those pencils moving. :)
Check out the club if you’d like to see the demos, and join us if you want to add your Drawing Day [...]

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Want to Draw? Start at the Beginning.

No matter how you want to draw in the end, the beginning is always the same. The basics of drawing never change. You have to learn to see, and you have to learn how to use the tools to draw what you see.
Understand Line:
The edge of any subject can be seen as a line. [...]

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