My fav…raw umber
Next to lead white, raw umber is my most-used color. Because it's fast drying, it's ideal for every use case, whether I'm making a quick sketch or preparing the underpainting on a large painting. Additionally,…
Category: Drawings
Design process
I've been drawing a lot lately. I made this small study while preparing a large (for me) new painting for my Amusement Park series. I'd planned to make an oil sketch but decided to heighten…
Activity spurts
During a recent activity spurt, I put the drawings on 7 new paintings and 4 large drawings. This photo shows two of the paintings. The drawing on the smaller canvas, "Painted Pony," is done and…
Drawing is always the solution
The question is, "How do I fix my stuck painting?" The answer is always drawing. When one of my paintings stalls, drawing is the cure. My most successful paintings started with studies where I clarified…
Drawing study
I finished this large study for a painting I plan. Studies like this help me clarify my thoughts. When making a study, I almost always filter out elements--hardly ever add new ones. That's what happened…
New drawing
Normally I don't write about new drawings; we make drawings all the time. This drawing is unusually large for a pencil drawing, 30" x 40". It's also notable for being on hot-pressed watercolor paper. I…
Good paper for large drawings
Arches make good paper. My roll of hot-pressed watercolor paper is very good for large-format drawing too. My roll of 356gsm is 51 inches wide by 10 yards long. My 30" x 40" drawing like…
New drawing
Normally, a new drawing isn't important enough for me to write about, but the drawing I completed today is noteworthy for its large size--30" x 36." "Three Sisters" is from a large roll of Canson…