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3 Tips for Summertime Sketching

I love summer because I’m always on the go. It’s the best time of year to travel, and I just can’t seem to say no to any outing or adventure that comes my way. Want to take a road trip through the Carolinas, Court? I’m there. A holiday to Chicago? Sign me up. A vacation in California’s wine country? I wish, but yes! But with all this moving around, I want to make sure that my sketchbook doesn’t get ignored, so I’ve come up with a few on-the-go sketching and painting strategies that I want to share with you.
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Published 7 Jun 2013 12:47 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, sketching, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art
Hybrid Method of Painting and Drawing

When I'm hiking or walking on the beach, my attention span is really short. I flit from activity to activity, sight to sight, just trying to take it all in. That's why pastel painting is a perfect fit for me when I want to create art outdoors...

Published 31 May 2013 12:52 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, plein air, How To Paint, landscape painting, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art
Discover the Enduring Appeal of Sketching

Human figure drawing, especially life drawing from a model, is one of the most rewarding ways of practicing art because it can enhance your abilities in ways that are both practical and inspirational. It's practical in that creating figure drawings develops skills that will serve you again and again as an artist—contour, shading, line, and the relationship of parts to a whole. It's inspirational in that the landscape of the human body contains almost every form, texture, shape, and curve that an artist could possibly want to recreate, and there is an endless array of ways to do so.
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Published 6 May 2013 12:33 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, figure drawing, drawing anatomy, sketching, shading, Pastel, How to Draw People, Drawing Basics, Art
Love Them Extra Because They're Weird

I own up to the fact that I am drawn to the portraits artist Jenny Morgan creates because they are unconventional. Yet they capture qualities of the human face and our other human qualities in ways that read very true and lifelike. I like them because...

Published 3 Apr 2013 12:12 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Mixed Media, Oil Painting, Pastel, How to Draw People, Drawing Basics, Drawing Faces
When a Photo Can Do It Right

Certainly, there are pitfalls to making paintings from photos . One problem occurs when an artist thinks that a photo is magic and that he or she can turn a photo into a painting with a snap of the fingers. It isn't that easy, of course. And even...

Published 22 Mar 2013 12:43 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Painting, Pastel, How to Draw People, Drawing Basics, Photo Reference
The Perfect Blend of Literal and Abstract

When I say "the perfect blend," I feel a little bit like I am describing a gourmet coffee flavor, but there really is a perfect blend that exists in pastel painting. For me, the crème de la crème of pastel drawings combines a certain...

Published 18 Mar 2013 12:53 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, How To Paint, still life, Pastel, Drawing Basics
It's Easy With Our New Free eBook: Learn How to Draw

Sometimes I can forget how good it feels just practicing drawing techniques. Simple things, like working on proportion and scale and line weight can feel so rewarding if you give yourself the time to really savor them when learning to draw. Mostly this...

Published 15 Feb 2013 12:40 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, Artist Daily, Pastel, Drawing Basics
Add Water and BAM!

I recently had an Emeril Lagasse moment--and it happened when I mixed pastels with water for the first time. Three Sunflowers on Blue by Jimmy Wright, pastel painting, 30 x 41. A while back, I confided that I wanted to start an earnest study and exploration...

Published 21 Jan 2013 12:03 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, How To Paint, still life, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art
Do You Have Your Own Personal Symbolism?

When you think about it, you probably have a personal symbolism—objects or colors or landscape features that hold special meaning for you. These ideas can develop from our personal experiences, our culture, or books we've read. In the comic...

Published 12 Dec 2012 12:21 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: acrylic painting, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art, fantasy art
Holiday Sweepstakes--Nuff Said!

Uh, I think I may have stumbled into an artist's dream! The Artist's Network Annual Holiday Sweepstakes is going on right now, offering awesome art prizes from the best painting and drawing product makers and service providers around. Rosemary...

Published 29 Nov 2012 12:43 PM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: plein air, How To Paint, Mixed Media, sketching, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art
Do You Realize What Will Happen To You?

It's strange how sketching and drawing are such old and established practices—pen and ink drawing has been around since ancient Egyptian times!—and yet no two draftsmen are ever really the same, and each one's pursuit can lead to very...

Published 7 Nov 2012 12:10 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, sketching, shading, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Ink Drawing, ink Drawing Basics
TGIF! Our Free eBook on Learning How to Draw People Is Here!

It's probably half-endearing (hopefully?) and half-annoying that I think there's no better way to start off the weekend than with art. But you know what I mean! As the fall season gets into full swing, I think we are all coming back around to...

Published 21 Sep 2012 12:34 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, how to draw, Artist Daily, shading, Pastel, How to Draw People, Drawing Basics, Art
What's in a Nose?

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that successful portraiture is successful when the portrait artist, foremost, captures a likeness. Yes, I ardently believe that there has to be something more to the story—a...

Published 15 Aug 2012 12:21 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Portrait Painting, Artist Daily, Oil Painting, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Art Competitions, Art
This Sci-Fi Guru Can Draw

I'm totally a sci-fi junkie and H.R. Giger is truly a master artist in the genre of fantastic realism. I first came across his work through his designs for Alien . Lately, with the release of Prometheus , his art came up on my radar again. Now, his...

Published 1 Aug 2012 1:25 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: pencil drawing, sketching, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Ink Drawing, Art, ink Drawing Basics
You Could Use Some Color: New Free eBook on Colored Pencil Techniques

I don't care what anyone says, color is king. It makes everything better--more appealing and lively. Oftentimes in an artist's drawing practice, a sense of color takes a backseat to the black, white, and gray of charcoal or graphite. But that...

Published 13 Jul 2012 1:36 AM by Courtney Jordan

Filed under: Drawing, how to draw, pencil drawing, Artist Daily, Pastel, Drawing Basics, Color, Art, colored pencil

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