Artist Daily : Ink Drawing

How Do You Paint on the Go?

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:20:00 GMT

It’s only May, and already I’m fantasizing about summer road trips and exotic jaunts. But then I remember that almost every time I go on vacation my glow wears off once the artists show up. Inevitably, I see a traveler who is painting landscapes or sketching, creating significant and personal mementos while I am left envious and grumpy because all I have to take home are cheesy postcards and tacky magnets. This can’t go on!

Ville Franche, France
by Eric Wiegardt, 2009, watercolor painting, 22 x 30.

I sleuthed around to find an art medium that is a facile traveler, and almost immediately my pity party was over. Landscape painting in watercolor! The supplies are minimal, there’s nothing heavy or cumbersome to lug around, pieces dry quickly so you can paint and move on with your journey, and storage can be as simple as closing a sketchbook. Watercolors can also be used to enhance and complement graphite and pen-and-ink sketches, which opens up even more options. But for those who really love oils, if you carry a small pack and use a condensed palette, painting on the go is totally doable as well.

The approach to painting on the go is more a mindset than what you are painting with. Painting quickly is the goal, but that’s not about time management as much as working intuitively. Therefore it helps that loose yet controlled brushwork often shows watercolors and oils to their best advantage. Painting quickly also provides good practice in not getting bogged down in details of the landscape artwork you create and, instead, using broad swathes of color to build a sense of atmosphere.

Let me know how you paint when you are on the go—leave a comment and let me know. And for more tried and true tips to improve your landscape art skills when you are on the go, consider Painting on Location. Whether you are planning your next trip abroad or refining sketches you do on location in the studio, the technical demonstrations, artist tips, and painting tutorials in the book will help you learn how to become a better artist.

And to see more of Eric Wiegardt's watercolors like the one above (which put me in a decidedly vacation state of mind!), visit his website. Enjoy,

Too Grown Up for Homework?

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:18:00 GMT

I'm not qualified to tell anyone what they should or should not do, but if I was to give us--and by "us" I mean those artistically inclined individuals who love painting, drawing, and mixed media art--a universal homework assignment, it would be to sketch every day. Every. Single. Day.


Julie by Jon deMartin, 2007, chalk drawing, 20 x 18.

Why? Simply because we get good at the things we do every single day. But I know it is a lot to ask. Responsibilities and work take up the lion's share of our daily hours. Most of us do the things we love a few times a week if we are lucky. But the rewards of finding a few minutes every day for our art are tantamount to the weeks and months in the studio that we may never get.

A quick mixed media portrait with pen and ink and watercolor of a family member watching TV, taking your sketchbook outside for a quick drawing session of the landscape, or creating a charcoal sketch of your kitchen table clutter are relatively quick and accessible ways to make sure you get to practice your art once a day. So what if it isn't the greatest artwork you'll ever create? I'm willing to bet that after a month has passed, you'll have a stack of works--an impressive feat in itself--and a few of them will be pieces you wouldn't mind showing around or taking into the studio to build upon.


	A pen and ink drawing of an abandoned house by Claudia Nice.

Practicing my art in fits and starts--well, mostly in fits--is what I do. And I know most of you do, too. But spending as little as 15 minutes on drawing every day is a really substantial way of putting your art smack dab in the middle of your life without putting too much pressure on yourself.

If you are looking for strategies or inspirations to get you going, Discover Your World in Pen, Ink & Watercolor is a popular resource by well-known instructor Claudia Nice that can help put you on the right path. Enjoy!

Don't Start Off the Wrong Way

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 04:48:00 GMT

For a drawing to be successful, you've got to start off choosing the right drawing surface. No matter how great the drawing ideas you have or the drawing art skills you bring to bear in the process, if you aren't pairing surface and implement well, you may run into trouble as you develop the piece.


Untitled by Linday Carron, ballpoint pen drawing.

When you are deciding what drawing art surface to use, first ask yourself three questions: What will you be drawing with? What do you want your marks to look like? And how archival or lasting you want your marks to be?

The first two choices are related in any and all drawing exercises you perform. Because, let's say, if you are using a paper that doesn't have a smooth or sized surface, a wet medium like ink will bleed or have soft lines. This might suit you or not--the point is to anticipate what you'll encounter so you can decide what kind of line drawing you want.

The third question, about how long you want the drawing to hold up over time, is a thorny one. In reality, we all know we can draw on pretty much anything, but if you want a drawing to retain its appearance over time you can make further inquiries about the papers you use. There are those that are pH-neutral and many are lignin-free so that they don't yellow.


		Maple Grove & Rocks by Thomas Kegler, 12 x 9, drawing with silver point & gouache heightening. Adapted from an article by Bob Bahr.

If you are creating line drawings in pen-and-ink, look for a surface that is smooth and pressed for precision lines and little bleeding. Hot-pressed watercolor paper is a good choice, as is Bristol board. Using charcoal to draw means you probably want to seek out a surface that has a bit more texture and pliancy like cold-pressed paper or rough paper.

Some papers are incredibly versatile and can let you do all the above and more on one surface, but the point I want to leave you with is to experiment and see what surface you respond to. I've learned the most insightful drawing tips on what surface to use from the artists interviewed in Drawing magazine. These top draftsmen share their approaches to drawing step by step, just as if we are in the studio with them. I've gleaned a lot of helpful info this way, and I hope the same goes for you when and if you decide to invest in a subscription to Drawing magazine. Enjoy!

Do You Realize What Will Happen To You?

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:10:00 GMT

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 different results. Perhaps that comes from how many materials you can use to create sketch drawings: pencil, pastel, charcoal, ink—and all of them give you a different range of handling and control.

You can make linear drawings or an outline drawing, with forms taking shape through contour. Or you can go in the complete opposite direction and practice how to sketch with layer upon layer of shading or tone.

Untitled by Christian Johnson, 2012,
charcoal and graphite on paper, 25 x 19.

If working with the former, I've found the best way to practice my linework is to use a dip pen. It was super frustrating to learn how to sketch with it, though, because it only holds a small amount of ink and I had to constantly go back, back, back to the ink pot. But once I got into the rhythm of working with the pen and became sensitive to the amount of pressure I put on the nib, I learned to create very different lines. It's like I had gotten a whole new lease on sketching. To get comfortable with pen-and-ink, you have to embrace spontaneity and just go with it—continuing to add lines and marks to make your statement.

Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888.

But it is worth it, as the 14^th century artist Cennino Cennini's words ring in my ear: "Do you realize what will happen to you if you practice drawing with a pen? That it will make you expert, skillful, and capable of much drawing out of your own head." It's what I aspire to every time I pick up the pen for sketching!

If I needed more proof that drawing is incredibly dynamic and "young" for its age, I need to look no further than Drawing magazine for confirmation. In every issue, it presents the deep and wide range of exploration within medium, which is exciting to the many of us who understand that drawing is a gateway to both technical mastery and artistic inspiration. Enjoy your subscription to Drawing!

Hunting the White Whale

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 03:15:00 GMT

Art makes stories come alive. To me, it is as simple as that. And sometimes without art, there is no story-—or, at least, it's not quite as good. This was the case for the great American novel Moby-Dick. It is hard to imagine that Melville's opus was once relatively unknown, but it wasn't until 70 years after it was published—and artist Rockwell Kent got his hands on it—that the book was rediscovered by the literary world.


	Illustration from Moby Dick by Rockwell Kent, pen and ink drawing.

Kent contributed to the rise in popularity of the book because of his illustrations of the story, which, when they were published in the 1930, proved to be incredibly popular and are acknowledged as part of the reason why Moby-Dick is now recognized as a classic.

And when you look at Kent's pen-and-ink line drawings for the book, they embody the story just as much as Melville's words. The dark zeal and sinister character of Captain Ahab is mirrored by Kent's linework—immersed in shadow made with dozens of thin parallel lines that come so close together they obliterate all but a few highlights. The massive white whale looms as large in Kent's drawings as he does in Ahab's deranged mind, but Kent captures the whale's beauty and and a bit of the wonder that underlies his existence.


Illustration from Moby Dick by Rockwell Kent, pen and ink drawing.

Rockwell Kent's relatively simple drawings tell the tale of Moby-Dick in a way that is just as powerful as the story itself. The same feelings I have reading the text are there when I look at Kent's drawing art for the book. That is wondrous—and a reminder to me to never forget the power of art as a storyteller.

My dearest wish is that your art comes alive for you and tells the stories you want to tell as well. If there's one resource that I think can help along the way, it would be Drawing: The Complete Course. It is an entire art class in one that emphasizes drawing art foundational skills and techniques that you can apply in every area of your art making, with step-by-step drawing instruction that will steer you toward drawings that are more realistic and skillfully rendered. And remember, now is the time to buy if you want to be part of a great cause as the Artist Daily Store is giving 30% of all sales made from October 1-5 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Thank you!

What Does This Painting Photo Say to You? Give It a Caption & Win!!

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:02:00 GMT

As you know I love, love, love the New Yorker's back page illustration challenge--where they give you an pen and ink drawing and you write in with a caption that you think goes with the image. Some are funny, some are curious, some are just plain silly, but it just goes to show the power images have to spark our imaginations.

Well, we can't let the New Yorker have all the fun! Here's an artsy image that is sure to spark your imagination. Leave a comment with your caption below by Sunday, September 23rd, 11.59 PM, and you could be randomly selected to win an Artist Daily bundle prize.

If you have any questions, consult the Artist Daily Contest rules page.

Can't wait to see your captions!

This Sci-Fi Guru Can Draw

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:25:00 GMT

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 work is...out there. His style is so unique that it has its own term: biomechanical, where human bodies and machines enmesh. And yes, there is a bit of a "yig" factor to some of his work, but in terms of execution? He's amazing.

H.R. Giger has an amazing way of manipulating a very limited
color palette into an extraordinary range of color.

I always assumed that his artworks were predominately pencil drawings. The monochromatic gradation he's known for seemed like it could only be made with a drawing pencil. But I was off. In fact, Giger often used an airbrush to create his grisaille paintings and now draws mostly in pastel or ink.


Galerie Carré Blanc by H.R. Giger, (drawing from the 700 Years of Waiting series), 1991, ink drawing on transcop.

What's most intriguing about Giger's career is that he started out as a "regular" two-dimensional artist, working on paper, but that was just the beginning. He took the objects and visions of his imagination, probably made pencil drawing or a pen and ink drawing of them, and then his artistic world kind of exploded around him. He did album covers, architectural designs, a museum, and movie after movie. But it all started with drawing pencil sketches in a notebook just like the rest of us work.

Giger's artistic trajectory shows how drawing can be such a catalyst for artists--a starting point for amazing work and growth if we really commit to it. Our latest Drawing 2011 CD gives you all of Drawing magazine's issues for an entire year in one disc. As I was browsing through it I realized, yet again, just how wild drawing is--how many unusual and curious as well as skillful works are being done with pencil drawings, charcoal, and more. Enjoy discovering that wider world for yourself--and putting your own mark on it!

Classic, Commercial, and an Art World Constant

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:55:00 GMT

You don't have to think terribly hard to figure out that the painting genre that has all of these characteristics in common is floral painting. It is a practice that has inspired artists to create beautiful, graceful paintings for centuries, but it is so much more than that.

Classic: So many artists become artists because they are inspired by historic artworks they've seen in museums or art history books. It pretty much goes without saying that a significant percentage of those works would be floral paintings. Every artistic movement has contributed to the genre, from the Renaissance to Impressionism and beyond. This does contemporary artists a two-fold favor: it provides hundreds of inspiring works to learn from, and it puts one in good company knowing we are extending this tradition into the 21^st century.

Flowers by Charles Demuth, watercolor painting, 1916, 9 x 11.

Commercial: Painting flowers is a smart idea if you want to develop a saleable body of work. It doesn't mean that you have to be conventional or stifle your own style in your presentation of how to paint flowers. Instead, look around you and acknowledge that people from so many walks of life are drawn to floral paintings. Individuals seek them out for their homes and workplaces. Collectors of floral paintings abound. Professional decorators often seek out floral paintings when designing residential and corporate spaces like hotel chains. Why shouldn't it be your flower oil painting that they are looking at?

Brass Samovar by CW Mundy, oil on linen, 30 x 24, 2007.

Art World Constant: Look anywhere artwork is sold and nine times out of ten you'll find a floral painting. From yard sales, flea markets, to Sotheby's and Christie's, the offerings that continue to always rise to the top are floral paintings or those works with floral aspects to them. Certainly, this isn't exclusive to flower paintings and them alone. But it reinforces to me that there is something constantly attractive and appealing about floral paintings.

Little Red Riding Hood by Daniel Egneus, pen and ink drawing, 2011.

But most of all, I would think most artists are drawn to painting flowers because it is a pleasing endeavor. You can explore all the essentials of art knowing that you will showcase work that brings people joy to behold. If you are interested in furthering your experience in the genre, The Art of Painting Flowers in Oil DVD is a three-hour instructional DVD that takes you through the entire painting process. Instructor and artists Claudia Seymour delivers an incredibly knowledgeable and informative workshop that does the genre justice. Enjoy!

Get It While You Can: New Free eBook on Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:08:00 GMT

In its most elementary form, a pen and ink drawing is stark black marks against a white surface. No dilution of color, no shades of gray. But artists who've spent time inking their way across a page know that drawing with ink can actually be an incredibly subtle and finessed endeavor if you use ink drawing techniques that allow for a slow build up of dark areas for value contrast, and if you are open to the idea of how to draw using line in varied ways.


	At the Beach by Charles Gibson, pen-and-ink drawing, 1901.

In our latest free eBook, Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques from Artist Daily: Drawing with Ink to Create Art with Strong Contrast and Surprising Subtlety, you'll find the ink drawing practices of artists past and present that show you how these effects are achieved.

For example, Honore Daumier and Charles Gibson both worked with ink drawings throughout their respective careers, but they used the energy of line very differently. Gibson kept his lines uniform in direction in a way that injected a liveliness into his work. His style became part of the hallmark of ink illustration in early twentieth-century America. Daumier, in a more traditional European approach, used line for both tone and contour in a way that can be traced back to Renaissance masters like Raphael. These two approaches to drawing with pen strokes are still alive and well in the here and now.

Contemporary ink artists like David Beynon Pena and Neil McMillan have taken what their pen and ink predecessors have taught them, utilizing the practice as a skill honing endeavor on the part of Pena, with an emphasis on making preparatory ink sketches for his oil paintings. McMillan pursues drawings that are less graphic in feel, though he too finds that working with ink has enhanced his ability to paint--mostly in getting confident in working with a fluid medium.


Grant's Lion by Melissa Tubbs, pen-and-ink drawing, 12 x 7.

Artist Melissa Tubbs create drawings that are dense and rich with ink yet are made with delicate lines and are subtle with gradation. She builds up layers of line section by section, always changing direction so her parallel lines transform into hatched and crosshatched marks.

There are so many pen and ink drawing lessons to be gleaned by looking at the history of the practice and how current practitioners are adding their own influences. In Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques from Artist Daily: Drawing with Ink to Create Art with Strong Contrast and Surprising Subtlety you'll find ink drawings from the past and present and the insights on the artists who created them. Download now!

Not Just For Ink Blots Anymore

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:47:00 GMT

Drawing with ink takes the precision of a master draftsman and the skill of a watercolorist handling a fluid medium. When I was in school I was completely captivated by the silky dark lines of one of the most famous pen and ink artists, Aubrey Beardsley, but there are several artists working today whose pen and ink drawing work deserves some attention, too.

Daniel Egneus is a Swedish illustrator who works with pen and ink drawing and watercolor. He's had widespread commercial success creating illustrations and designs for Haagen-Dasz, BMW, and Nike, among others, so you may be familiar with his drawings. And if you aren't you'll know them now by the way he contrasts slender line strokes and outlines with voluminous passages of dark ink. His drawings feel more like ink sketches, with marks that are not deliberate and end results that have an ease and flow to them. He's also got a playful side to him, turning a girl's ponytail into a small school of goldfish--and that's the kind of play that opens up one's creative mind.


Works by Daniel Egneus.

Matt Rota pursues his own fine art drawings while holding down freelance work for a variety of sources including the New York Times Op-Ed page. From images based on current news coverage to more inchoate narratives that lead to expansive ideas as you view them, my mind never shuts off when I look at his ink drawings. I'm always abuzz with ideas or fragmented thoughts, attesting to his strong compositional skills and his way of creating unconventional and sometimes alarming scenes that grab you with a strong image, but never run away with formal concerns. His work could never be described as "art for art's sake." Instead, the artist keeps any purely aesthetic impulse in check to visually whisper in your ear, though never giving away too much.


Works by Matt Rota.

I think of collapsing worlds and images when I look at the work of Minjae Lee. He's a young South Korean artist who uses color, pattern, and line to create images that read like slick ink paintings that combine fantasy imagery, typography, the human face, and more. His drawings are almost completely ornamental and the height of artifice, but my eye follows each line almost as if I was looking at a landscape painting--that is how engaging each passage of any one of his drawings is.


Works by Minjae Lee.

To see more artists whose drawing or painting styles set them apart, the Artist Daily Store is having a sale on American Artist, Drawing, and Watercolor magazines. In the 2009 Drawing Collection CD you'll find figure drawing expertise from Dan Gheno and James Langley, and the Winter 2007 issue of Watercolor has Yachiyo Beck's unusual still lifes--a study in contrast to be sure. So wait no more if you want an up-close look at these artists to learn how they do what they do so well. Now's the time! Enjoy!

P.S. What artists working with pen and ink do you admire? Leave a message and let me know.

Lust for Line

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:49:00 GMT

There are a few artists that I would like to watch step-by-step, drawing in their sketchbooks or painting in their studios. Okay, more than a few, but after seeing Van Gogh's drawings, he would definitely be at the top of my list.


Cottage Garden by Vincent Van Gogh, reed pen, quill, and ink drawing over graphite, 1888.

I was, of course, aware of Van Gogh's painting output and style, but his drawings were a shock to me. I had no idea he created such incredible line drawings. But I shouldn't have been surprised. The frenetic energy that inhabits his paintbrush would certainly translate to even his simple drawings.

In fact, Van Gogh had very strong drawing ideas. He believed the practice was the root of everything, and he had a robust appreciation for draftsmen across history including Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Daumier, and Howard Pyle.

What I found most intriguing during my study of his drawing oeuvre was that the artist went through a period of contour drawing and line drawing, and found appealing aspects to both. I often feel it is immature of me to enjoy drawings with strong outlines, but if Van Gogh found something in them that worthwhile that's enough for me.


	Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin by Vincent Van Gogh, pen and ink drawing, 1888.

I'm also enchanted by the way Van Gogh mixed his materials, often mixing and matching graphite, gouache, colored chalk, pen and ink, oil paint, and watercolor. He would also often use multiple pens: reed, quill, and an ordinary fountain pen, to create a variety of lines. The results are hypnotic and strangely delicate--there's an ornamentation to them that I've never ascribed to Van Gogh before. Looking at his drawings was like "meeting" his work for the first time.

Studying Van Gogh's drawings could be a lifelong drawing tutorial for me, with every new drawing teaching me a new way of seeing and making marks. But I don't live by Van Gogh, alone. There are so many great drawing resources that I'm glad to have at my side as I progress, including Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters, Classical Drawing Atelier, and Language of Drawing. Any one of these could be right for you, too. Enjoy!

P.S. What artist's drawings do you really enjoy or are inspired by? Leave a comment and let me know.

Can a Caricature Help My Portrait Painting? Plus Our Self-Portrait Contest!

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:17:00 GMT


The Grimaces by Louis-Leopold Boilly, 1823, lithograph, 13 1/8 x 10.

A few weeks ago I was in the Met and saw "Infinite Jest," an exhibition of drawings and prints that explore satire and caricature from the Italian Renaissance to the present. I enjoyed the show, walking around and chuckling at several of the drawings, but nothing really spoke to me, and yet weeks later the images from the show are popping into my head as if I had seen them just this morning.

I've been puzzling over why that could be and came to the conclusion that even though caricature is a completely different category of portraiture, it uses the same strategies that can make fine art portrait painting and portrait drawings memorable.

At its most essential, a caricature is an exaggeration or distortion of a person's physical characteristics, but it is still a study of a person's physicality. We've all seen the boardwalk artists at the beach who draw quick caricature sketches in a handful of minutes. The artist gets the shape of the face and accentuates two or three physical features of the sitter and voila, a caricature.


Caricature of a Woman in a Large Hat by Enrico Caruso, 1920, 14 x 20, pencil drawing.	Senator Dolph of Oregon by Thomas Nast, 1894, pencil drawing with ink, 13 1/2 x 10 1/4.	The Clown: M. Joret by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, 1885, pen and ink drawing.

Although fine art portraiture takes longer to create, an oil portrait painter still uses the same approach. First, it is essential to get the shape of the head right. This is a crucial step because it determines how the head sits on the neck and leads into the torso, and how the features sit on the face. Think of how you are able to recognize a friend or acquaintance from across the street. The same rule applies for a portrait; the sitter will be recognized first from their big ol' noggin.

With a caricature, the artist will usually exaggerate a person's features—eyes, lips, chin, ears, or hair, even freckles or big eyelashes. It always varies, but usually the artist doesn't emphasize everything and only select one or two features for the biggest impact. Fine art portrait artists should work in the same way. Not in terms of exaggerating the size or proportion of a person's features, but drawing attention to certain aspects of a person with color, light and shadow, and brushstrokes.

For me, looking at a model and first thinking of how I'd draw their caricature can really open up my mind to what I'd showcase in their portrait. And, just like the caricatures that stood out in my mind weeks after I'd seen them, a portrait that visually "heightens" certain aspects of a person's looks will certainly stand out from the crowd. For more on what goes into painting an excellent portrait and how to capture a person's likeness, our Master Teachers Highlights magazine is a great all-in-one resource. And today you can download Master Teachers Highlights for just a dime. Yep, only ten cents. Enjoy!

And in the spirit of appreciation for portraiture, American Artist is sponsoring a self-portrait contest that I would love for you to be a part of! Enter now!

My ‘Duh’ Moment in Art

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:46:00 GMT

Here it is: Make better art by learning from better artists. Duh, right? But I don't think that way often enough. I'm all about looking at artwork—more and more and more artwork—but sometimes I don't really put my thinking cap on when it comes to gleaning what artists are saying with their work. Here are a few tips that came to me directly from the artist—no puzzling it out required.

Bird Me!

Painting or drawing birds is a definite challenge but Dutch artist Jacob de Gheyn was a master at varying his drawing techniques and marks to account for all the textures in any fair fowl—from wispy strokes for feathers to scaly marks for feet to dimples and dots to account for skin that looks plucked.

Plucked Chickens Hanging from Nails by Jacob de Gheyn,
1598, pen and ink drawing, 6 1/2 x 6.

Sneaky Sketching

"I would often get caught drawing because the sound of the pencil scratching, the sound of sharpening, or pulling out the blade to sharpen would attract too much attention. I began doing the sketches in pen-and-ink because it's better suited for sneaking up on people."-Neil McMillan


'A' Train, no. 4 by Neil McMillan, 2008 pen and ink drawing, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2.	'A' Train, no. 5 by Neil McMillan, 2008 pen and ink drawing, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2.	'A' Train, no. 3 by Neil McMillan, 2008 pen and ink drawing, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2.

Don't Break Down On the Curves

Curves are a tricky beast and really hard to accurately draw. But there is one approach that many artists used, including no less than Peter Paul Rubens. The trick is to use only straight lines for edges, softening them into curves where appropriate and needed later in the process.

Two Satyrs by Peter Paul Rubens, 1618-19.

Give Your Drawing Patina

Anthony Mitri drags fine sandpaper vertically and horizontally across his drawing surface. It creates a linen-like texture, a kind of cross-hatching that lends the work a sense of roughness and history, similar to an old filmstrip. He also steers away from fixative until the very end of the process because it makes the paper grainy.

115 Bales and One Silver Ring, Normandy, France by Anthony Mitri,
charcoal drawing, 22 1/2 x 30, 2002.

All of these tips and the artists they come from are featured in the 2008 CD of Drawing magazine. Yep, you read that right. All of this info plus more in-depth methods and techniques are here for the taking in one lil' package—Drawing 2008 CD. Enjoy!

P.S. What is your 'duh' moment when it comes to drawing and painting? Leave a comment and let me know! Thanks!

A Few Favorite Resources from My Bookshelves

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:57:00 GMT

Sarah Simblet (her pen drawing, Isis 38, above) taught me
a lot about how intertwined the semblance of motion and
mark-making are in really good drawings.

Maybe it is part of having an arts career or maybe it is just me, but I love books and magazines and videos about art and artists about as much as actually painting or drawing. It's just how I am. I can never resist flipping through a good manual on drawing or a painter's catalog. It would be too much to ask of me!

Here are a few of the resources we feature in our Artist Daily Store that I have been utilizing a lot lately. I figured if they are working for me and teaching me things I haven't learned before, so maybe they can do the same for you.

If I could only sketch for the rest of my life, I'd be okay with that, especially after reading Sarah Simblet's Sketchbook for the Artist. I now have a broader, deeper understanding of how drawing can make me see the world in a new way, and how I can draw to capture the world I see with interesting compositions and arrangements. It's a win-win situation.


	Scott Burdick really understands how to create a sense of personality in his portraits (Tiffany's Hat, oil painting, 16 x 24).

One of my favorite DVDs that we've created at Artist Daily is the Portrait Painting Duo DVD with Scott Burdick and Daniel Gerhartz. Watching two confident painters each make a portrait side by side was illuminating, and the environment created a perfect situation where the artists shared tips and methods in a way that was new to me. I learned a lot and took notes, too!

I make no effort to hide how much I love still-life painting, and Still Life Painting Atelier is truly the best: a study on the genre of still life and on the tradition of oil painting. I find the sections on mixing colors for surfaces, including metallics, helpful because painting glass and other surfaces has always been a challenge for me. But the chapters are also built to delve into all aspects of oil painting, from underpaintings and color mixing to glazing and painting in grisaille.

If any of these products have piqued your interest and you want to see more, now is the time to get them because our Artist Daily Store Sale starts today and the prices are really good—but only available for a limited time. Enjoy!

And do you have a resource—print, web, video, or otherwise—that I should know about? Leave a comment and tell me.