Chris Harvey has a lot of long straight architectural lines in his painting, and no matter what he tried, every pass with the brush resulted in another wobbly line. The wobbles weren’t interesting or expressive, they were distracting from the painting’s quality and mood, so I built him a bridge. This bridge is very fancy. I stuck 2 pins in a board, and voila! We have ourselves a tool that helps a person paint straight lines. (Chris has honored it with a name: “The Tool.”)
I’ve never understood why people berate their artistic abilities by saying “I can’t even make a straight line.” People, you don’t have to. That’s what tools are for.
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Hopefully Chris can finish the painting in time for the Seattle Artist League show! All students and teachers are encouraged to bring in work. Next month I’ll show you how to make a tool that slows time. You’ll need five rubber bands, a paperclip, and 3 extra long zip ties for that one.
Today my art buddy Lendy and I took some photos to practice for our “Draw like Diebenkorn” workshop this weekend. We set up some still lifes, and I took some selfies. I don’t have a camera with a tripod in my apartment so I used my laptop’s Photo Booth feature. For anyone who has used …
Original post: Justseeds Judging Books by Their Covers is Josh MacPhee’s ongoing series of writings and image collections of book covers. Although sometimes they feel marginal today, books have been a primary form of information and cultural exchange for almost 400 years. Book covers are often a person’s first contact with the ideas inside, and …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8949″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Been a while since I posted. Here’s a cheerful watercolor clusterlump of flowers painted by John Singer Sargent in 1905. My stars, look at that beautiful blue! Each flower perched atop a brushstroke. That can’t be transparent blue to be that bright on top of other colors. Maybe he …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8191″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Nikki Barber Printmaking in Thailand Our wonderful printmaking instructor Nikki Barber is on another artist’s pilgrimage to Northern Thailand. She’s spending one month as a studio-based artist in residence at Rajamangala University in Chiang Mai. There, she is able to interact directly with students, faculty, and Thai artists, experiencing the technical differences …
The Bridge: A Very Fancy Painting Tool
[image_with_animation image_url=”8653″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Image above from Urban Sketchers Chicago
Chris Harvey has a lot of long straight architectural lines in his painting, and no matter what he tried, every pass with the brush resulted in another wobbly line. The wobbles weren’t interesting or expressive, they were distracting from the painting’s quality and mood, so I built him a bridge. This bridge is very fancy. I stuck 2 pins in a board, and voila! We have ourselves a tool that helps a person paint straight lines. (Chris has honored it with a name: “The Tool.”)
I’ve never understood why people berate their artistic abilities by saying “I can’t even make a straight line.” People, you don’t have to. That’s what tools are for.
Hopefully Chris can finish the painting in time for the Seattle Artist League show! All students and teachers are encouraged to bring in work. Next month I’ll show you how to make a tool that slows time. You’ll need five rubber bands, a paperclip, and 3 extra long zip ties for that one.
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Draw like Diebenkorn …with Procreate
Today my art buddy Lendy and I took some photos to practice for our “Draw like Diebenkorn” workshop this weekend. We set up some still lifes, and I took some selfies. I don’t have a camera with a tripod in my apartment so I used my laptop’s Photo Booth feature. For anyone who has used …
Judging Books by Their Covers
Original post: Justseeds Judging Books by Their Covers is Josh MacPhee’s ongoing series of writings and image collections of book covers. Although sometimes they feel marginal today, books have been a primary form of information and cultural exchange for almost 400 years. Book covers are often a person’s first contact with the ideas inside, and …
Blue Gentians by John Singer Sargent
[image_with_animation image_url=”8949″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Been a while since I posted. Here’s a cheerful watercolor clusterlump of flowers painted by John Singer Sargent in 1905. My stars, look at that beautiful blue! Each flower perched atop a brushstroke. That can’t be transparent blue to be that bright on top of other colors. Maybe he …
Postcard from Thailand
[image_with_animation image_url=”8191″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Nikki Barber Printmaking in Thailand Our wonderful printmaking instructor Nikki Barber is on another artist’s pilgrimage to Northern Thailand. She’s spending one month as a studio-based artist in residence at Rajamangala University in Chiang Mai. There, she is able to interact directly with students, faculty, and Thai artists, experiencing the technical differences …