2011 Archives
A Vertical Paintbrush Rack
Posted March 12, 2011For awhile I had felt that in order to properly protect my acrylic brushes, (many of which are of rather high quality), I needed a better way to air dry them following cleaning. ...The ideal solution seemed to be to clench them in some sort of apparatus that would suspend them, head down, without the bristles being pressed against anything, and so that plenty of air could circulate around them. Read how I built my own custom drying-rack.
A New Use for Old Markers
Posted March 03, 2011The idea was to remove all traces of ink from a marker, and then use it selectively remove to pigment from a support; sort of like a paintbrush in reverse. Read more...
Transferring The Pattern
Posted February 23, 2011In my last post, I described how I make patterns for some of my pictures using willow charcoal on newsprint. There are a number of good ways to transfer the pattern to a support; my personal favorite is as follows...
Of Charcoal and Newsprint
Posted February 19, 2011Doubtless there are at least a few artists out there who can look at a reference photo, and, with a few deft strokes of a pencil, produce the guideline basis for a picture that is both pleasingly aligned, and well composed... Most of these problems can be resolved in the "guideline" stage, but this usually calls for repeated erasing, which can be both time consuming, and, in some cases, hard on the support. I would like to briefly touch on a couple of traditional techniques used by many artists to streamline this process, and then explain how I incorporated them into my own method.
Colored Pencil on Drafting Film
Posted February 10, 2011I’ve used colored pencils for years now, but never tried it on poly drafting film until I saw what great results so many miniature artists get with it. It was an “aha” moment when I first tried my Prismacolors on this very durable and versatile surface. Here's what I've discovered so far...