Technique And Skills Absorbed

"Technique and skills must be absorbed 

and wrapped up and put away to become 

such an integral part of yourself that they 

will be revealed in your work 

without your thought."

~ Shoji Hamada

Drawing With a Brush Exercise

"Skills can be found, like lost items 

that have always belonged to you. 

If the spirit of learning is there, 

the passion of creation 

will never die." 

~ Melissa Jean

Double Your Odds

"Every skill you acquire 

doubles your odds of success." 

~ Scott Adams

Drawing With A Brush - Control Exercise

"Artists get better by sharpening their skills 

or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, 

and by learning from their work." 

~ David Bayles,

Drawing Doodles With A Brush

Tony van Hasselt has inspired me to do some sketching with a brush this week. 

This is a fun exercise to just get your brushes wet.

Put a mark down and see what it suggests.

It's nothing to get nervous about. It doesn't even have to turn out.

Just stay loose and doodle!

You can use photos or real life for inspiration

Or just draw mindlessly, completely out of your head, like I do! :-D

Thumbnail Sketches

Today's doodles are thumbnail sketches of Peonies. Now I'm working to come up with designs for my paintings. I usually use the rule of thirds, which I've illustrated here. Where the lines intersect is a good area for my center of interest, which is commonly the Poppa shape. Can you pick out the Momma, Poppa, Baby shapes here?