Sketching and Watercolor ~ anytime, anyplace

1. sketch it in pencil

Me and my watercolors go everywhere. It's easy to bring just a few tools and plant yourself somewhere and draw and paint! (These photos were taken by Carol Bostian Hensley in Austin, at our Lavender Sage Art Retreat, at the Wildflower Center.)

2. Refine the pencil drawing

3. Ink it

4. Paint it

5. Finish the page (oops, I'm not quite finished with the page on the right)

You can check my classes and workshop page, to see where I'm teaching next...

Everyday Objects ~ binoculars

If you're looking for me, I"m teaching at CREATE in Chicago this week!

Everyday Objects tutorial

It's my month to pick the theme for The Sketchbook Challenge, and it may come as no surprise to my loyal readers that the theme I've chosen is "Everyday Objects." And so to celebrate the theme, here's a tutorial on drawing your everyday objects using a Tombow water soluble pen. (I like the black or grey pens and use the tip, not the brush end of the Tombow dual brush pens--but any water soluble pen will work for this.) This method makes it quick and easy to capture drawings in your sketchbook!

1. Sketch your object with pencil first. (The proportions are a off in the drawing, which I didn't notice till I looked at the photo, but I'm not going to worry about it. No time or reason to completely redraw this.)

2. Pencil over your sketchlines a little darker, getting the details and symmetry as best you can.


3. Using your water solube pen, and still looking at the object, redraw your lines. Erase the pencil lines.( Notice the slight smears? Tombow pens take a few minutes to dry.)

4. Use my fave Niji Waterbrush, or any paintbrush with some clear water.

5. With your brush, touch the edge of the line and shade with the ink. Do this sparingly and try not to cover very much of the white of the page. (It's a great way to learn to practice learning to see subtle shading and shadow.)

I'm working in a Strathmore Visual Journal (mixed media~ 9x12) and plan to add more Everyday Objects to this page (and to my journal.) I'll post my images throughout the month of August.



I added a little red watercolor to my chicken timer.

And, throughout August I'll show you how I have leveraged some of my sketches into my other mixed media and fiber arts projects using some of the ideas from my DVD/dowload "From Art Journaling to Art."
You can see my complete 'in person and online' teaching schedule here.