Late to the game

Posted: March 26, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 23 Comments

I’m sure that you already know that in Canada we have 11 seasons, but I’m a bit late to the game. I only heard about this last week on the radio. My particular favourites on this list are the ones that occur around this time: fool’s spring, second winter, spring of deception, third winter and mud season. I think we are probably in fool’s spring right now. Which means there’s still time to paint the wheelbarrow with some snow on it.

I haven’t painted my old friend the broken wheelbarrow in many months. It was in a spot in the backyard that I couldn’t see from my window, but I fixed that yesterday. I put on my boots and went out there to move it, carefully, to a new spot. It’s not as good as the old spot in my previous yard because it’s up against a skinny pine, not a grand old oak, but it will do. It’s in a forested corner of my yard which makes a good backdrop and hopefully makes up for the lack of a big tree.

I sketched this on hot press paper using a Lamy pen that’s filled with copper ink, and added watercolour after. If you want to learn a bit about this process, have a look at my newest online course, “Sketching Techniques with Pens and Inks“, on sale this week.

362 ink sketches later

Posted: March 24, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 11 Comments

The first sketch I ever posted on this blog was an ink sketch of my living room chair, drawn with a Pilot Fineliner in a 3″ x 5″ Moleskine sketchbook. 2510 blog posts later (!), I am still drawing in ink. Hidden in amongst the watercolours are hundreds of ink sketches and hundreds more in ink and wash. I figured it was time to share my love of ink drawing by creating a course about pens and inks.

Sketching Techniques with Pens & Inks is sort of a two-part course. In the first part we look at lots of the tools that I’ve been drawing with over the past 13 years — pens (both permanent and water-soluble), inks (not only black but interesting colours too) and different pen nibs as well as drawing paper. In the second (and much longer) part, we do a lot of pen drawing, using a variety of pens and inks to draw objects, people, architecture and finally a full street scene. If you love ink drawing or want to do more of it, or are curious about what we’ll do in the course, have a look here.

As always, you can take advantage of my special launch price, valid this week only. ​
Normally priced at $49 USD or $69 CDN, I’m discounting Sketching Techniques with Pens and Inks to $42 USD or $59 CDN until midnight (ET) on Sunday, March 30, 2025.

Tiny New York City sketches

Posted: March 23, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 26 Comments

Last week we spent a few days in New York City. It was a whirlwind trip, with most of the time spent with family, but I found a few moments to sketch in between our activities.

I brought a tiny sketch kit with me knowing that I wouldn’t have much drawing time — a 3″ x 5″ Moleskine sketchbook, a few pens, my travel palette and a waterbrush. I knew that I would be more apt to sketch if the book was really tiny, and as it turns out I was right. I really enjoyed having the pocket-sized kit with me. I was able to pull it out to draw a few figures while waiting for the subway, and again later in the day to draw a few lines of the Brooklyn bridge while waiting for the ferry in DUMBO.

Before leaving home, I noticed that NYC Urban Sketchers had a meet-up at Essex Market on Saturday morning. I joined them for a few hours, but only had time to do a few quick sketches before heading off to another family event. Even after all these years of being part of the worldwide USk family, it still makes me so happy to travel to another city and hang out with other sketchers.

Since we were staying in Brooklyn, I had the chance to discover some new areas and great sketching spots. There’s a wonderful promenade that runs along the water in Brooklyn Heights, and it has the absolute best view of lower Manhattan. It was misty on the morning that I sketched which made the panorama a little more interesting and atmospheric.

I walked by this dead rat multiple times before I decided to sketch it. I’m not that keen on live rodents in the city but this dead one was perfectly intact and seemed like it would make a good addition to my tiny sketchbook.

An emerald in the woods

Posted: March 10, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 24 Comments

I’m rushing to get in the last few snow paintings before the white stuff is gone. This green house is on a road not too far from here. No doubt, I would probably not even notice it in summer but on a sunny day in winter — covered in fresh snow and backed by a forest — it was a little jewel in the woods.

I am experimenting with Holbein watercolours this week, but my shadow mix for snow is the same as always — a bit of Cerulean, a bit of Cobalt and a tiny dot of Violet. As for the green, it’s mostly Cobalt Green mixed with a bit of yellow. Painted on a 1/4 sheet of Arches CP paper.

In other news: I am truly honoured that my painting “Southside Harbour” was selected for the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour 100th Anniversary Exhibition. The show will be on at the prestigious Roberts Gallery in Toronto from March 15-29th. It’s a wonderful show and if you are in the Toronto area, the opening is March 15th from 1 pm to 4 pm. Have a look at all the paintings here.

Yellow plus grey makes green

Posted: March 6, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | 30 Comments

This is the Valentine’s Day bouquet that keeps on giving. I received it on February 14th and it’s still beautiful three weeks later. A little shrivelled, I’ll admit, but highly sketchable. The flowers come from a florist — unlike my usual grocery store blooms — which has no doubt contributed to their longevity.

The drooping and curling shapes of this bouquet are still so beautiful. I felt that I couldn’t do them justice with a loose painting. Instead I chose to draw their complex forms on hot press paper using a water-soluble orange marker and then painted with watercolour, using a mix of Payne’s Grey and Lemon Yellow for the fading foliage. I like this mix for grey/greens, and you can get some great darks with it too.