Alice watches baseball
Posted: October 13, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, ink drawing, stillman & Birn 8 CommentsHappy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! I hope you are enjoying a relaxing long weekend with friends and family. We had our family turkey dinner yesterday and then retired to the tv room to digest and watch baseball.
Since Alice is not much of a baseball fan, I was able to draw her as she slept. But with every whoop, holler and groan from the fans in the room with her, she adjusted her position a little bit, and I kept on drawing. Sketched in a Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook (which I love for ink drawings) using a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and Platinum Carbon ink.
Dusky Alice
Posted: September 23, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, Charcoal brush, Procreate 16 CommentsAlice is very happy for the cooler autumn weather. She’s way more energetic on her walks and this week we’ve returned to our trails now that it’s less buggy in the woods. She’s so happy to be reunited with the other dogs that walk there too, and when we get home she’s ready for a long nap.
Before I sketched, I updated the Procreate app on my iPad to the new Procreate 5.4. If you are a Procreate user, you may already know that there are 18 new brush sets on there, including gouache, oil, watercolour, ink and charcoal sets.
While Alice was napping, I tried out the Dusky charcoal brush. I’m not a very sophisticated Procreate user. I just like to use the drawing tools like I would the tools in my studio: draw with them, erase if I can, and try to figure out how closely they replicate their analog versions. This Dusky charcoal brush is really nice. If I hold my Apple pencil upright, I get a defined line. If I use the side of the pencil, I get smudge marks, as if I was using one of those stump blenders. And since I often draw on my iPad when I don’t have much time, the best thing about this is that I don’t have to hunt around in my studio for paper and charcoal, plus my fingers are clean at the end.
Alice moved her paws while I was drawing her so I don’t think I got that front paw quite right. I tried to put it back in place but she would have none of it. You know what they say about sleeping dogs…
Alice watches football
Posted: December 26, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, dog drawing, ink drawing 22 CommentsIt was the best kind of day for Alice. A long walk in the woods with the four people she loves best in the world, followed by an exciting football game on tv. And them some turkey leftovers with her dinner.
It was the best kind of day for me too. Besides the long walk and having the family all together, I received a new sketchbook and some new pens from Japan so I could draw while everyone else watched football.
Toasted on both sides
Posted: November 3, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, dog sketch, hahnemuhle book, ink sketch 7 CommentsAlice likes her spot in the afternoon sun so much that she will even sleep on the hard floor, which she rarely does. Her old bones prefer the comfort of her bed. I get it.
Today I noticed her on the floor, looking up at me, pleading, I imagine, for her bed. I brought it over and she immediately fell asleep. I barely had time to do one drawing before she flipped herself over so she could toast the other side.
I sketched in my Hahnemuhle A4 portrait book today, using my Pilot pen and carbon ink. Always a satisfying experience!
August Alice
Posted: August 29, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, dog drawing, ink drawing 35 CommentsI’ve been painting quite a bit lately — filming a new course, working on some watercolours for fall exhibitions, preparing a few new ideas for videos — and you may have been wondering where Alice the dog is in all of this. As always, she’s by my side where ever I go. If I’m sitting on a dock by a lake drawing boathouses, she’s at my feet, watching the ducks go by. If I’m in my studio, she’s usually sleeping after her long walk. And if I’m working in the garden, she’s exploring the mini forest in my new backyard and putting her nose where it shouldn’t be, like into a nest of stinging hornets.
I always have several ink pens in my office and when I take a break from looking at my computer, I often draw Alice as she sleeps in one of her many beds. She doesn’t always stay in her bed while I’m drawing, especially if she hears the doorbell or someone eating in the kitchen, but she usually comes back and I just fill the page with another drawing.
At my feet
Posted: May 16, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, dog sketch, ink sketch, sketchbook 11 CommentsI’m catching up on stuff in the house and garden today, and of course Alice is at my feet. I’ve been checking her after our walks on the trails because I found two ticks on her after our walk on Tuesday. Luckily she’s blond so those nasty critters are easy to spot on her light fur and neither of them had attached themselves to her. Of course I have to keep her on a leash now instead of letting her run free in the long grasses since that’s where they are likely to be, but it’s still a beautiful walk for both of us if we stick to the middle of the trail.
I drew her today using my new Pilot pen in my Hahnemuhle cotton sketchbook. I just love a fresh ink line on white paper so I didn’t do a preliminary drawing with pencil, but that can sometimes get me in trouble. Her hindquarters weren’t wide enough and I had to go back and move the line for her tail, which is why she looks like she might have stitches on her leg. Corrections like this used to bother me, and cause me to start over, but now I just keep going. That’s what sketchbooks are for.
