Category Archive

Here’s the next page from my Sketchbook Project Special Edition. I was having so much trouble with the markers that I went the safe route: no browns to speak of and not a lot of colors to mess up.   I also went safe with the drawing. I had originally drawn Snowflake for Christmas cards that I sent out last year, and …

I pulled out my sewing machine yesterday to do some repair work and got an itch while it was out. Here’s what happened when I decided to scratch: I had some old fabric that I wasn’t using for anything because it was stained. I think I was keeping it to use as a possible drop cloth. I created a pattern months ago …

  Maybe this isn’t the best Square Kat I’ve ever drawn. O.K. It isn’t. But he’s in the Sketchbook now, and markers are more permanent than plastic so there isn’t anything I can do about it.

Here’s the next page of my Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project Special Edition. I’m still working with markers here, and it’s hard when you don’t have the colors you need. Cupid ended up being yellow, which I really didn’t like. I went over him with a lighter colored pencil to take off the edge, but I don’t know that it …

Here’s another spread from my Sketchbook Project Limited Edition. I really wasn’t liking the markers as I worked on this. The ArtHouse people encourage you to try new mediums and ideas and to embrace the idea of a sketchbook, but it’s still embarrassing to my sensitive little ego to put something like this out there for all the world to point and laugh at. …

So I kind of made the mistake of signing up for the Sketchbook Project: Limited Edition earlier this year, and I ended up getting pressed for time (doesn’t everybody?), and delivered a sketchbook that tells the story of what a bad time I had trying to make a new medium (markers) work. I started posting the pages here and here …

And this would be the second double-page spread from my Sketchbook Project Special Edition sketchbook. The initial Square Kats drawings seem to be fine; it’s the coloring in with markers thing that’s really turning me off. I think I’ll still use the Kats in paintings later though, so all is not lost.

O.K. Here’s my first poor attempt at marker art. Markers feel like all the bad things that watercolor and pen & ink have to offer: none of them are very forgiving. I’m also kind of stuck with the colors I have, and I’m not able to blend them very well. I ended up going over the cat fur with a white pencil …

So I went and joined the Art House Co-op and their Special Edition Sketchbook Project. They’re going to print at least one spread from each sketchbook they get back in a series of books they’ll be publishing documenting the project. I know. I almost have time for this. I decided to try out a relatively new medium for me: markers. …

My next Square Kat painting will be for St. Patrick’s Day, but I’m not sure if he’ll actually be finished by St. Patrick’s Day. I’ll do my best. His name is Patrick and he’s a bit of a Leprechaun, as you can see.

Alright. Now I did it. I went and signed up for another Sketchbook Project, this time the Limited Edition version. I’m such a sucker. But I have a plan: I’m planning on filling it with Square Kats that I would like to eventually paint and include in a calendar (or two). So really, it will be totally useful in the …

I thought I needed to add a little to that last post on the Cupid Square Kat, mainly about being rejected by the goodness and decency people over there at Zazzle. Within 24 hours of rejecting my design for postage stamps, Zazzle awarded two (here’s the first, and here’s the second) other Cupid Square Kat designs Today’s Best Awards. Here are the …