Beach Birds or Shore Birds?

I got to know someone from New Jersey when I attended college in San Diego. Most of us said “beach”, but our New Jersey suite mate said “shore”. Actually I think she said “sho-ah”. The owners of my pier drawing asked me to draw some “shore birds”, but I think they are both native Californians. […]

Eager to Draw

Last year some fine folks of impeccable taste bought this pencil drawing. A few months later, they saw this drawing on my blog and decided it would be a nice companion to the pier. It would, but whoever owns it would likely disagree. Fortunately for these fine folks of impeccable taste, I accept commissions; fortunately […]

A Day of Pencil | Three Drawings

On a recent hot day, as I was preparing to go down the hill to teach drawing lessons, the gallery curator texted me to say the A/C wasn’t working. So, I immediately texted (almost) all my students* and cancelled. We had some chitchat, and one of my most motivated students said she had started a […]

This is Fun

I started detailing Jeff’s Garden, the commissioned oil painting, and it is fun! We left it looking like this: Then it began evolving. . . (oops, finger partially over the lens in the first photo)

Planting an Oil Garden

What’s an “oil garden”? Glad you asked! Remember this colored pencil sketch for a commissioned oil painting of someone’s garden? (Let’s call him Jeff, because that is his name.) Jeff approved of the design for his painting and chose 12×24” for the canvas size. Having realized the benefits of starting with a sketch on an […]