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Cantering Horse, by Rilla
Companion to last month’s Galloping Horse. She’s still working hard on getting those legs just so, as you see. I’m loving this chance to watch a young artist hone her skills. She’s made big strides...
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Rainforest Menagerie
Draw Rainforest Animals by Doug DuBosque, a years-ago gift to Jane from her aunt, has been seeing a lot of action around here lately. Excellent tutorials and such fun material. Boa by Beanie Sloth by...
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Makers Gotta Mess
Enjoyed this article today: Why NonGeek Parents Have the Advantage in Parenting Young Makers. The whole piece was interesting but this bit especially grabbed me, because it’s singing my own song: The...
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Barn Owl
So much of my role with Rilla is staying out of her way. Giving her vast stretches of time to draw and play, giving her space to get messy in. (Actually, she’s kind of a type A artist—very precise...
View ArticleEric Carle and the Story Behind ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’
“Mommy,” asked Rilla, “how do illustrators make books?” She knows how the writing part happens, or at least the part of it that involves someone stalking down the hall into the kitchen, muttering,...
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Sunday Morning Inspiration: Lisa Congdon & Jennifer Orkin Lewis
Art by Lisa Congdon. Image source: lisacongdon.com. The Basic Line Drawing class at Creativebug led me to the blog of its instructor, illustrator Lisa Congdon. Lisa and her work have galvanized our...
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“Your taste is still killer”
I came across this Ira Glass quote (direct YouTube link for my iPad readers) and was struck by how accurately it describes my relationship to my drawing efforts. “Nobody tells this to people who are...
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Art Resource: Koosje Koene’s Draw Tip Tuesday
(Added the shadow color before the cookie was dry, and the yellow bled. Whoops!) Saturday night, as I’ve mentioned, is one of the best parts of my week. My boys go to bed early these days—7:30, ever...
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Learning in Public
Something I think is wonderful about social media is the way so many creative people share their efforts and progress in various arts. I don’t just mean professional artists sharing their finished...
View ArticleSinging my song
“The habit of making art is wonderful. Sharing it is sublime.” —Danny Gregory, artist, author of The Creative License and other wonderful books on illustrated sketchbook-keeping
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The intrepid artist
Rilla and I have been trying to work in our sketchbooks daily. I feel brave when I tackle a subject like my stapler or a piece of fruit, and then I watch her casually sit down and commence drawing...
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six weekend moments
1. Leaving the house early yesterday morning, I spotted a pair of goldfinches feasting on the seeds of my basil—yes, another herb I forgot to pinch back, and now I’m glad 2. Pink milk and candy hearts...
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San Diego gardening is a quirky business
Remember those pumpkins I said might be ripe in time for Christmas? More like Valentine’s Day. We gave most of them away to a neighbor (who thanked us with pumpkin bread, so we came out ahead) but...
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Ten Ways to Cultivate a Family Art Habit
On Twitter, Kim asked if I had any advice for a family getting started with sketching and art journaling. Did I ever! I’ve Storified the conversation, if you’d like to see how it unfolded, but I’ll...
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Danny Gregory interviewed me about one of my favorite subjects: making art...
Well, this was quite a treat. My recent post on ways to encourage a family art habit caught the eye of folks at Sketchbook Skool, which led to my being interviewed by Danny Gregory for a Q&Art...
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“…wake to the wonder of this grass”
Ours is in bloom this very day, as it happens “Our Christmas cactus has predictably bloomed each December for three decades and some years when it has been colder for longer, as is the case this year,...
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Progress
One of the earliest lessons of having a special-needs child was learning to recognize his progress not by comparing him to typically-developing children of the same age, but by comparing him to his own...
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Every Face
I’m midway through a long rhapsody about pens but I’ve scrapped it for today because of this excellent post by Danny Gregory. Danny, as you probably know, is an artist and writer whose books include...
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Notebookery
On my mind constantly of late: notebooks, sketchbooks, art journals, and combinations thereof. Conversations are swirling in several of my circles— • at Sketchbook Skool there is always lots of chatter...
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