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Art on the Go: Art School – Line Basics: Hatch and Marks to Imply Light and Dimension
Hatching or adding hatch marks is a technique used to add dimension and tonality to line art. It adds dimension to a simple line drawing by implying light and shadow. The hatch marks are used to indicated the shadow. It also adds tonality (or a range of tones) to a simple line drawing creating more interest. Hatch lines or marks are a simple and easy way to add pop to your everyday line art. Examples of Different Hatch Marks There are several different ways to create hatch marks. Below are 9 different examples, yet don’t let this list limit you. These are just some of the basic hatching marks, but…
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On Location: Spend the Day Painting a Mask in Venice, Italy
Whenever Carnevale di Venezia time comes around, I always think of the great experience my family and I had in Venice painting our own mask. It was our first trip to Venice, and although we were going to be there during the summer, I could not get the lore of the magical masks worn at Carnival time out of my mind. Before we left on our trip, I did a few searches and was excited to find a place called Ca’Macana in the heart of Venice where they conducted educational classes and mask making workshops. Ca’Macana is one of the oldest mask making workshops in Venice and has a rich tradition of…
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Art on the Go: Art School – Line Weight
Experimenting with line weights in your sketching can open up a world of possibilities to your drawings. There’s something quite clean and straightforward about a line drawing that is created using one single line weight. It’s one of my favorite go-to styles when creating a travel sketch. But playing with different line weights can also allow for a whole host of effects (subtle or bold) to enhance that same sketch. So, how does one achieve a varied line weight in a drawing. Well, it’s quite simple. You can use varied weight pens, or a brush pen. Just as pencils have many different types of lead that vary in softness (that change…
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Art on the Go: Art School Line Basics: Contour vs. Gestural vs. Implied
One of my goals this year is to kick off a new Art on the Go series called “Art School.” Although I attended art school many, many years ago, like any profession, it’s always great review to go back to the basics and brush up your skills. I hope in going through my journey I can also inspire you to pick up your pencil, pen, or brush and join in. There are so many wonderful things to draw either at home or on a trip, so time to get started! Today’s “Art School” lesson will be studying 3 basic types of line drawing; contour, gestural and implied. These lines are the basis…
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Art on the Go: Sketching in a Cemetery and Creative Projects Beyond Halloween
The other weekend my daughter and I headed to Half Moon Bay for some sketching with my local en plein air art group. Although I live relatively close to this moody seaside town, I have never truly explored it to find out all the great sketching opportunities it provides. Our mission was to sketch around the downtown area. Some members of the group are local residents and they had a whole host of good locations to draw, one suggestion being a cemetery only 2 and 1/2 blocks from Main Street. Given it was October, and Halloween was approaching, I was sold! A cemetery sketch outing is a great way to celebrate the…
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Art on the Go: Make a Map of Your Stay
Sometimes a visit to a new place can be a whirlwind. You arrive, you tour, and the next thing you know you’re packing up and heading home. Once back, you try to remember what you did and draw a blank! Well here’s a simple art on the go project to quickly pull out the highlights of your trip – sketch a map of your stay. The map of your stay could be of just one day, it could be of a full week or an entire month. It can be of all the restaurants you ate at, all the hotels you stayed in or all the monuments or sites you…
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Art on the Go: Sketching on a Foreign Newspaper
Whenever I travel, I love to buy a newspaper or two in the country I’m visiting. Although I’m not much of a linguist, I enjoy browsing through the articles, photos, ads and editorials to try to decipher what is being said. My other reason for picking up a local newspaper is for the paper itself. Foreign newsprint can make a great background to a travel sketch. It adds dimension and a hint of context to the location you are sketching. The process for sketching on newsprint is pretty much the same as sketching on paper. You can easily just tear out a part of the paper and start to sketch.…
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Art on the Go: Create an Infographic of Your Trip
Infographics (or information graphics) are all the rage these days. We are very visual people, and it’s clear that we don’t want to read much, so an infographic is the perfect way to relay a lot of information in one quick shot. There is an infographic for almost everything these days, infographics about social media, infographics about a movie, infographics about food pairing, there are even infographics about infographics! So, why not join the trend and create an infographic about your recent trip? Your friends and family will want to know what you did, and how your trip was, so whip up an infographic and share to all. Here’s how……
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Art on the Go: Photo a Day Travel Journal Using Over App
On a recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I wanted to try a new travel journal technique. Writing a travel journal can sometimes be so time consuming. I love the look of text on top of a photograph, so I decided to use this approach for my trip journal. I chose one photo from the day, and put some short highlights of that day’s activities on it. I used an app (for iPhone and iPad) called Over. It has a simple to use interface, and within minutes I had created a great memory of the day. If you want to share your trip with family and friends, after you’ve created the…
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Art on the Go: Sketching en Plein Air in the Country, Sebastopol, California
I love it that my daughter loves art as much as I do! Ever since my kids were little, I’ve always tried to do some art project or another with them– making salt dough, collaging with paper scraps, painting on big paper. Whatever the outcome, they both have loved the experience. So, when I went on a weekend trip to the country with my daughter, we of course had to incorporate an art outing to our plan. We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Sebastopol, a small artsy town in Sonoma County. The B&B was located 3 miles out of town, so we definitely got the country experience…
