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Category Archives: 1- Nuts: Graphic Styles
What’s Your Nugget?
Yesterday I began searching Double Take for the best story to end this three-month series of essays. Here it is— it’s about Endings and Beginnings, and is also a gentle challenge to you and to me. Are you facing something … Continue reading
Travel is my favorite path to Enlightenment
Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” I agree, and I love experiencing this truth firsthand as often as possible. Five years ago, I traveled to England to visit a friend I’d never met. Well, that’s … Continue reading
If you stop, I’ll stop.
Those of you who sketch outdoors regularly may recall times when you entered a trance-like state while sketching. Without planning it, you traveled from effortful thinking to effortless rapture, and before you knew it, you had the shallow breathing of … Continue reading
Who have I dismissed lately?
This post is about Belonging… and its darker side, Tribalism. My self-described tribe is a motley crew. Many are (or were) teachers, therapists, nurses, musicians, artists, or writers. What they all have in common, and the reason they are my … Continue reading
Posted in Book #2: Double Take, Musings on Life, My Story, Pen & Ink, Writing
Tagged Community, Creative Habit, Inspiration, Perseverance, Watercolor
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Why not me? Why not you?
August 11th has been a powerful day for me… several times. In 1973, it was the day of a horrific car accident where my brother and I were both badly injured. Fast forward 41 years to 2014, August 11th was … Continue reading
How to Double the Fun when Travel Sketching
(This is the next in the series of excerpts from my illustrated memoir, “Double Take.”) Planning a vacation? If you’re like me, the minute you buy your plane ticket or book your B&B, it feels like you’re almost on your … Continue reading
When a pen is more than a pen
(The next in the Autumn 2024 series of excerpts from my illustrated memoir, “Double Take”) April 25, 2015 – journal entry about pens and my pen history Back before the invention of markers, gel pens, roller-ball pens, and ballpoint pens, … Continue reading
Do your pauses refresh or agitate?
A brief note first: This latest series of posts has given me an unexpected gift: the feeling of reading “Double Take” for the first time. When writing, editing, proofing, final proofing, final-final proofing any piece of writing, it’s natural to … Continue reading
Posted in Beauty, Book #2: Double Take, Musings on Life, Pen & Ink, Seeing and looking, sketching, Watercolor
Tagged Creative Habit, Inspiration, Looking, Perseverance, Watercolor
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No need to be in a city to be an “Urban” Sketcher!
For centuries painting outdoors has been referred to as “en plein air” painting. It is a French term that literally translates as “in full air,” and is used to describe artwork created outdoors, through observation of the scene in front … Continue reading
Is Community the only art tool you’re missing?
For the next ten weeks I’ll be sharing excerpts from my illustrated memoir, “Double Take,” published in 2022. Enjoy! June 17, 2014 – sketchbook journal entry I only pretend to like Art Instruction. What I really crave is Art Community. … Continue reading
Posted in Book #2: Double Take, Pencil sketching, Sketchbooks, Sketching tools, Watercolor
Tagged Creative Habit, Inspiration, Looking, Mentors, Perseverance, Watercolor
4 Comments