Materials and Tools
Artist Tape: Crisp Edges without Torn Paper
How to use low-tack artist tape for clean edges, and how to remove it without lifting the paper surface.
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Materials and Tools
Oil Mediums: Using Less, Staying Lean
How to use oil painting mediums sparingly, keep early layers lean, and avoid a slippery, slow-drying film.
Materials and Tools
Pencil Grades from H to B, in Plain Terms
What H and B pencil grades mean, which few grades are worth carrying, and how pressure changes the mark.
Materials and Tools
Wood, Glass or Plastic: Choosing a Palette
How wooden, glass and plastic palettes differ in use, and how to keep mixes clean without a complicated setup.
Materials and Tools
Paper Weight and Tooth: What the Numbers Mean
What paper weight and tooth mean in practice, and how to match a sheet to pencil, ink or a wash.
Sketchbook Habits
Keeping Sketchbook Pages Flat and Unsmudged
How to keep sketchbook pages from smudging, buckling or sticking, whether you work in pencil, ink or a light wash.
Sketchbook Habits
Gesture Drawing at the Kitchen Table
How to practise short gesture drawings at home, using a timer and poses that change before detail can take over.
Sketchbook Habits
Sketchbook Habits That Quietly Stall Progress
Ordinary sketchbook habits that feel like practice and quietly stall progress, and the smaller habits to put in their place.
Sketchbook Habits
Reviewing a Month of Sketchbook Pages
How to review a month of sketchbook pages for repeated subjects, repeated faults and the notes you meant to use.
Sketchbook Habits
A Pocket Kit: Few Tools, Useful Pages
How a pocket sketch kit of a few tools produces more useful pages than a bag packed for every possible subject.
Sketchbook Habits
Drawing Hands from Life in Short Sittings
A practical way to draw hands from life in short sittings, using simple masses before fingers become the whole problem.
Sketchbook Habits
Labelling Sketchbook Pages So They Teach You
What to write beside a sketch so that a later page still tells you the light, the medium and the problem you were solving.