Category Archives: Inspired by Ads

Comparing Art Video Time-Lapse Lengths and Styles

In this post, I want to take a step back and compare the different types of art videos I’ve shared on the YouTube channel. Basically, comparing art video time-lapse lengths and styles. I’ve really been making an effort over the last couple of months to get some varied content onto the channel. And one of the motivating questions at the

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Proportional Divider for Facial Feature Positioning

My painting journey has taken a learning-oriented turn towards trying to abandon some of my most loved crutches. The most significant of these crutches has been using pencil to sketch outlines before painting, which is how I got my feet under me with the first dozen paintings. But recently, I decided if I wanted to truly develop my skills, I’d

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Poll: How do you digitize your artwork?

Buried at the end of my last post, I posed the question, “How do you digitize your artwork?” I embedded a crowdsignal poll with some options that came to mind, which actually represent things I’ve considered. Since I started back into the art hobby about five years ago, I’ve been taking photos of portraits using my smartphone. As the years

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Freehand Painting Goals

A couple of specific things are at the forefront of my mind right now when it comes to painting. The first is that, in a general sense, I need lots of practice. Over the course of around five years and 150ish portraits, my colored pencil drawings improved noticeably. I can see major areas where my painting skills need to develop,

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Painting Without Planning – Using Up Leftovers

One of the many unexpected questions that arose as I started learning to paint was, what do I do with extra paint on my palette when I’m finished? I’m about 10 paintings into it now, and I still don’t have a great sense of how much paint I’ll need. But that was especially true with the first few paintings –

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Preferred Medium, Process, and Frequently Used Colors

A few days ago, there was a comment asking about which medium I use. This is a simple question, but a really great one – especially considering I never talk about that! I think from time to time, I may mention the types of pencils I use or answer a question in comments about paper. But, I don’t think I’ve ever

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Sneezing Lady (or Maybe Crying? Yawning?)

As I was browsing around a few days ago, I came across this article about how to approach handshakes at work when someone (client, business associate, etc.) is sick. Sometimes when I come across random articles like this, I’ll just read a couple lines and skip to something else. But this is something most people come across occasionally, myself included,

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Buying Shirts, Artwork from Ads

What’s the most commercial inspiration for art you can think of? Maybe a series on Walmart groceries? The magic of broken shopping carts? Or perhaps drawings about Applebees would fit the bill. I think someone could argue convincingly that the Gap would be a great choice for a generic corporate entity. Well, if suburban commercial-inspired sketches happen to be in

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