Wasting time

Wasting time

Recently I was talking with my good friend and fellow artist-illustrator Erika Beyer on a Zoom call, as we shared works in progress with each other to get feedback and encouragement. She showed me a painting she’d been working on for a little while, a new piece in a...
Love letter to a moth

Love letter to a moth

For the past couple of weeks, as midsummer coastal fog has finally given way to warm late summer sunshine and warmth, I’ve noticed a lot more insect activity in my garden—painted lady butterflies, yellow-faced bumblebees, grasshoppers whose coral-pink wings flash when...
Learning through teaching

Learning through teaching

On Friday, I wrapped up a two-week course, teaching botanical illustration as part of CSU Monterey Bay’s Summer of Science Illustration program. Botanical illustration is my favorite subject to teach, and plants are a wonderful subject matter for observational...
Working in stages

Working in stages

When I have taught drawing and painting classes, one of the most revelatory things for people is that I don’t start a painting by drawing right on my good watercolor paper—not at first, anyway. I start with pencil sketches, which I typically do on tracing paper. I...
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