Portrait of a dog when alla prima drags on to the next day
What do you call an alla prima session that drags on to the next day? I thought that technique could be named “alla seconda”, it has a nice ring to it. There is some complications there linguistically and semantically, I am sure, but I am too tired to figure it out right now. Suggestions are welcome until …next day of course! Otherwise alla seconda stays 
I
It is a very interesting subject matter, dogs, with endless variation of appearence and expression.
Man’s oldest friend
Bastian - Västgötaspets
This guy, Bastian, is a Västgötaspets. Västgötaspets is a very old swedish breed of dogs. The Vikings got help with herding cattle from this guys ancestors.
We love him and he loves us right back!
Exploring new techniques again The drybrush technique isn’t part of any school tradition but is the preferred method of portrait drawing/painting among street artist of Moscow. I can see why but it takes a bit of getting used to, several years says Igor Kazarin the Russian master of drybrush.
Happy drawing…painting… whatever.
Acrylic painting can have a classical feel to them. Check out Will Kemp Art School and prepare yourself for high quality advice for any aspiring artist. He also has a lot of information on portrait techniques.
I enjoyed myself learning new techniques in acrylics from the many free video courses.
Plastic can be fantastic you just need to adjust a bit.
Happy painting
I like Winsor & Newton Artisan oils and the fact that you can use water as thinner with them.
It is a good thing that oil and water do mix
Happy painting!
Red porous sedimentary rock – chalk -on blue paper. This is an interesting combination and the master that inspired me was Scott Bartner and his beautiful drawings that can be found at his site http://www.bartner.nl/index2.html , check out ‘works on paper’.
Oh, if you are interested in portrait painting he has a good demonstration of his technique there as well.
Happy drawing!
Comfortzone
I have some artfriends that are challenging each other into trying new mediums, new techniques and things like that in order to grow and learn more in the artfield. Lately I have been encouraged and inspired by them to try the digital media.
At first it was awkward using the tablet and mildly frustrating not to know the way around the software but it was well worth the effort since the rewards are great! I believe the digital media can speed up learning in the artfield provided you have the basics of drawing and painting in place.
There is a lot of sources of information on this subject but I found I have found great help from Daarken at his site http://enliighten.com/
I thought I was going out of the comfortzone but I feel right at home. Try it, it has a lot going for itself!
Sketch
Sketching on location is an intrigueing passtime with a specific set of problems to tackle.
How much time do I have for this particular subject? What is it that I want to capture? Technical and proportional depicting, the particular light or the general mood and feeling of the subject?
One of my former teachers (hi Matthew! 
) gave some interesting insights to what to expect from drawing within a given time. So it is an important lesson and ” a man got to know his limitations” when it comes to drawing. If you define sketching to take around 5 minutes you can’t expect absolute correctnes and minute detailes, it’s not possible!
Drawing
When you do have more then 15-20 minutes you kind of enter the drawing state as i see it. That gives you more options as to what to refine. It could be attention to detailes, texture or balancing the values more accurately.
But the drawing state tends to “draw you into the picture” and time suddenly abandons the laws of physics and you can end up missing appointments, coffebrakes, lunches or whatever That is all mild hazards but coming to grips with what you can do in a given time really helps you how to tackle the next drawing or sketch and it ultimately is another tool in the “artsupplybox”.
Happy sketching
Nero in Rome Burning
It was a real pleasure to add “Rome Burning”, by Noodler´s Ink, to the”Ink bottle family”! Konrad says hi and he is happy with his new home
Robert
