art techniques

illustrated poem aka birthday card

January 14, 2019

Some twins I’m lucky enough to know turned one year old today. So in collaboration with my wife, I wrote a poem and illustrated it for them. It was a good opportunity to practice art word combinations. And I think they’ll like it. Their parents and grandparents seemed to. Anyway here’s a picture of the…

A Creative Life, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, illustrated poem, illustrated shorts, words and pictures, Writing And Illustrating

artist/author, author/artist, birthday card, bunnies, cherries, collaboration, cupcake parade, cupcakes, illustrated poetry, illustrating, illustration, Parade, poem, poetry, rabbits, twins birthday, writing, Writing And Illustrating
a scrapbook by a mouse

January 13, 2019

This year I’m participating in the tiny sketchbook project at the Brooklyn Art Library – my sketchbook will travel to London, Paris and other places in Europe along with other tiny sketchbooks in a portable library that fits in a suitcase. My book will be in the Brooklyn Art Library’s permanent collection. I’ve titled my…

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, graphic narrative, illustrated shorts, published art, small things, story, The Sketchbook Project, visual story, words and pictures

#sbpprocess, #tinysketchbookproject, artist book, book, book design, Brooklyn Art Library, collection, conceptual art, handsewn book, miniature book, mouse, Pacific Jumping Mouse, Pacific Northwest, scrapbook, tiny sketchbook
carried away by a book illustrated poem

January 7, 2019

I’ve decided recently to practice my poetry and short-short story writing by writing something, no matter how bad, every day. If there’s anything illustration worthy I’ll illustrate it. Out of all I’ve done thus far this seemed worthy: Doing the poem text with a brush was new and different for me. It was looser and…

A Creative Life, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, author illustrator, illustrated poem, illustrated shorts, illustration, visual story, words and pictures

art experiment, art plus word combinations, book, illustrated poetry, illustration, ink and brush, poem, reading, Sumi ink, words and pictures
libation label list line

December 8, 2018

Around the edges of doing a cat portrait commission and Chef Carosi’s illustrated recipe I’ve done some wine label artwork to be used by Burnt Bridge Cellars for their 2018 Holiday Wine. To meet the winery’s request for art that was “festive but not religious” I used 5 writing techniques along these lines to generate…

A Creative Life, art commissions, art techniques, artistic inspirations, creative thinking, functional art, illustration, kitchen art, poetry, sketchbook, Sustainable creativity, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing

art, audience, book, brainstorming, Burnt Bridge Cellars, clustering, creative thinking, creativity, freewrite, habits of creativity, list, list making, party, poetry, prose, thesaurus, Umberto Eco, wine, wine label, wine label art, winery, writing, writing advice, writing techniques
recipe illustration ready for garnishing

December 5, 2018

I’ve finished the handwritten ink work and the illustration painting for the recipe I’ve been doing for Chef Sebastian Carosi. (Past blog post re here) Now I’ll begin the photography and scanning processes to get it ready for print publication and etc. projects the Chef wants to do. The get-my-hands-messy art part is done. Now…

A Creative Life, art techniques, artistic inspirations, comfort food, food in art, illustrated recipe, illustration, kitchen art, publications – publishing, published art, recipe illustration, sketchbook suppers, visual story, words and pictures

butternut squash soup, Chef Sebastian Carosi, fairwinds cannabis, food art, food illustration, graphic arts, handwritten recipe, illustration, painting, photography, publication, recipe, scanning, soup, writing
portrait commission of two cats

December 3, 2018

This time of year most of my art commissions are gifts and are top secret. No blogging about them. Well this time a couple asked me to create a double portrait of their two cats and since it’s a gift to themselves they’ve let me blog about it! (Happy Holidays to all of us!) Here’s…

A Creative Life, animals in art, art commission, art techniques, cat portrait, Cats in art, fine art, fine art commission, handmade papers, visual story

art commission, caplan art designs, cat portraits, fine art, fine art commission, portrait
recipe illustration progress plus studio secrets

December 1, 2018

As you know from a recent post (here) I’ve been working on a new recipe illustration project for Chef Sebastian Carosi. I’ve spent the most time designing a character who is doing the recipe “action”. It was a challenge to create a cannabis leaf character with “hands” holding things. But I did it! A photo…

A Creative Life, art techniques, illustrated recipe, illustration, kitchen art, recipe illustration, words and pictures

art studio, art studio equipment, art studio habits, art studio hacks, Chef Sebastian Carosi, DIY, essential art studio equipment, foam pipe insulation, food art, food illustration, food painting, hand written, handwriting, illustrated recipe, illustration, mahl stick, painting, recipe, writing
Thanksgiving and The Arts

November 20, 2018

I remember being told, as a young person, that the arts were “not practical”. Today I thought of 8 ways, both serious and silly, that the arts are useful on Thanksgiving day. Culinary arts: Making food is considered one of the “fine arts”. Even if the kitchen looks like this: Funny Cooking Fails Compilation |…

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, artistic inspirations, business of art, creative thinking, functional art, kitchen art, music in art, Sustainable creativity, visual story, words and pictures

a creative life, autumn leaves, cats, cooking, culinary arts, dance, Decorative Arts, dogs, funny, funny video, holiday, home hare care, humor, music, Parade, photography, Roostery, sculptural arts, Sculpture, serious and silly, silly, spoonflower, Story Arts, storytelling, table runner, Thanksgiving, The Arts, The Arts Are Practical, Useful arts, video, Visual Arts, youtube
agatha and art

November 19, 2018

I’ve been reading “Appointment With Death” by Agatha Christie. By page 7 I was rooting for the murderer to go ahead and kill. It’s the villain who deservedly gets killed in this story. While reading I realized that I so strongly disliked the villain and rooted for her demise because of her cumulative (negative) effect…

A Creative Life, art techniques, artistic inspirations, creative thinking, Narrative Art, words and pictures

Agatha Christie, art, art technique, character development, characters, composition, composition in art, cozy mystery, detective mystery, fine art, mystery novel, positive and negative space in art, writing, writing technique
still a character

November 16, 2018

Here are a few of the artworks I’ve recently sent to Joseph Gierek Fine Art (www.gierek.com) for the upcoming Holiday Art Show. I’m sure you’ll notice my “still life” object practice work now combined with characters. Yes, I’m trying to make every element count toward the visual story. You know, like a writer tries to…

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, cat portrait, Cats in art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, food in art, Narrative Art, story, visual story

art, artwork, fine art, fine art exhibits, Joseph Gierek Fine Art, story, storytelling, storytelling in art, storytelling in pictures, visual story, writer, writing