Britchida

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June 2024: An old friend

One reason to keep making art is the sweet moment of coming back to something you made years ago, and picking the conversation right back up. It's a way of reconnecting with yourself over time, of noticing what has changed and what hasn't, which questions have

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Reference photo resources

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Process

How to take a good reference photo

When I shared the big folder of reference photos last month, a question came up in our EDI Live class about how to take pictures that are useful for painting – so, let's dive into that today. I love using reference photos. They make painting the world, whether representationally

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EDI Live: This Saturday, May 18, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light Tier friends! Our next EDI Live will be Saturday May 18

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May 2024: Using Reference Photos

I use photos to remind myself what things look like. I am not someone who can easily "draw what you see in your mind," because I can't picture much. Danielle and I have been spending all our time together for over thirteen years, but right now

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Materials

For you: Spring Reference Pics

So many times I have sat down to sketch and ended up using my time searching through my phone or royalty-free photo archives (like pexels or unsplash) just looking for something to paint. There can be some value to this process – really asking ourselves what we are interested in, the

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Process

The flowers are here

The flowers are here! So I will be out painting them, sneezing and alive. Spring sun breaks are the perfect time to get outside and paint: they don't last long, and the light is magic. I've been continuing my project of using up my sketchbooks, and

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EDI Live: Apr 27, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light Tier friends! Our next EDI Live will be Saturday Apr 27

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Monthly Guide

April 2024: Use your supplies (up)

If I could offer one piece of creative practice advice it would be this: Use your supplies. Think of them as experiences – like a concert ticket or a birthday cake – not a collection of treasures. We're never meant to keep them. Plus, they don't last forever

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EDI Live Reference Photos

Hi friends! I'm looking forward to making some art and chatting with you in about 45 minutes. If you want to paint along I'll be using: some kind of pen/pencil, some kind of mid/dark crayon/pastel, some paints (Probably watercolor, but anything will work)

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Materials

Drawing Sticks & Value

Last month I shared two posts about becoming acquainted with a new material, in my case: oil pastels (here and here). If the new material is any kind of drawing stick – a dry material that comes in distinct colors that are not easily mixed – it's important to get

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Events

EDI Live: Mar 30, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light Tier friends! Our next EDI Live will be Saturday Mar 30

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March 2024: Looking carefully

Danielle and I are slowly making our way through Sarah Urist Green's You Are an Artist, and recently completed an art assignment modeled after the practice of Nina Katchadourian's marvelous Sorted Books Project. We were told to look at someone's book collection and pull

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EDI Live TODAY! Reference Pics

Hello Light Tier friends, I'm looking forward to seeing you in about 15 minutes for our live art session. I will be primarily using oil pastels, but you will be able to join in and paint along with any medium you have on hand. Here are some photos

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Materials

Something new - oil pastels, pt 2: Techniques

Welcome to part 2 of our series on getting to know a medium that is new to you. If you missed it, part 1 is here, where I introduced my process of trying oil pastels as a total newbie, and how I go about selecting, researching and becoming acquainted with

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Events

EDI Live: Feb 24, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light Tier friends! Our next EDI Live will be Saturday Feb 24

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February 2024: Trying something new - oil pastels, part 1

Meet my new obsession: oil pastels. They are quick and opaque. They are vibrant and smudgy and all around lush. Over the past decade I've been slowly adding mediums to my collection. I started with watercolors, brush markers and fine liners pens. Later I added in gouache, colored

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Materials

23 other sketchbooks

One of the things that lowers my barrier to sitting down to paint often is having one sketchbook for everything, though, it's really two for me: I have my Midori MD (I use the cotton line now, but also love the regular ones) and an Etchr watercolor sketchbook.

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Something interesting and beautiful (& 2 months free!)

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EDI Live: Jan 20, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. Right now annual memberships are on sale – offering 2 months free! If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light

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January 2024: Easy Does It

Two days before Christmas I put a tablecloth over my art desk and shifted my attention away from paint mixes, canvas scraps and the rumpled pages of my sketchbook. Art breaks are wonderful and I take them several times every year. And each break has a companion: a new beginning.

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Collaborative decisions: commissions

This time last year I was writing to you about painting the burnt out forests of the mountain ranges near me, and I'm back at it painting the mountains again this winter. After camping with a friend in the southern Cascades earlier this year, she asked if she

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Reference Photos: EDI Live, today!

Hello Light Tier friends! I'm planning to talk about this shape that lives in my sketchbook, and we may also use or reference some of the photos in the album linked below. See you soon!

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EDI Live: Dec 16, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. I'd love to see you there! Hello Light Tier friends! Our

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Monthly Guide

December 2022: Finding new shapes

Artists always need shapes, but sometimes finding new and interesting ones can be harder than it seems. Big blobby shapes that look sort of like boulders are always the first thing to come out of my hand, so if I want to incorporate other shapes into my markmaking play I