Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

      Sometimes it takes going through tough times to realize what's important to you. I had that moment recently when I hurt my left arm and my lower back at my day job. Nothing too serious, but I missed a day at work and the injuries did warrant multiple visits to the doctor.      I was told by the doctor that I needed to do light duty at work for a while and since it was my dominant arm that was injured, when I asked about creating art, I was told that I should also refrain from drawing and painting for a couple of weeks.      I heeded the advice of my doctor, I took Ibuprofen, used heat on my injuries, and did the stretches they recommended. I also took time off from creating art. However, after the first week away from art, I was going stir crazy and could feel my mental health declining. That was something that I was not okay with. I cannot be without art.   So, I decided I would create art anyway, but instead, I would use my non-dominant hand!!                       

   My art supply obsession struck again! I just couldn't resist trying these. I actually first saw the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Markers online a few years ago and had them on my wish list ever since. A few months ago I treated myself to the set of 20 and just got the chance to finally sit down and try them!    I absolutely love Faber-Castell's other products, their Polychromos are one of my go-to colored pencils and their Pitt Artist Pens are one of the only markers I will use in fine art. They make fantastic watercolor pencils, also under the Albrecht Durer name. A fun thing about Faber-Castell is that all their color lines match, which means if you love a color in one of their lines you can get it in all their other supplies too! So, I was super excited to see that they also offered watercolor markers and was eager to try them.    The only thing is, I had next to no experience with watercolor markers as a medium. I decided I would take what I know from w

     Those of you who know me know that I LOVE trying new art supplies! Most artists do right? That's why mystery art boxes are such a fun concept! Unfortunately, I do not currently have it in my budget to commit to an art box subscription. Thankfully, most art subscription boxes offer previous boxes for sale so that you can choose a box of your liking and do a onetime purchase.      That's what my husband did for me for Valentine's day, he bought me an ArtSnacks box! In the past, I have bought a previous box for my nephew for his birthday. However, I had never had the chance to indulge in one myself! So much fun!      The box my husband got me was from May 2021 and it was a gouache themed box. It came with two colors of gouache (magenta and white) as well as an eraser, a graphite pencil and a dagger shaped paintbrush. This made for a fun monochromatic challenge. I decided to create a nice warm sky with tree's silhouetted against it, the color scheme made for a delightf

   What can I say? I'm guilty. I am guilty of buying sketchbooks, using them a few times and then casting them aside. It's not that I am not into creating. Quite the contrary, I think it's the fact that I am so focused on making finished pieces that can can be hung on a wall, that I don't have much time for anything else. Most of the time I do realism which takes a lot of time, leaving me less time to work in a sketchbook.     I see my sketchbook as a place to explore and be creative. A place where I don't necessarily have to work realistically or "perfectly" (as if perfection actually exists.) It's also a place to work out ideas for larger paintings, or to just do some quick, gestural, from life sketches. So to me, there is a lot of use for sketchbooks, yet I rarely make time to use them. That being said, I recently went through my abandoned sketchbooks and found some hidden gems. A couple of highlights are pictured here.    What sparked me looking at

  A different way to use dry media!   Did you know that chalk pastels, soft pastels, and charcoal are all actually water-soluble? I learned this little trick in one of my drawing classes in college and I was flabbergasted the first time I heard about it!    Left-Right-Top-Bottom- Generals charcoal pencil, Pan Pastels, Conte pencil, Royal Langnickel pastel pencil, Derwent pastel pencil, Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencil,Blick charcoal, Koh I Noor extra soft pastel, Sennelier extra soft pastel, No name student grade chalk pastel, Grumbacher chalk pastel.    Using water with these very dry mediums can open up a lot of doors for creativity. It's an excellent way to blend, create expressive marks, and to create a painterly feel with your sketches. I love using this technique when I am feeling particularly experimental with my work. You can introduce brush marks, splatters, and washes into your drawings. This technique is also great for plein-air sketching as it requires very little tools

Comparing Colored Pencil Lightfast Ratings (4 popular lines)             I am comparing the lightfast ratings of four popular colored pencil lines, and the results are quite surprising!           I will be comparing the lightfast ratings as well as pricing on Faber-Castell Polychromos, Prismacolor Premier, Caran d'Ache Pablos, and Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils. The purpose of this exercise is to compare the general lightfast ratings of the complete lines of four of the most popular brands of colored pencil. I am not including lightfast information on each individual color of these lines. This is merely an overview to gauge what lines are worth investing in and what lines are not.           I am basing my comparison on my own calculations done from information on lightfast ratings from each company (when applicable) combined with lightfast information set out by the Colored Pencil Society of America. If you would like to see the Colored Pencil Society’s co