Category Archives: teaching

The Motmot Holiday Gift Bag is a Bookcase

Posted on December 20, 2013 by

A few last minute gift ideas for you or the lucky bird artists in your life: The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, by John Muir Laws, Heyday Press, covers so much ground so comprehensively that the next time I teach … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Artists, bird art, bird-drawing technique, birding, birds, Drawing, field sketching, How-to, Illustration, natural history, Nature, Shopping!, Sketching, teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Friday Figures: Learning From a New Master

Posted on July 12, 2013 by

Mitsuno Reedy has long been a shining star in the art firmament of Oklahoma; her portraits are in hot demand at the top government and corporate level and her paintings hang in the State Capitol’s permanent collection. Clearly, she is doing … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Artists, Drawing, figure drawing, Oklahoma, painting, Sketching, teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Over the Cliff with Georgia O’Keeffe

Posted on January 29, 2013 by

“The cliffs over there, you look at it and it’s almost painted for you, you think until you try”. Georgia O’Keeffe’s beautifully strange formations aren’t necessarily the subjective stylings of a modern artist. I drove past a few round-headed, gray-striped … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure!, Art, Artists, Drawing, field sketching, Nature, painting, plein air, Sketching, teaching, travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The Ant Man Bloggeth

Posted on May 23, 2009 by

New blog alert! Mike the Ant Man has just revived the “Ant Lab in Panama” blog, with all new students, and all new experiments to ooh and aah over. Take a look into the arcane and wondrous world of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure!, Environment, Evolution, Nature, Panama, rainforest, Science, Stupid Critter Tricks, teaching, tropics | 2 Comments

Drawing With Friends at the Museum

Posted on March 17, 2009 by

There’s something special about sketching with friends. Last Saturday my friends Becky and Mitsuno and I met upstairs in the Natural Wonders Gallery at SNOMNH for a morning of companionable sketching. Our little group was a cluster of self-affirming creative … Continue reading →

Posted in archeology, Art, Artists, Drawing, How-to, museums, Oklahoma, paleontology, teaching, Wildlife | 10 Comments

Drawing Birds From Paper Models

Posted on March 5, 2009 by

I’ve talked about model-making before- when I worked on the elasmosaur mural for the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (that’s SNOMNH for short) I made a clay and aluminum head based on old drawings of a fossil skull … Continue reading →

Posted in archeology, Art, Artists, bird art, birds, How-to, museums, Nature, Science, teaching | 2 Comments

Bird-Drawing Tip: Get Familiar

Posted on May 13, 2008 by

Familiar has a double-meaning in this case. Barry Van Dusen said a smart thing the other day, that if you wish to successfully draw a bird, draw that bird over and over until you assimilate its form. Stay within that … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, bird art, birding, birds, Drawing, field sketching, Nature, nature journaling, teaching, Wildlife | 7 Comments