This week, I found an old mind-to-hand exercise painting from 1986. I occasionally did mind-to-hand exercise paintings to keep my coordination and reflexes sharp. Instead of painting something in front of me—a still-life, for example—I painted from memory, which is what mind-to-hand exercise painting is. I used acrylic paints because of their quick drying time … Continue reading Painting from Memory
Tag: painting
Reminiscing, part 2
I’m still peeking at my old photos when I should be labeling their storage boxes. I can’t help reminiscing when I do. (You can read Part 1 here.) I see old photos of an entrepreneurial boy trying to earn quarters. Quarters were important pieces of silver to us kids because we could buy a long-neck … Continue reading Reminiscing, part 2
Winter’s Coming
November brought some snow to my neck of the woods and the touches of winter put me in a writing mood. Many of my writer friends partook in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) during November, trying to write a 50,000-word first-draft novel by the end of the month. I, on the other hand, worked on … Continue reading Winter’s Coming
A Bit on Writing and Art
With NaNoWriMo in full swing, I’ve been seeing a lot of fiction writers write about plot. I’m a short story writer, but I’ve been through plenty of classes for novelists that teach Aristotle’s 3-act structure of Beginning, Middle, and End, and the popular 4-act structure (which lengthens and halves the Middle section) for novels. I … Continue reading A Bit on Writing and Art
It Began With Watercolors
Like most kids in the U.S., I began my painting experience with a child’s watercolor pan set, also called a box set by my Canadian cousins. Those sets had a small painter’s brush and six blocks of colors bound by gum arabic inside: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Even at the high school … Continue reading It Began With Watercolors
Allow Mistakes
I think sometimes we strive too hard for perfection that when mistakes happen, we’re too hard on ourselves for not achieving perfection. As a wildlife and landscape artist, I learned early on to plan out my paintings to avoid mistakes. My sketchbooks brim with the many plans I used to reduce mistakes in my finished … Continue reading Allow Mistakes
Acrylic Painting: Black Bear At Beaver Dam
This post features the evolution of a black bear I painted in acrylic on canvas in 1989. Enjoy. It began the year before, in 1988. Black bear weren’t common sights around my neck of the woods, but I caught a glimpse of one while I hiked some swampland and stopped to sketch and photograph a … Continue reading Acrylic Painting: Black Bear At Beaver Dam
Steve Campbell Creations 