There is nothing more motivating that gathering up a slew of ideas and hashing them out, and it seems to me that sketching of all kinds is one of the most intriguing  ways to visualize those ideas in concrete form. Whether with ballpoint on cocktail napkin, on a tablet with a stylus or in a sketchbook with charcoal or paint, this useful and rewarding activity can be simultaneously rewarding, frustrating, entertaining and fruitful. 

David Hockney has, in recent years, taken to sketching colorful compositions on his iPad, then sharing them with friends – his way, he says, of sharing his art for free, to anyone with access to email, anywhere in the world. The immediacy of his production and the ease of disseminating the work world-wide, is appealing and ultimately generous. Instead of a painting only accessible to the world’s wealthiest people and institutions, this form of art is truly available to anyone of his choosing. 

Traditionally, sketching has been a method used to capture visual ideas quickly and efficiently, and, before the advent of the camera, to document one’s travels, day to day visual experiences, and to capture quick likenesses of people. With pen, pencil, conte or charcoal, these subjects can be recorded in a personal. portable book. This type of sketching can be done solo or in the company of others.

I have a pretty loose definition of my own sketching practices. I love to use multiple media, from the more traditional to the experimental. Collage, print, foils, tags, fabric scraps and myriad other odd and ends end up functioning as parts of pages in my sketchbooks. But I also love simple sketches created with a good pen and just a few economical lines. For someone with too many ideas and not as much time as I would like, sketches of all kinds are fundamental to capturing those otherwise fleeting inspirations. 

Not all sketches are meant to become large works. Some are pretty perfect as they are. But some are the seed that will germinate into a much more ambitious work. And that is the ultimate transition.

I've used many a different kind of brush in oil painting, my preferred medium. I've never really paid so much attention to the brand, but I am very attentive to the feel of the brush in my hand and the texture of the brushes. I don't used stiff bristled brushes often, and I tend to use "brights" most often. An occasional filbert will strike my fancy. Then there are rigging brushes for fine lines and detail. I use rounds as well in some small areas. I am finding certain synthetics are actually very good brushes, and I like their durability as well.

Paint - I love paint and I love to paint. I use Winsor & Newton oils. I stumbled across the most wonderful and versatile yellow, in my opinion - Indian Yellow. Jack B. Quick - of Rhino Arts - told me that the way this pigment is made is this: In India, they have herds of cows who are allowed to eat entire fields of daffodils. Their urine is then collected and the pigment is extracted from their urine. I am not sure if this is the case, but I certainly like the story. 

Indian Yellow can be used as a outline if you like to sketch your composition onto your canvas with a brush and diluted paint, as I sometimes do. It can be mixed with titanium white a luscious, creamy yellow in different values. 

Another favorite is cobalt blue, but ultramarine is also very useful. These two particularly nice for skies and water, but also work very well for denim shirts and other lighter values when mixed with white. I also use both manganese and cerulean blue for skies. These are warmer than cobalt and ultramarine,  and make a brighter, warmer sky. But truthfully, I mix all of these four blues together in many different combinations and often use all of them in the same sky.

Alizarine crimson is another standby, but I am experimenting with all kinds of new reds now, including one particularly unusual one, quinacridone  red. There are some great magentas that are wonderful for mixing, including quinacridone magenta. Rose is another indispensable red, and it actually has a fragrance of roses that is very pleasant. 

I don't use a lot of earth tones anymore, but in the past I was fond of burnt umber and yellow ochre. Burnt umber can be mixed with ultramarine for a black substitute. I never use black from the tube in my paintings. There are so many ways to mix one's own custom blacks. I have also used indigo and dioxazine purple for really dark areas, sometimes mixed with burnt umber, alizarine crimson, and/or a deep green, such as olive green or viridian green. 

That is a little bit about my color palette. I am testing out some new (or new to me) colors. I will keep you posted on what I think of my many new blues. They include ultramarine violet (which must be a blue violet), ultramarine green shade, Prussian blue,  and phthalo turquoise. I am anticipating finding many uses for these in the coming months.