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Out my front door this afternoon. For some reason here in Arizona we’ve been having the strangest winter. Usually in February we can count on needing at least a light jacket. But I don’t think I’ve seen it hit 85F this soon. So far March seems to be looking at more of the same. The National Weather Service says the earliest 100-degree day is March 26, 1988. We’ll see what happens this year.

I wrote about my experiences covering the GOP candidates in Nevada for PetaPixel. Overwhelmed and Undergeared: Two Days on the Campaign Trail in Nevada Trump, Carson, and Rubio (l. to r.). Give it a read, it’s a pretty good look at the utter insanity of what goes on behind-the-scenes during a campaign event.

First, the WordPress portfolio option is not exactly intuitive. Second, I have something working that I think looks like portfolio pages. I decided to start with two portfolios. One for nature and landscapes, the second for news. I’m not sure what the final form will be, but for now I’m just adding heading with galleries below.  

So this thing happened, and now I’m off to cover the GOP candidates in Nevada. Go figure. About a month ago, a news wire service called Demotix was shuttered in a nobody saw that coming deal where Corbis Images was sold to a Chinese company. So what little work I had posted there is gone. It might pop back up at some point but other than the “we’re closed, see ya!

Lukas Aquarelle 1862 watercolors are a european brand that is sold in North America by Jerry’s Artarama. Being a low-priced paint, I wondered about the quality of the pigments. So I decided some testing was in order. I bought the following five paints: Alizarin Crimson (1064), Gamboge (1016), Ultramarine Light (1135), Burnt Sienna (1109), and Phthalo Green (1195), in half pans in a Jerry’s store. I have no idea how long they were sitting on the shelf or when they were made.

Who doesn’t love dollar day at the racetrack? This past Monday at Turf Paradise, admission, hot dogs, and soda were all a buck. I haven’t seen the ponies run in a while, and thought it would be a great chance to get a sketch in. The top level of the grandstand gives a great view of the entire track and surrounding area. I sketched and inked this during the seventh race.

As much as I enjoy my Koi watercolors, the box is just too big for a small bag. I thought about going down to the 12-color version, but wanted something that would go almost anywhere. Even a pocket! I knew there was at least one Altoids tin around the house, and it would probably make a decent everyday carry kit. A few searches for “altoids watercolor” and I had a pretty good idea of what would fit.

I recently started a series of posts jokingly titled “Fake Art School” where I look at historic art books and do drawing exercises found in them. The name was a joke that came out of nowhere. Imagine my surprise when I found out that fakeartschool.com was an available domain! So for $13 its mine for the next year at least. Right now the domain just redirects to my FAS page here on jennifermack.

Fake Art School is my attempt at learning from the old masters using primary sources freely available on the internet. Download the book from the link below and join in! Discuss and share your work on Twitter. Textbook: Elements of pen-and-ink rendering Assignment: §1 pp. 2-6, Values (PDF pp. 20-24) Chapter Overview Value was touched on in the introduction. This chapter give more detail and some exercises to do. We start with two simple drawings that show values being used in different ways.

I’ve been mulling over making a few changes to the blog since Christmas. In the last few days I’ve got around to it. The biggest and most visible change is the new theme. I previewed the Twenty Sixteen theme a few times but didn’t install it. After digging into some of the customizations, I finally clicked apply. Overall, it’s a clean theme and I like how the sidebar looks. The mobile responsive view is espectially nice.