Our live workshop: “Mark by Mark - The Power of Ink Minimalism" continues Oct 28! This workshop is all about building confidence and control with your brush by learning how to make bold, simple marks that radiate freshness and charisma. By practicing a special exercise I’ve developed, we’ll rapidly sharpen the decision-making skills that are most essential for creating truly evocative artwork. Info below!
WATCH LESSONS: Click here
Sign Up: Included for all members of the Learning Experience / Mentorship Experience tiers, along with my complete lesson catalog. This workshop can also be purchased separately via my Patreon Shop
In this workshop, we’ll strip compositions down to their bare essentials, in order to learn how to say more with less. We’ll be working with one of my favorite exercises (never before introduced in this format!), limited-mark ink studies. This adrenaline-rush exercise boosts brushwork intentionality, strengthens the ability to simplify, and develops a sensitivity to feeling what an artwork needs, and when it needs nothing more. We’ll explore how each mark carries the energy of its creation, allowing the viewer to feel what it was like to hold the brush that made it. With each sketch limited to no more than 30 marks (and sometimes fewer!), students can follow my demonstrations mark by mark, or experiment with their own approach, or both! With so few marks and irreversible strokes, it doesn’t get more exciting.
The quality of mark-making is what I imagine must have made John Singer Sargent fall in love with Velázquez, the master of making each stroke feel inevitable. Intentional marks have a magnetic pull; they speak across centuries, artist to artist, hand to hand. While our focus will be on Old Master compositions, the spirit of the workshop also draws from Far Eastern ink traditions, where the quality of each stroke reflects not only technical mastery but also the artist’s balanced state of mind. In both traditions, marks are not merely tools used to forge an image, the image becomes a vehicle for exploring the power of marks.
Final Session: Personalized Feedback from MeI’m especially excited about our fourth session, which is dedicated entirely to feedback! This is your opportunity to share the work you create during the workshop and receive personalized critiques from me. Since this is a minimalism workshop, the assignments are quicker than ever to set up, execute, and clean up. Just sit at your easel or desk for a few intentional marks, and you’re ready to submit a sketch for feedback. I always enjoy seeing the work you make during these workshops. Looking forward to it!
What You’ll Learn:
Brushwork Intentionality & RiskLearn to wield your brush with decisive clarity. When every stroke counts and can’t be undone, you’ll develop deliberate action, expressive economy, and the courage to take bold artistic risks. Your instincts will sharpen, your confidence will grow, and your brush will become a far more powerful tool.
Pictorial Vision & Compositional SensitivityDiscover how to spot what’s essential in an image, and what to leave out. You’ll develop an intuitive sense for spacing, rhythm, and balance, learning to guide each decision by what best serves the composition.
Conciseness & Expressive ClaritySay more with less. Strengthen your ability to generalize and distill complex ideas into just a few well-placed marks. This clarity of expression is what separates good work from unforgettable work.
Precision Under PressureInk demands presence of mind, building a kind of alertness and improvisational skill that’s key for all artists. You’ll learn to navigate unexpected outcomes, and how to recover with grace.
Process as ExpressionEach stroke carries the movement of its making, and conveys it to the observer. We’ll explore how this physical record of a gesture helps viewers connect not just with the image, but with feeling how it was made.
Universal ApplicationThe skills you build apply across all media. Painters will gain fluency and control with the brush; draftsmen will sharpen their precision and economy. If expressive mark-making is your goal, this is your path.
Supply List:
Watercolor paper (any brand, but make sure to get multiple sheets or a block)
Acrylic Ink (any brand)
Large Round Watercolor Brush (any brand)
Palette Paper (or a plastic palette or a ceramic palette)
To join us on this very exciting adventure, you’re invited to become a member of the Learning Experience or Mentorship Experience tiers and you'll get access to "Mark by Mark", along with my complete lessons catalog. This workshop can also be purchased separately via my Patreon Shop.
Can’t wait to get started. See you soon! :)