Steph
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Sons of Pitches 2
After I gifted this sketch to the performers I’d drawn, they reached out to ask for another drawing to use on future bills. Without the band performing in front of me, I grabbed stills from a YouTube video of their performance, which you can watch here: First, of course, the sketch: Then linework, where I…
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Race weekend 4
Another race weekend, with another good batch of lessons learned about watercolor gouache painting. I’ve abandoned my pencil in favor of underpainting, which is allowing me more flexibility with shapes, as well as more speed. The yellow of my underpainting shows through on the clouds here, but I kind of like the effect. I didn’t…
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Race weekend 3
Plein-air lessons learned while painting from the top of a fire-watch tower.
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Race weekend 2
Another race weekend, another chance to practice watercolor gouache for a few hours 🙂 From my paddock spot, I couldn’t see much other than trees. But it was a good opportunity for practicing green color-mixing. I picked a couple trees with subtle hue differences, and I practiced pushing their hues further from each other, to…
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Race weekend 1
A plein-air painting in watercolor gouache for the first race event of the year.
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Cosmo’s cosmos
A pet portrait painted in jelly gouache on a drink board for a friend’s wedding.
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Solo performer
Walked into town and enjoyed a solo performance while sketching. Musicians are nice subjects because they stay sort of in place for a while 🙂 It feels a little silly to carry such a large array of materials with me when I only use a couple after all. But you never know which materials the…
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Free coloring pages
Please enjoy these free printable coloring pages 🙂 If you’re willing, please share your finished colorings with me at mail.steph.inks@gmail.com; I’d love to see what you come up with!
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Race weekend sketching
I took a sketchbook (of course!) to an amateur race this past weekend, and happened to snag a seat in the pit with a near-perfect angle on a beautiful custom-built hillclimb car! Media: Noodler’s “Bulletproof” black ink in TWSBI Eco pen with F nib; Leuchtturm sketchbook paper. My view was slightly obstructed by tanks of…
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Outdoor musicians
I was inspired by a friend’s musician-filled sketchbook, and I wanted to practice with this neat mini-palette I picked up recently. Luckily, this very groovy five-piece band was playing right by the square downtown. 🙂 While I was painting, a little girl sitting nearby was fascinated by my portable paints. I gave her mom an…
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Street corner from the coffee shop
It’s amazing how time flies when sketching. This ink-and-watercolor sketch took up the full two hours that I spent with the city’s urban sketching group. Much of the time was spent color-mixing, a skill I’m practicing more thoughtfully lately. Mixing a full array of colors in advance allowed me to avoid color gradients, keeping the…
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View from the watch tower
We spent a night in a nearby city and I found a few opportunities to sketch outside. First, a beautiful vista from the top of a fire watch tower. It was very windy up there, so I rushed to scribble out a memory before I lost my sketchbook or my hat. And later, sitting in…
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What to know before trying jelly gouache
One of the most frequent questions I hear from passersby as I’m painting is “What’s that stuff you’re using?” It’s jelly gouache (pronounced “gwash”)! As far as I can tell, this is a newly-developed medium. I saw illustrators using it on Instagram and simply had to try it. Since then it’s become my go-to medium…
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Signs for the street fair
I helped a local business prepare for an upcoming street fair by drawing up some new signs using chalk markers. Designing these boards put me in a lettering-focused mindset, and I’ve been staring at fonts ever since. It’s a neat side of drawing that I’d never delved into much before. I never thought of myself…
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Chickadee in a cherry tree
For my future mother-in-law’s birthday this year, I wanted to give her a memento that would suit the colors of her newly decorated home office. For a pink-and-white theme, of course I’ll choose cherry blossoms! There were many, many iterations of composition before I landed on one that felt right. My fiancé helped break me…
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Walking bridge
Despite frigid winds, the quality of light today was too beautiful not to spend some time painting outside. I struggled to hold onto my sketchbook and palette through the wind while painting the walking bridge over the river. But I’m glad I got a snapshot of the beautiful day. One of the qualities I love…
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Camp Hill Plein Air 2025
My favorite yearly plein air event has come and gone again! This is the first year that I’ve been able to paint from the park that’s central to the event (previous years I’ve been chased under businesses’ awnings by the rain). It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and so many of the gardens and architecture beg to…
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Sushi shop sketching
Kanagawa in Mechanicsburg has got to be one of the cutest sushi shops! I love the colors in here (though I didn’t have time to add them to my sketch). Sketched with a Traveller’s Company brass fountain pen.
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Mechanicsburg Art & Wine Walk 2025
Hiding from the rain (that never came) at the Mechanicsburg Art & Wine Walk, I painted this indoor scene of Revolutionary Hot Sauce while enjoying lots of great conversation. I love how artistically curious people are in this town! Great day; can’t wait for next year! Materials: Himi jelly gouache on Arches hot pressed watercolor…
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Half-dome
An ink illustration of Yosemite’s Half-Dome, completed for my sister on her birthday. I’m having lots of fun with grayscale ink-washes lately. This sketch of a local bookstore was almost a practice run for inking Half-Dome. Returning to my ink pot and dip pens was also a refreshing change of pace after many recent outings…
