ROVING JAY

Sketching at a Sunday concert series in Santa Monica with The California Feetwarmers.

Find out why I was grateful for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looking for a quality podcast about urban sketching?

Now that my travel guides are out of print, I’m down to my poetry. Collections of tongue-in-cheek satire in the vein of Hilaire Belloc.

I looked back at one of life’s most important relationships in my life, in my monthly column for Romancing the Genres.

How not to get overwhelmed with TMI about the technical side of watercolour.

I looked back at my blogging journey in my monthly column for Romancing the Genres.

A collection of people I’ve encountered and sketched during my walks around Culver City in May.

Blind Contour Sketches for my 365 days of portrait and people sketches

The beginning of my Kick in the Creatives 365 day sketching challenge. Where I’m committing to sketching people for a year. In this first batch of sketches I eased myself into this challenge by doing blind contour portraits in pencil, and finished off with some line detail and watercolour. With a lot of accentuated (and comical) teeth.

Art Challenges are a good idea, because you never know where they will lead you.

Here’s two key elements to master when you’re drawing groups of people in an urban sketch.

Let’s take a look how different artists approach the challenge of Finding your Art Style.

Looking back on my 20th Year and the wild ride it was.

A collection of people I’ve encountered and sketched during my walks around Culver City in April.

Do you use laughter as a coping mechanism? See how I used it, in my monthly column for Romancing the Genres.

A Van Gogh self portrait at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art was the inspiration behind my passion to sketch. His painting was full of movement and emotions, and he was able to convey both movement and emotion in this one painting. It inspired me to start copying his self-portraits in charcoal and pastels to improve my portrait sketching style

I thought the Culver City Stairs was an ideal local hiking trail, and would be good exercise. Turns out it’s good for creativity too.

How Wild Craft Brewery is helping keep the local community together.

Watercolour and pen self-portrait with a face mask.

Join me as I begin a new journey to discover my artistic style, and get inspired to find your own.

A Covid-inspired relocation back to the heart of Culver City, Los Angeles.

After 13 years I’ve packed out life into a storage unit and sold the house for the next adventure.

I’m gathering Bookbinding Videos and Equipment resources to continue my handmade journey