Last month was an exciting month, with several changes and new things. So let’s get right to the studio news for June 2026.
Studio News for June 2026
CP Magic! News
The July issue of CP Magic! is special to me because it features an artist whose favorite subject is the American west; that is to say, ranchers, ranch work, and, of course, horses. While Kathryn Kastner does create beautiful oil paintings of the ranch life, she also depicts it with colored pencils. That’s a rarity in Western art.
Her tutorial features a ranch horse, which she created on sanded pastel paper mounted on a rigid support. She includes the process for mounting paper on a rigid support in her step-by-step.
The July issue is available in digital and print formats.
Artwork
House Lion
If you’ve been following the blog or receiving my weekly newsletter, you know I’ve struggled with a cat portrait for many months. The fact is that I despaired of it for a long time and have come close to trashing it many times.
After the press of the July issue of CP Magic! magazine was past, I decided on a whim to start working on it again. The goal? To see if it was salvageable, and to decide whether to keep it or not.
This is what the portrait looked like after the last work session way back in April 2026.
I decided to glaze the entire drawing with Pablo Ochre over all of the white hair except the brightest areas using a mix of strokes ranging from glazing with the side of the pencil to directional strokes with a more vertical hold. In the light areas, I layered only one or two layers. In the darker areas, I added more layers.
I did pay more attention in the area around the face and under the head, but didn’t stress details anywhere else.
The real test was to see if I could cover the crop lines I made the last time I worked on this. Ochre helped in the darker areas, but not in the light areas.
Here’s what it looked like at the end of the month.
Don’t feel bad if you can’t see much difference in the two images. The truth is, I can’t either, but there are a couple more layers of color on it. Steps in the right direction.
ACEOs
It was a slow ACEO month. I blame it partly on being busy, partly on giving time to House Lion, but mostly on just being lazy. We had summer temperatures part of June with highs in the 90s. That’s not so bad, but we also had higher than usual humidity and a lot of rain. So the outside was like a sauna some days. I don’t know about you, but that sort of heat and humidity saps my energy!
Even so, I finished five ACEOs in June, all of which you can see below.
I like the first two, which are two parts of the same imaginary scene. I worked on these two a couple of days.
I’m most pleased with the last one, which I drew with Derwent Drawing Venetian Red, and the third one. For that one, I used Prismacolor Tuscan Red.
The last two depict the same scene. That place is a real place from my growing-up years. I used to go up into a field and sit on a rock under a big tree at the edge of one of Dad’s fields. Neither drawing is anywhere near accurate to the actual place, but the mood is certainly there.
Mentoring
In June, I began the process of exploring possibilities for mentoring a few dedicated artists. The mentoring program launched as a trial run at the end of the month. While the program doesn’t include things like live demos or ZOOM meetings, it does give members the option to ask questions about their current projects and get help with whatever they want help with.
So far, the response has been enthusiastic from the students. I admit that I’m excited, too.
Looking to the Future
Classes and tutorials are also in the pipeline, but only in the very early stages. If you’re interested in hearing the latest about those, I encourage you to sign up either for the weekly newsletter for all the latest news, or to the Class List Group if class news is all you want to hear about.
That’s the Studio News for June 2026
There really wasn’t much more to report on unless you’re interested in cat news and plant news.
Here’s hoping you had a good June and are looking forward to a good July!
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