Studio News for July 2026

It’s time for studio news for July! Can you believe it? Let’s get started.

Studio News for July 2026

CP Magic! News

The August issue of CP Magic! features Deborah Griffis. Deborah’s most unique and oft-visited subject is houses and and other structures. But she also enjoys drawing botanical and still life subjects, as well as animals and landscapes. Whatever she draws, she gives every subject the same level of focused attention.

Deborah’s tutorial is a botanical subject. She takes an ordinary River Birch twig and shows you how to turn it into a work of art.

The August issue is available in digital and print formats.

Artwork

July turned out to be one of those months when the only drawing I accomplished was a collection of ACEOs. Most of those were drawn in the final week, due to a number of out-of-the-ordinary activities outside the studio.

Although I didn’t do very much with ACEOs for the first half of the month, I had a spurt of creativity in the last two weeks. In total, I made seven ACEOs in July. Six of them are shown here.

The ACEO group challenge for July was squares. That explains the three graphic design ACEOs featuring squares.

I had also started rereading Amy Lindenberger’s excellent book, COLORS: A Workbook, so I did the first two ACEOs using the primary colors for Prismacolor (Process Red, True Blue, and Lemon Yellow). The secondary colors were mixed from those three. They turned out pretty well, I think.

I was also trying out a new paper for me, Legion Lenox 100 Cotton paper. It’s soft and velvety feeling and brought back memories of the old Rising Stonehenge when I first saw it.

So this sheet of ACEOs was drawn on Lenox 100.

Despite the softness of the paper, I wasn’t able to get smooth color except with very careful stroking, very sharp pencils, and very light pressure. At least with Prismacolors.

I used Derwent Drawing and Derwent Lightfast respectively on the last two, and I enjoyed those sketches much more. So it looks like I’ll be doing sketches on the remaining supply of Lenox. That use just suits me better.

Mentoring

I began working with three mentoring students in July. So far so good, if their responses are any indication. The experience has also been good for me (and hopefully for the students, too). It’s also been revealing, but I’m not yet ready to share those revelations.

Looking to the Future

As I prepare this post for publication, the biggest plans for the immediate future are the September issue of CP Magic! and the next article for Ann Kullberg’s COLOR Magazine. Work on CP Magic has begun. I’m brainstorming ideas for the freelance article.

Classes and tutorials are still in the pipeline, but very little progress has been made. In fact, the best step forward is currently looking like a step backward in one regard.

If you’re interested in hearing the latest about classes and tutorials, 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 July 2026

There really wasn’t much more to report on unless you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes news. Most of that was not happy news, so I’ll pass on passing it on to you.

But I will pass on my hopes that you had a good July and are looking forward to a good August!

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