Big news has happened. At least it’s big news for me. This blog hit 700 hit posts published!
So my New Year’s celebration is more about accomplishment than resolutions.
This Blog Hit 700 Posts in January
When I started blogging sometime around 2005, I never expected to publish so much content. Blogging was new to me back then and I had no idea what would happen with it.
Since then, I’ve been through several different blogs, beginning with a blog designed to promote portrait work and oil painting. At one time, I was writing for three blogs: Two of my own and one on writing fiction with a friend.
All of them have gone by the wayside. These days, it’s just this blog and it’s more about teaching and encouraging than promoting my own work.
This blog officially began in 2007, though you won’t find any posts from the early years. The reason is that I was blogging mostly about oil painting. Posts also included horse racing news because most of my oil portraits were of race horses. Colored pencils were mentioned, but they weren’t the focus.
The blog didn’t really “take off” until I switched my focus to colored pencils in 2012 or 2013. Lots of people were talking about oil painting. Back then, not many were talking about colored pencils, though, so I dove into that niche. In the aftermath, all the content about oil painting and horse racing were removed. I essentially started from scratch.
And now, over ten years later, the 700th post published! Curious about which one it was? It was the first one of the year, Art Goals for 2026. You can read it here if you missed it.
What All the Content is About
As already mentioned, the content is all about colored pencils, the artist’s life, and helping others by sharing what I’ve learned over the years. I’ve been an artist all my life, and have been professional to one degree or another since I was 17 (50 years ago this year). That’s a lot of water under the bridge.
My idea with this blog, the weekly newsletter, and with everything I publish is to help other artists learn from my experiences and mistakes. If I can help you avoid some of the pitfalls I experienced, I’m happy!
But what specifically is all the content about?
The Content Categories
Content is divided into several categories. In order of number of posts, they are:
Drawing Methods and Tips (213 posts)
General Topics (167 posts)
Step-by-Step Tutorials (91 posts)
Pencils and Other Drawing Tools (87 posts)
Paper and Other Drawing Surfaces (66 posts)
News (53 posts)
The Artist’s Life (27 posts)
Moving Forward
I am well into writing new content for 2026. I’ll also be updating some of the earliest content, since I’ve learned a lot of things in the past ten years.
But I would like to give readers the opportunity to share what they’d like to see more of in the coming months. Which of the categories above interest you the most?
What new categories would you like to see content in? Remember, this blog is written to help you. What do you most want to learn in 2026?
You can send me an email, or leave your comments and suggestions below. I get notification whenever comments are posted, and I read them all. I also respond to them, and will write posts based on them whenever possible.
This Blog Hit 700 Posts
Now it’s time to work toward 800. Are you with me?
What do you most want to learn about colored pencils in 2026 and beyond?
