Featured Artists

We asked artists to show us their favorite piece they created in 2016. Check out some of the amazing artwork that was sent in. 

We sat down with Peter Bucks for our second Artist Interview (well, we wish we sat down with him... we corresponded with him electronically) and we can't wait to share his ]story and artistic insight with you!

Every artist has their own unique background, style, experiences, techniques and perspective. We can all learn from each other, be inspired by one another, and continue to share the joy of art.

Let's hear what Peter has to say:

We are excited to kick off our Artist Interviews with Tattoo Artist Laura Schrampfer! Each month we will be posting an interview with a different artist in our Art Blog to get a look into the minds of creative people across the globe.

Our Pass the Journal project is in full swing and artists from around the globe are filling the pages of 12 special Art Journals!

Here's how the project works

Alisa Burke is a freelance painter and mixed media artist who studied fine art at Portland State University. With a background in painting and printmaking, a desire to explore and push materials, Alisa is always looking for new ways to break the rules and redefine art.  She draws inspiration from street art, graffiti, art history and fashion and it is not uncommon to find her digging through the trash in hopes of recycling something unique to use in her artwork.


Artist Erik Davis has been using our Watercolor Postcards to create beautiful, fun and vibrant pieces that anyone would be thrilled to receive in the mail!

He uses a permanent ink pen to create the drawing, then adds color over the top with watercolors.

Jonathan Martinez uses his artistic talents to create beautiful drawings of endangered animals to bring awareness to them. 

Graham Smith is a Professional Illustrator who has over 20 years of experience creating images for national clients in publishing, fashion, advertising, packaging and film. In his video "Confessions of a Paper Junkie", Graham gives us an inside look at his studio, some of his techniques, and his creative process:

Illustrator Kevin Keele uses our toned gray paper for his fascinating illustrations. See his work and tips that show his process. 

Ursula Doughty is a talented colored pencil artist who creates a smorgasbord of unique pieces including animal mashups, creative food art, and Disney pieces with a twist.

Mark Reep creates dreamy, atmospheric drawings using charcoal and graphite on our bristol smooth paper. Read our interview with Mark and see his stunning work. 

The Winter Edition of the Artist Newsletter is here and features Christine Karron's 5 steps for creating stunning mixed media illustrations. Read it here. 

When you hear the word watercolor you automatically think of using watercolor paper. Makes sense. However when I started to teach classes, I wanted something that was transparent so the students can use my letters underneath as a guide. I knew that watercolor paper was not transparent so I tried tracing paper and that did not hold the ink up well. Then I went in to my local art store and found Strathmore’s 500 series Marker Pads. From the first brushstroke I made on the paper, I was sold.

Things are getting pretty spooky around here! Many artists have taken to the #drawlloween and #inktober challenges by creating a Halloween-themed piece of art or an ink drawing every day in October. We've loved seeing all the scary, chilling, creepy, fun, and awesome artwork that has been posted in the last month!

Australian artist Joi Murugavell's style is fun, vibrant, and energetic. Read Joi's story in our newest Artist Interview and learn more about her art. 

Artist Ursula Doughty uses our 300 Series Bristol Smooth paper for her sheet music art. She prints the music then draws characters on top using colored pencils. 

See Industrial Designer Reid Schlegel's 10 Commandments of Industrial Design Sketching & 5 Commandments of Toned Paper Rendering in our Fall Artist Newsletter. 

One of our Pass the Journal books made its way to Brazil! See the artwork & learn more about the 12 books being filled by different artists across the globe.

Read our interview with Artist Katherine Liontas-Warren, a Professor of Art at Cameron University in Lawton, OK, and see her gorgeous drawings and paintings. 

The talented Janice Sung reviewed our 500 Series Ready Cut Watercolor paper while creating beautiful gouache illustrations. Read her review. 

Read our interview with Teoh Yi Chie; a talented artist, urban sketcher, and blogger in Singapore. See his amazing on-site watercolor sketches.

Although not formally trained as an artist, Brent Anderson has been an artist all his life. From an early age, he was drawn to art and could always be found creating, building, or drawing something as a child. He the non-profit organization: In My Father's Eyes, Inc. to bless families of children diagnosed with cancer, or families who have lost children to this horrible disease with framed portraits of these beautiful fighters.

Book #8 of our Pass the Journal project is finished! It traveled through the US, England & Ireland, with each page filled by a different artist!

Watch Eleanor Mill's process of creating these beautiful Ranunculus flowers in watercolor. 

Industrial Designer Reid Schlegel demonstrates his process for creating a sword illustration on Toned Tan paper. 

Artist Graham Smith demonstrates our new 500 Series Heavyweight Mixed Media paper with an old-time boxing strongman portrait. 

Artist Lena Danya demonstrates our new 400 Series Oil Painting paper with a beautiful portrait. 

Dan Burkholder shows us how he takes his photography to the next level by printing on translucent vellum paper and mounting gold leaf to the back.

Artist Cliff Deun shares his process and insight on how to keep lines bold and simple to create pieces with greater impact in the Artist Newsletter. 

'Draw a Story' is a Singapore-based creative studio specializing in fashion and lifestyle illustration. See the process for creating this beautiful piece. 

"I didnt want to do regular pet portraits or still life, I wanted to do something creative, fun and quirky and so I started developing my Totem animals"

Artist Grace Hart has a steady hand & a whole lot of patience. She practices the ancient art of papercutting to create beautiful, intricate and detailed designs.

Together with artist Minnie Small we bring you an introductory video series on gouache. Learn gouache 101 & see tips, techniques, and tools to get you started. 

Eyes are a popular subject for artists to draw. We've gathered a collection of stunning eye pieces created by a variety of talented artists. 

Our popular Artagain Black paper is now available in large rolls, so you can make a BIG statement with BIG art. 

Diane Luke Barth received her Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Geneseo and attended graduate school at The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She enjoys nature and animals – such a variety is found on the Outer Banks. She resides on an island in Kill Devil Hills, NC. Drawing horses is her specialty. In the past she competed with her quarter horse ‘Sassy’ in trail and pleasure class, along with barrel racing. Diane loves to combine horses with other nature-related subject matter. The combination adds excitement to her paintings. She is working on a series of art that features equine and birds of prey. Her work is featured on blankets, pillows and clothing sold by Woolrich, Inc. It also appears commercially on coffee mugs, stationery, and a variety of gift products sold by other companies.

We're celebrating 2 years of our collaborative art project, Pass the Journal!

We are excited to announce that Pass the Journal has officially begun! We sent our Mixed Media Art Journals to 12 different artists and gave them a task:

We interviewed artist Kim Taggart to get an inside look at her serene graphite and charcoal drawings of the Midwest skies, plains, and rolling hills.

Our Summer Artist Newsletter is here and features Sarah Becktel's 5-step process for creating dimensional animal drawings on Toned Mixed Media paper. 

Did you read the summer edition of our Artist Newsletter? It's all about Toned Sketch! Click here to download your free copy.

Alphonso Dunn's free Pen & Ink Workshops are now fully released and available on our YouTube Channel!

In his first video lesson, Alphonso covers the basic aspects of drawing and creating textures with pen and ink. Consistentcy in mark making is an essential foundation skill and is the first area of focus. From there Alphonso covers a few key principles of creating realistic textures and goes over helpful practice exercises.

What is the slap-dash noodle doodle method? Aside from being something fun to say, it's also a fun card-making technique courtesy of artist James Teaford. 

Born in El Paso Tx, and currently residing in Las Vegas Nv, Raul "J.R." Salas is self-taunt artist who fell in love with drawing and comic book art at an early age. In 2012 J.R. decided to dedicate himself to his craft.

Previously, Meredith had a career in corporate marketing and communications after graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2005 with a degree in sociology. Without much formal training, she had always enjoyed creating art and experimented with various mediums including photography, ceramics and painting before discovering a passion for printmaking in 2011. What started out as a hobby, making cards as gifts for friends, quickly evolved into a business with the encouragement of her husband. Today, she sells primarily online and in local boutiques in her hometown of Winter Park, Florida.

Meredith describes her style as eclectic and bohemian. She has always been attracted to bright colors and bold graphic prints, which translates into the cards she creates. She finds beauty in things that are a bit "unfinished" and "imperfect". She specifically chooses the cards with the deckle edge to give it a more rustic, un-structured look, while the texture of the cardstock does not allow the ink to completely soak into the paper, creating a "worn" or "vintage" effect. She feels this adds to the authenticity of each card, you can tell it wasn't printed by a machine because each one is slightly different.

She says her favorite part about her business is how personal it is. "I'm honored that something I create is given to someone who then writes a personal note to people they love. "View more of Meredith's work at: www.meredithsanddesigns.etsy.com

Ryan Spahr is an accomplished artist working in a variety of media, including marker, pen and ink, oil, pastel, photography, and tattoo. His work exhibits bold, expressive mark-making, exploration, and experimentation. Ryan lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he spends his free time with his family and collecting records. His future plan is to further his education in the Arts.

Brian Scott is a self-taught artist and feels that it shouldn’t matter what your artistic history or education is, but that you love what you are doing. He has always been interested in art and took classes at night school, but found he did not enjoy the strict, regimented routine.

At first, Brian tried oils and acrylics but didn’t feel that he was successful in those mediums. In 2009 he turned to colored pencils where he found his niche and never looked back.

When asked why he prefers this medium, he replies that they are a lot cleaner and require less room. Once he started to use colored pencil, he was challenged to make his pencil work look more like an oil painting rather than a traditional drawing as he found at times people had a preconception that colored pencils were for kids. That’s when he began to develop his signature style.

Brian began drawing for his own personal enjoyment but as he grew and found his audience, he realized he could actually make sales as well as enjoy the camaraderie that the internet can bring by allowing viewers to respond to his art through comments and emails. “It keeps me going and always striving to do better!"

See more of Brian's Work

Reference and permission to use from Bara Vavrova

Heather Victoria Held is a freelance calligrapher residing in St. George Ontario with her husband Chris and their daughter Holly. Heather's passion for Spencerian Script was kindled when she met her friend and mentor Master Penman Michael Sull. Early in her ornamental penmanship endeavors she was guided and encouraged by Dr. Joe Vitolo through the Ornamental Penmanship discussion group and IAMPETH. She is a member of Master Penmen Brian Walker's Spencerian Study Group of the UK and is thankful for Brian’s guidance in her penmanship journey.

Heather's work has been published in Bound and Lettered, Somerset Studio, The Penman's Journal, The Spencerian Review, Romantic Homes, Pen World, Good Mail Day and 1000 Homemade Cards. In 2009 Heather was awarded the Spencerian Heritage Award by Michael Sull and is honored to take her place as a storyteller of the Golden Age of American Penmanship and specifically offhand flourishing as she teaches throughout North America.

Some of Heather's favorite art materials to use are: the pointed steel pen, pastels, watercolors, gold gouache, vellum, 24 K gold leaf, drawing ink, colored pencils, hot foil and hot fix crystals.

View more of Heather’s beautiful and intricate artwork at www.heathervictoriaheld.com and www.inkflourishes.blogspot.com

Jake Weidmann is 1 of 11 Master Penman in the world. We were fortunate enough to have Jake demoing in our booth at the 2015 Art Materials World Show where he worked on our new line of Strathmore Writing papers. 

The Fall Issue of our Artist Newsletter is here!

written by Artist Angela Staehling:

I am thrilled to be creating this new line of imagery with the Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journals. This collection of journal entries captures a different painting every day. As part of a larger 365 Project, I decided to categorize each month to reflect a different theme based on nature.

Read our interview with Nate Flamm, an Illustrator who creates epic fantasy pieces with an emphasis on composition and a comic book flair. 

Book 6, Shelburne, of our Pass the Journal project is finished! Artists in Spain & the USA united to fill this book with their own unique artistic voices. 

Daniel Sean Murphy creates 3D paper sets, installations, objects and art. Read his article and see his incredibly detailed and meticulously crafted pieces. 

The cold, long days of winter are fading away, so grab this fresh and inspiring Issue of the Artist Newsletter and find a nice spot outside to dig in! Click here to download.

The Fall Newsletter features Grace Hart's "10 Tips to Papercutting Success." Grace has also included a FREE papercutting template and tutorial video!

Read our interview with artist Kevin Hayward who creates beautiful wildlife drawings using graphite. 

Designer Nicole Santo recently taught two lovely and inspiring lettering workshops at Fullosophie in San Francisco, CA: Brushstroke Lettering, and Watercolor Brush Lettering. There were even mimosa’s involved… we wish we could have been there!

Justin Maas is known for his stunning portraits. Justin uses grayscale on Toned paper to employ value, show form and make drawings with incredible depth.

Color psychology suggests our mood can be impacted by different colors. Read about the color blue and see a collection of blue-themed artwork. 

Artist Marco Bucci tried our new Travel Series watercolor papers and created two fantastic on-site watercolor sketches. See his process & review. 

Artist Jordan Rhodes reveals how he rediscovered his love for art after taking a break since childhood. Not only finding inspiration, but maintaining a routine is key to making art. 

Color psychology suggests our mood can be impacted by different colors. Read about the color green and see a collection of green-themed artwork.

Follow along to Shelly Kim's Wreath Tutorial

Heather Rooney specializes in photorealistic drawings and meticulous attention to detail. Read her article in the Artist Newsletter.

Read our interview with artist Brandon Schaefer, teacher for the 2022 Online Workshop 3, Sketching & Drawing: The Foundation of All Art.

Take a peek at what caught our eye this month.

Steeven put in over 200 hours with his graphite pencils to create a masterpiece drawing of the moon that is now displayed at the Canadian Space Agency