The more you draw and paint, the more you can see something remarkable in the ordinary.
“I inspire artistic growth in people by providing personalized support I help transform nervous beginners into confident artists, helping them overcome initial hurdles and experience the joy and benefits of their artistic journey." The world instills in us the idea that only some people are creative, but actually, everyone is born creative and with the ability to learn. I'd like to teach drawing and painting to those who want to learn and enrich their lives in the process.
04/16/2026
Members of the New Page Academy Facebook Group are doing something special this Saturday.
A free 90-minute drawing workshop — no experience needed, no pressure. Just a chance to unplug and make something.
If you'd like to join the community and be part of things like this, the group is open:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/learntoseelearntodraw
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04/15/2026
Happy birthday, Leonardo da Vinci. Born April 15, 1452! He was a painter, yes. But also a scientist, anatomist, engineer, and one of the most devoted observers of the natural world who ever lived. He believed that the act of drawing was the highest form of learning — because it required you to truly see, not just glance.
Five hundred years later, that's still what drawing teaches. Not how to make beautiful things. How to see them.
What would you want to learn to really see? Drop it in the comments. ↓
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04/11/2026
Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452.
This Tuesday he turns 574. I've been thinking all week about what made him extraordinary — and it wasn't just the painting. It was the looking.
All week I'll be sharing what he understood about vision, light, and the act of seeing. Stay tuned.
Light and shadow, in real time.
This is what chiaroscuro looks like when you're building it from scratch — the technique Leonardo used in the Mona Lisa to make her face feel three-dimensional and alive.
Notice how the form doesn't emerge from an outline. It emerges from the shadow. The light areas are almost untouched — it's the dark that does the work.
This is Lens 4 in the Five Lenses for Drawing What You See. And it's the one that makes everything else snap into focus.
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Her smile appears and disappears depending on where you look.
It's not mysterious. It's vision science. Leonardo painted the smile using broad shadows that your peripheral vision picks up better than your focused eye. Look directly at her mouth: nothing. Shift your gaze: there she is.
He understood how human vision works — and he used that knowledge to paint something that would feel alive five hundred years later.
Leonardo's birthday is April 15. All week I'll be sharing what he understood about light, shadow, and seeing — and how it applies to learning to draw today.
Shadow doesn’t have to be hard. 🌑
PanPastel is one of my favorite materials for studying value — it’s soft, intuitive, and incredibly forgiving and you can use color!
We made it to Lens 4. 🙌
If you’ve been following along with the Five Lenses, you know we’ve been building layer by layer — gesture to see the whole, contour to find the edges, structure to feel the form.
Lens 4 is value: light and shadow.
This is the one students always say changes things. Because once you start seeing the values in a scene — not just the shapes, but the way light falls, the way shadows reveal form — you can’t unsee it. Everything starts looking like a drawing waiting to happen.
In this week’s video I walk you through what value means, how light actually behaves, and how to train your eye to see tonal relationships before you even pick up a pencil.
And if you want a visual guide to all Five Lenses — including where value fits in the sequence — sign up for my email list: https://thehub-api.mastermind.com/widget/form/3obkhALYZtw9WtNpfdQI
and I’ll send it right over. It’s a simple, clear map of the whole drawing journey from gesture to painting.
Organic forms have more sides than you think. Here's how to see them — and draw them. 🖊️
What if the secret to drawing hands — and every other organic form — was learning to see what most people miss?
This week on New Page Academy I'm sharing Lens 3: Structure. We're looking at planar analysis — a technique that helps you see the planes hiding inside curved forms. Once you see them, you can't unsee them.
Watch and let me know what you notice. 👇
Many people believe drawing accuracy comes from talent.
In reality, artists use a few simple observational tools.
One of the most important is sighting — comparing angles and proportions before you start drawing.
It’s one of the Five Lenses I teach for learning how to draw what you see.
If you'd like to explore the full framework, download my free guide:
The Five Lenses for Drawing What You See
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbwV-QSnOiglswID7Cn8KD2o8J_E8Isi/view?usp=sharing
Sometimes the best way to improve your drawing is simply to draw alongside other people.
That’s the idea behind the Online Drawing Soirée.
It’s a relaxed live gathering where artists come together to draw, experiment, and learn in a supportive environment.
No pressure.
No perfection required.
Just pencils, paper, and curiosity.
Our next Online Drawing Soirée is coming up:
April 4
Reserve your spot here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/organizations/events