Start the new year with the resolution to do a drawing a day! Drawing in and of itself is a beautiful skill but also provides a strong foundation for hand/eye coordination for painting. Your daily drawings can be defined by a time limit to keep them fresh. There are many different possibilities for your drawing a day process. For example, you could draw simple still lifes for a month, or draw the same subject in as many different interpretations as you can imagine.
Drawing skills are a great foundation for painting. We learn the building blocks for brush work, proportion, hand/eye skills, etc. In the beginning, drawing faces and figures is a lot like learning to play an instrument–there are mathematical proportions that we study and practice like learning musical scales. Over time the mechanics become automatic, allowing quality of line, shape and value to emerge and express more than the technical process of early attempts of sketching faces, for example.
Artist Jean Pederson has adapted several techniques to suit her personality, one of which is to apply wet glazing on a vertical surface. Learn how in this guest blog post.
The art community lost a very insightful and talented artist a few weeks ago to prostate cancer. Robert Genn, known as Bob, was a mentor to many and touched the lives of artists all over the world with his biweekly blog, "Painters Keys."
"Must be nice to just sit and paint all day. What a soft life!" A friend of mine had said this to me, and half of it is true; being able to paint for a living is great, but there is much more to an artist’s life than paint and brushes. For example, preparing...
What is it about being around other painters that's so satisfying? Whether full of conversation or in the silence of intense concentration, artists ooze wonderful energy.
We all enter the artist community with unique circumstances; Linda Fisler is no exception. I had the pleasure of meeting Linda at the Representational Art Conference in Ventura this year only to find that there is a lot more behind the voice of Art Chats than meets the eye.
There'll always be reasons or excuses that will take you away from your goals. It's important to know what your goals are and where they fall within a hierarchy of most to least important. If improving your painting abilities is a priority, then you have to set up good habits.
Jean Pederson shares what it's like to attend The Representational Art Conference (TRAC, Ventura, California, 2014).
The city of Calgary has experienced a large number of complaints about the newly installed public sculpture entitled Traveling Light. Due to the strong polarization of opinions form local and national citizens, “what is art” has become a hot topic at local coffee shops and office water coolers.
Is a painting finished when you run out of paint, sunlight, time, or energy? One of the most common questions asked when I teach is “when is the painting finished?” This is a really difficult question to answer because it's personal.
