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One of the best conversations I’ve had about art wasn’t with an artist. It wasn’t with an art historian, curator, or gallery owner, either. It was with a mechanical engineer. We went from discussing his latest design project to the artfulness of historical blueprints to Leonardo’s...
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I don't think the failure or success of a drawing has to do with the drawing ideas that the artist starts with. He or she could choose pretty much anything and make a go of it, don't you think? It also doesn't depend on whether the artist chooses to create easy drawings or ones that are more...
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I'll admit that in the past I have been guilty of thinking of colored pencil art as colorful and bright and not necessarily able to be coupled with serious subjects or moody narratives. But that was my own bias. As I've spent time looking at sketchbooks of draftsmen creating colored pencil art...
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We are thrilled to announce that the Grand Prize winner in Drawing magazine's Shades of Gray competition is Joseph Crone, of Indianapolis. Congratulations, Joseph! The winning image will be featured alongside the artist's other work in a feature article in the spring 2013 issue of Drawing, which...
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I recently took a life drawing class and showed my sketches to a friend, who's a super-skilled painter. I was reluctant to share them, but when she looked at my final sketch--in which the model had her hips contrapposto but twisted slightly away from me with one arm across her chest and the other...
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Knowledge of anatomy is essential for artists who want their figures to appear realistic and natural. But we are not surgeons or medical professionals! Artists are not, and should not be, slaves to anatomical correctness. Académie d’homme by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, ca. 1800, black chalk...
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I don't care what anyone says, color is king. It makes everything better--more appealing and lively. Oftentimes in an artist's drawing practice, a sense of color takes a backseat to the black, white, and gray of charcoal or graphite. But that doesn't necessarily have to be the way it is....
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Kinder Love by Jason Bard Yarmosky, 2011, pencil drawing, 18 x 24. Frontal Study of Naked Man by Leonardo, 1503- 09, pen and ink drawing, 9 1/4 x 5 3/4. Looking East by Kerry Brooks, colored pencil drawing. I'm excited to report that the fall issue of Drawing is here—it hits newsstands November...
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Self-Portrait by Kristin Kunc, oil on linen, 2011. As you probably well know, I'm online...a lot. And I'd like to think of myself as somewhat well informed about artist websites. I'm on them all the time—whether it is through an email someone sends me, a link on a blog I read, or my...
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In Janvier Rollande's drawing, Sage (detail; pencil drawing, 2006, 17 1/4 x 12 3/4), the area from the child's eyebrows to the base of her nose is the smallest of the three "segments" of the face. Drawing a face is a little like reading a map. And no, not the cool Indiana Jones map...
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The Beginning of Memory , oil on canvas, 2010. All works by Melinda Matyas. Palette knife painting sounds a little edgy and dangerous, but it’s really all about texture—the thick impasto swipes and flat sweeps of color that make up the surface of an oil painting. I’ve never created...
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Sometimes it is helpful to set or premix your palette, so that colors you anticipate using will be ready and waiting for you. This is especially true if painting outdoors, as C.W. Mundy did in this work titled The Lilly Mansion, where light and weather conditions can change rapidly. A lot of painters...
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In this special Artist Daily gallery, we present online reproductions of the work of Robert Kogge , who was featured in the September 2010 issue of American Artist . In the introduction to his article "The Still Lifes of Robert Kogge: More Than Meets the Eye," we learn that because the artist...
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Greek Steps, Sifnos by Thomas W. Schaller, 2008, watercolor, 12 x 9. I just finished writing an article on Thomas W. Schaller's watercolor paintings for the April 2010 issue of American Artist, and it occurred to me that Thomas is the third licensed architect whose watercolors I have written about...
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I frequently commission articles on exceptional artists who sell their original artwork through outdoor shows. I do that for two particular reasons: One is that those artists are, of necessity, well organized and able to deliver requested photographs and documentation without delay; and the other is...