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I just finished a very interesting commission. I've shared my oil painting, Pandora , on Artist Daily before. It was one of the central paintings from my 2012 exhibit at Forbes Gallery. I got a lot of positive feedback on that painting--and then got an inquiry from a collector, "Is Pandora still...
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Attitude by Patricia Hannaway, 2006, pastel sketch drawing, 21 x 12. Human figure sketching, especially learning how to sketch from a model, is one of the most rewarding ways of practicing art because it can enhance your abilities in ways that are both practical and inspirational. It's practical...
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I own up to the fact that I am drawn to the portraits artist Jenny Morgan creates because they are unconventional. Yet they capture qualities of the human face and our other human qualities in ways that read very true and lifelike. I like them because they are different, but not just because they are...
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Every year, we invite pastel artists to enter their work into our annual Pastel 100 competition, now in its 14th year. And every year, we receive thousands of pastel paintings. I am always stunned by the fantastic variety of the work and the extraordinary level of talent. We celebrate the impeccable...
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Certainly, there are pitfalls to making paintings from photos . One problem occurs when an artist thinks that a photo is magic and that he or she can turn a photo into a painting with a snap of the fingers. It isn't that easy, of course. And even if it were possible to easily reproduce photos as...
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When I say "the perfect blend," I feel a little bit like I am describing a gourmet coffee flavor, but there really is a perfect blend that exists in pastel painting. For me, the crème de la crème of pastel drawings combines a certain level of literal representation with a modern...
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Sometimes I can forget how good it feels just practicing drawing techniques. Simple things, like working on proportion and scale and line weight can feel so rewarding if you give yourself the time to really savor them when learning to draw. Mostly this is because all great drawings are built on these...
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I recently had an Emeril Lagasse moment--and it happened when I mixed pastels with water for the first time. Three Sunflowers on Blue by Jimmy Wright, pastel painting, 30 x 41. A while back, I confided that I wanted to start an earnest study and exploration of pastel painting . That resulted in me mucking...
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When you think about it, you probably have a personal symbolism—objects or colors or landscape features that hold special meaning for you. These ideas can develop from our personal experiences, our culture, or books we've read. In the comic book realm, straightforward symbolism is expected...
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Uh, I think I may have stumbled into an artist's dream! The Artist's Network Annual Holiday Sweepstakes is going on right now, offering awesome art prizes from the best painting and drawing product makers and service providers around. Rosemary & Co. brushes? Yes! Strathmore surfaces? Yes...
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It's strange how sketching and drawing are such old and established practices—pen and ink drawing has been around since ancient Egyptian times!—and yet no two draftsmen are ever really the same, and each one's pursuit can lead to very different results. Perhaps that comes from how...
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It's probably half-endearing (hopefully?) and half-annoying that I think there's no better way to start off the weekend than with art. But you know what I mean! As the fall season gets into full swing, I think we are all coming back around to our art, and for me, nothing sounds more appealing...
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I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that successful portraiture is successful when the portrait artist, foremost, captures a likeness. Yes, I ardently believe that there has to be something more to the story—a sense of the subject's spirit or personality,...
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I'm totally a sci-fi junkie and H.R. Giger is truly a master artist in the genre of fantastic realism. I first came across his work through his designs for Alien . Lately, with the release of Prometheus , his art came up on my radar again. Now, his work is...out there. His style is so unique that...
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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....