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What makes an object look three-dimensional? We use a variety of cues to give us this information: light and shadow, contrast, pattern, color, texture, scale, temperature and value, usually in combinations. Our ability to measure these different parameters and make a decision about the dimensionality...
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Okay, I'm going to share with you my dirty little secret: I can't parallel park a car. Well, I can parallel park a car as long as I've got three blank spaces, in a pinch two, and it helps that I drive a Honda Fit. But for the most part I'm willing to drive blocks out of the way and walk...
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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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Continuing the long line of intimists from Vermeer to Vuillard, Mark Karnes makes an alluring world out of the quietest aspects of his domestic life. Like all great painters of the near-at-hand, Karnes' work reminds us that beauty is to be found everywhere, at both expected and unexpected moments...
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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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The Clubfoot Boy by Jusepe de Ribera, oil on canvas, 1642. Art...has the power to make any spot on earth the living center of the universe; and unlike science, which often gives us the illusion of understanding things we really do not understand, it helps us to know life in a way that still keeps before...
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I am usually heartened when I hear disagreements about matters of art and technique. Maybe I'm just combative that way, but more likely, I think I take such debates as a sign that there are more artists coming to the table, that the field is growing and evolving, and that there's no end in sight...
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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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"A line is a path that can offer an interesting and varied journey, rhythmic and with occasional, pleasurable surprises. Thus is one tempted to take the journey again. " -Krome Barratt, Logic and Design: In Art, Science, and Mathematics Creating representational art is challenging; a satisfying...
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Do you ever lose yourself in creating pencil sketches and discover, when you "wake up," that you've drawn objects or people or places that have personal meaning to you or ideas you've been subconsciously toying with? Drawing sketches can be like writing in a journal--the pages of your...
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Sometimes I get list fever, and this is one of those days. I have made a grocery list, a list of gifts I need to buy, and a list of artists I want to look up. The only list I haven't made yet is my list of lists! But lists are great things, especially when you are like me, learning painting techniques...
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Whenever I go to the doctor and get my finger pricked, I'm always surprised at how much it hurts--at how sensitive the tips of our fingers are. Yet at the same time, they are so utilitarian. Judith Ann Braun's work uses both these qualities of fingers--their sensitivity and their strength--in...
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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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In a recent article I wrote, a reader commented about the "pathetic efforts" she/he, and other artists, make sometimes in the process of creating art. I understand what the reader is saying, at the same time that I vehemently oppose the concept. It's easy to overlook children as being unimportant...