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  • How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Painting from Photographs
    I’ve spent way too much time in murky classrooms looking at slides, slides, and more slides. I’m convinced that the entire academic field of art history would grind to a halt without projectors, carousels, and slides. But what is weird about looking at so many images is that I find myself
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  • New Free eBook on the Color Wheel and Color Schemes!
    It feels right to talk about color and art during this time of the year, when flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and skies are (mostly) blue. After months of dull-colored scenery, everything seems to be flourishing wherever I look, which makes me
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  • Discover the Enduring Appeal of Sketching
    Human figure drawing, especially life drawing 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 in that creating figure drawings develops skills that will serve you again and again
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  • Step by Step to a Virtuosic Figure Drawing
    Seeing a painting or drawing progress from beginning to end allows the finished artwork to be understood as a series of discrete steps leading to a virtuosic whole. During a recent tour of the Grand Central Academy (GCA), in New York City, I observed instructor Joshua LaRock developing a drawing of Michelangelo's
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  • Dark Tidings
    Sounds mysterious and threatening, right? No worries! It's just that when Liz Haywood-Sullivan began to create pastel drawings, she was dismayed with the range of dark colors available. "Rich, dark pastels were hard to find," she says. "Most
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  • 350 Ways of Drawing Faces
    Can you imagine figuring out how to draw a face—the same face—350 times or more, and making each portrait drawing different and as compositionally sound and interesting as if you had made only one? Quite a task, yet Italian designer, sculptor
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  • Tie Your Hands Behind Your Back
    You can go the less extreme route, of course, but there is something to be said about a studio painting session in which you don't pick up a brush. You don't make any sketches. You just observe. I find myself doing this again and again when I
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  • 6 Tips on How to Draw Anything Accurately
    Drawing is a fundamental skill for artists, emphasis on "skill." That means there are basic drawing rules and approaches that work, including these six tips on how to draw anything accurately. Delmonico Building by Charles Sheeler, 1926, lithograph
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  • Diagonal Parking for Those Who Can’t Parallel Park
    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
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  • 100 Reasons for Pastels
    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
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  • A Color Vortex
    Looking at Mark Messersmith's artwork is like being sucked into a kaleidoscope. The colors are bold, varied, and everywhere. It seems odd to say this. I mean, of course, there is color everywhere--it's a painting. But what stands out about Messersmith's
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  • When a Photo Can Do It Right
    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
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  • No Two Shadows Are Alike
    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
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  • The Perfect Blend of Literal and Abstract
    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
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  • How Strong Are They?
    I was always taught that effective color mixing starts with discovering the tinting strength of each color on your palette. For me, that is the basis of understanding how to mix colors, because it tells me how they will react when combined. A Breath Away
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  • It Is Never a Matter of Bad Ideas
    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
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  • It's Easy With Our New Free eBook: Learn How to Draw
    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
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  • They Can Be Moody, Too
    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
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  • It Was a Secret Love Affair...And the "Resolve to Save" Sale Continues!
    I love stumbling upon facts about artists that make me rediscover them and consider their process in a whole new light. That's the kind of moment I had when I discovered that Roy Lichtenstein, the king of Benday dots and comic-book narratives, loved
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  • Painting With No Holds Barred--Plus Our Best Resources Are On Sale!!!
    Going "no holds barred" sounds tough, and slightly scary, but I'm feeling particularly intense about not wasting time learning how to paint like I want to paint. The clock is ticking, but that really doesn't mean much. The clock is going
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  • Power to the Pencil
    With so much interest in plein air painting these days, it's easy to overlook how important drawing skills can be to the landscape painting artist. Fundamentally, drawing is both a way of seeing and a way of knowing a subject. If you can draw it,
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  • Add Water and BAM!
    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
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  • 4 Tips for Drawing People
    I was recently on the train with a friend who caught the attention of an artist sitting across from us. She started drawing my pal. We were thrilled! It was an exciting moment as we watched my friend's face appear on the paper in front of us. As the
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  • Investing in Art
    I love my Honda Fit. And while that may seem to have nothing to do with art, actually, it does. You see, I drive my Honda Fit everywhere and in the process of its being used it gets dusty, the tires see wear, the interior windows next to where my Toddler
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  • Be Kind -- Starting with Yourself
    As an artist, it's good to know how to critique yourself and your painting techniques -- and that's the key element: HOW to critique yourself. Stride into that studio of yours and take control of analyzing and critiquing your own work. Cadence
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  • And Don't You Ever Forget It
    I'm an artistic omnivore to be sure, but there is really nothing I love more and respond to more than pencil drawings. I know, the humble pencil and paper seems so simple, so basic. But what some forego and forget as too elementary, I see as essential
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  • Don't Start Off the Wrong Way
    For a drawing to be successful, you've got to start off choosing the right drawing surface. No matter how great the drawing ideas you have or the drawing art skills you bring to bear in the process, if you aren't pairing surface and implement
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  • Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Drawing Faces
    I've always been an ardent fan of the profile portrait drawing . It reminds me of antique cameos, the profiles of emperors stamped on Roman coins, and 18 th -century silhouettes. But learning how to draw a face in profile does come with its share
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  • A Simple Productivity Tip from Da Vinci
    Ever wondered where Da Vinci found the time to create all his masterpieces? Alongside his fine art painting he managed to dabble as a scientist, geologist, architect, mathematician, engineer, and anatomist with a bit of aeronautical design thrown in for
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  • What You Really Want in a Winter Landscape Painting
    Around this time of year we are inundated with wintry scenes and beautiful snowy landscapes--on greeting cards, products, advertisements, calendars and more. But these winter landscapes aren't necessarily all created equal, and the same goes for the
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  • You Won’t Get Anywhere With Half Measures
    I've been told by more than one person that I try to see both sides of any issue. And my personal life aside, I can attest that I also do the same for art--I like to see it from all sides, materially speaking. That makes me a perfect match for mixed
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  • Santa, Here’s My Art Wish List
    My dad is a little manic about asking our family to get our holiday wish lists to him waaaaaaay before he has to fight the crowds and wait in long lines. As usual, I'm procrastinating, but if I were to give him my art wish list, I could have it ready
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  • Her Face Is Round--But in a Good Way!
    Figuring out how to draw people is often a matter of breaking the body down into geometric shapes. When it comes to drawing people--specifically faces--you have to think of the sphere and the ovoid. Now, I'm not really a fan of looking at drawings
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  • Sketch I Will!!!!!!!
    I find that being an artist or art student is a bit like being a parent. The phrase: "Do what I say, not what I do" is too often applicable. For example, as I have expressed before, my goal is sketching something every day. The sketch drawings
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  • Do You Realize What Will Happen To You?
    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
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  • "Greatness Is Determined by Service"
    I hesitate to admit that some of my education these days is derived from Facebook, thanks to those seemingly endless placards with quotes that people are always posting: "I think it's weird how some days I feel skinny and some days I feel like
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  • Money and Fame May Not Be Enough
    What is success? Be honest with yourself. Do you truly believe that a successful person is defined by the car he drives, the title after her name, or their number of Twitter followers? Life is bigger, wider, deeper than what you can fit into a shoebox
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  • Rembrandt Says Don’t Take It Slow
    Straight from the master's mouth, er, hand. Study Rembrandt's drawing techniques and you'll find short strokes and quick crosshatching that the artist used to get to the heart of every visual impression he wanted to depict. The Three Trees
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  • Frustration Isn't Always a Bad Thing
    "Frustration isn't always such a bad thing. It's a sign that you're trying something new, different, or outside your level of familiarity, and in working your way through it (and you will) you conquer this challenge and move on to the
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  • Reconnect with Your Passion
    The loss of an artist and teacher from childhood has caused me to reflect upon not only her life and work, but also those lessons that she taught me. The myriad distractions of daily life, from the constant need to earn money for survival to the many
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  • Hunting the White Whale
    Art makes stories come alive. To me, it is as simple as that. And sometimes without art, there is no story-—or, at least, it's not quite as good. This was the case for the great American novel Moby-Dick . It is hard to imagine that Melville's
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  • The Quest to Paint the Arctic
    Yes, you read that right! I've heard of extreme sports and extreme makeovers, but extreme outdoor painting ? This is a first for me. But when plein air artist Cory Trepanier told me that he had made a trek to paint the far reaches of the Canadian
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  • TGIF! Our Free eBook on Learning How to Draw People Is Here!
    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
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  • Introverts Are Actually Normal
    I've been reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking , and if you're an artist, and you're kind of quiet, and you think that you're a misanthropic hermit because you enjoy fine art painting
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  • Ways of Interpreting Color: Studio vs. Plein Air
    In plein air we attempt a form of direct translation. In the studio, we may recall our observations of nature, but are freer to be inventive with color. Night Passage by Mitchell Albala, 2006, oil painting on panel, 20 x 20. It's September and the
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  • Beware of Falling in Love
    Painting is an act of creativity and intention, but it sometimes, many times, includes acts of destruction large and small. It may be that the one skill that separates the dedicated professional artist from the amateur is the willingness to destroy, obliterate
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  • It's Like Snooping in a Diary
    I've always thought of a painter's drawings or pencil sketches as his or her diary. A finished painting is the confident, public face shown to the world, but sketch drawings read like journal entries, where you can see an artist's preoccupations
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  • It’s Like a Snapshot Only Waaaaay Better
    There's something immediately nostalgic about Charles Kanwischer's graphite drawings. When I first saw them I immediately felt like I was looking at an old black and white snapshot. But in a way, his simple drawings are far better than snapshots
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  • These Paintings Don't Have to Be Cheesy
    Because learning about color complements on the color wheel is often one of the first lessons we are taught in art class, complementary color paintings--those contrasting blue and orange, yellow and violet, and red and green--are often thought of as for
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  • It's Obvious She's Totally Twisted
    When I first saw the work of drawing artist Joan Wadleigh Curran I felt trapped...in a very good way. Curran takes as her subject matter from objects and places that most people would steer away from—dirty trash bags snagged on a chain link fence;
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  • Art on the Square
    I was reminded that art grows in the most unlikely places and conditions when I recently heard about the art scene that is showing distinct signs of life in Fayette County, Georgia. Wildlife watercolorist Dylan Scott Pierce teaches students about layering
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  • Plein Air Essence
    We enjoyed the recent plein air blog of artist Marion Boddy-Evans and agree with her sentiments. We have been outdoor painting for over forty years each (before the "plein air" phrase became ubiquitous) and have always felt that the value in
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  • What a Website Is, and What It Isn't
    First and foremost, a website is an online portfolio of you, your background, and your fine art painting or other artwork. Years ago, artists spent copious time and bundles of money making slides of their work and 8 x 10 prints that they tucked into a
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  • Don’t Be Camera Shy! Here’s Your Free eBook on Using a Photo Reference in Your Art
    Almost every artist I know who depicts people or creates portraits has spent time painting from photographs or drawing from them. It may not be how they develop a work foremost, but it is a useful method, especially when you want to capture a likeness
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  • The Kitsch Alternative
    The influential art critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) often cited the derisive term kitsch to critique artwork that, in his mind, failed to live up to the tenets of the modernist movement. His theories privileged formalist nonobjective abstraction
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  • Drawing and Painting Together
    This is another complicated charcoal drawing, one done by an artist completing her first level of study at Studio Incamminati. I have shown it in three stages, ranging from the beginning of the drawing process to the end. The light is from the front right
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  • A Simple But Crucial First Step to Marketing Your Art
    Get a website. If you're not a tech genius, you can still do this because there are numerous options. Some are free; some are not. Realistically speaking, the free ones severely limit what you can do and you'll find yourself outgrowing them in
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  • Wimping Out of Plein Air Painting
    Whenever I end up in a conversation where other artists start talking about the kit they take with them when plein air painting --and it often starts with what plein air easel is the best--I tend to keep quiet. Very quiet. A page from my sketchbook when
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  • Bringing the Dark to Light
    There are subject matters that are fairly easy to take in and those that need more time to understand and a willingness on the part of the viewer to move out of his or her comfort zone. Works that artistically represent intense events--like violence or
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  • Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Moves to Chelsea
    The influx of artistic institutions moving into the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City continues with the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery prepared to make the leap. After showcasing groundbreaking oil painting work and other art pieces for the past 23 years
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  • Tiger in a Tropical Storm
    Henri Rousseau is best known for his exotic jungle scenes, but did you know that he never left France during his lifetime? All the imagery he painted was invented entirely in his mind and perhaps coupled with inspiration he got from listening to others
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  • The Long, Hot Summer
    The light of summer is a powerful and extreme thing. Getting effects of extreme darks and stark, searing lights is not something every painter can do. There's an acuteness of vision that must come into play to see the color that resides in the light
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  • You Could Use Some Color: New Free eBook on Colored Pencil Techniques
    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
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  • It's a Sensitive Subject
    Topics and ideas that tend to strike a chord and spark debate are often that way because they are so subjective. In art, color is definitely one of those sensitive subjects because no two people see a color in exactly the same way, nor do painters always
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  • Finding Your Way Back
    I've always been fascinated by artists who live during incredibly polarizing times, but somehow still seem to go their own way. Elmer Bischoff--ever heard of this oil painting artist? He stands out as an artist in the aftermath of World War II when
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  • You Be the Judge: Oil Painting or Plate of Food?
    Fantasy art guru and top-notch artist James Gurney is a font of knowledge when it comes to so many aspects of drawing and painting . Whether you are into fantasy images or tend toward more realist compositions, Gurney has techniques and methods dealing
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  • Inspiration That Starts with a Snip or Snap
    A while ago I went through a scrapbooking phase. Now, these were not scrapbooks of me or my friends and family marking my high school career or summer camp experiences. These are what I consider visual networks or maps--images that I sorted by subject
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  • Get Really Close--No One's Going to Call Security
    What was that beautiful work I saw at the Met? Which room was Sargent's portrait painting , Madame X , in? I loved that Renoir but didn't have time to go back and spend a little more time with that work and that work alone. How do I answer these
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  • Framing Paintings
    In any painting, the biggest expenditure for the artist is the frame that goes around the finished piece. If it's a watercolor painting, there's the matting, the glazing, and the frame holding it all together; for the oil on canvas or acrylic
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  • Heart Melting…So Cute!
    I'm not blessed at this point in my life to have children, but if I did you can bet I'd be one of those mothers who want portrait paintings of her children at every stage of their lives. Even better, I could learn how to paint children like artist
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  • More Here Than Color Theory
    I acknowledge that there is a lot about the color wheel and mixing colors that I don't know. But one thing I do know is that there's more to art than color schemes and memorizing a color mixing chart. Andrew by Fred Hatt, drawing with aquarelle
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  • Push Away the Voice of Your Inner Critic
    I feel so inundated with ideas from every single photo reference around me right now. Sometimes I am super inspired by them, but sometimes they make me want to put my paintbrush down because I get so overwhelmed by all the ways I can start painting from
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  • Confessing All of Your Shady Ways
    One of my unhappiest memories of making art is drawing a really 70s-looking still life that my art teacher set up for us in the sixth grade. I remember being soooo bored and not interested at all in what we were doing until my teacher gave us a challenge
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  • 4 Ways to Paint Without Preconceptions
    Short of lobotomy, we will always have the equivalent of mental trails that our brains follow when we are painting. Artists develop these based on painting techniques that they've learned along the way, or they can be expressions of inherent ideas
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  • Lucian Freud Had Great Skin
    I started off seeing skin tones in a closed off way, not really pushing to find the dimension and depth right in front of me. I almost felt I was still pulling a Crayon out of the box to color a figure's form from head to toe like I did in childhood
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  • Not Just For Ink Blots Anymore
    Drawing with ink takes the precision of a master draftsman and the skill of a watercolorist handling a fluid medium. When I was in school I was completely captivated by the silky dark lines of one of the most famous pen and ink artists, Aubrey Beardsley
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  • Why Do I Draw?
    Today was a day spent asking myself questions about my art. Two of the questions I have focused on are: "Why do I draw?", and "Why do I draw what I draw?" The copy of a Prud'hon drawing that I did in Natalie Italiano's drawing
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  • Your New Free eBook: Step by Step Painting Techniques
    Painting is a deep and vast ocean. It is a world full of possibilities. And while I am deeply drawn to that wide-open aspect of it, I'm also super intimidated by it too! I feel like there is no limit to what I can learn, and while I'm thirsty
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  • The Complete Painter's Handbook
    In our new special issue, American Artist guides you through the most important aspects of the painting process, from selecting your materials to preparing a canvas to advanced techniques for accurately depicting landscapes and figures.
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  • Taking Off the Straightjacket
    I am not a finicky person, so getting my hands dirty to get a job done is totally fine with me. But with painting, I can get so uptight and hesitant that the physical joy of it all goes right out the window. I'm trying to be better about what I'm
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  • Man's Best Friend Is Art's Best Friend Too?
    We have always felt that as plein air painters we are observers of the landscape—recording moments and places that can rapidly transform with fleeting changes of light. In a pure landscape, figures and animals are rendered small and insignificant
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  • The Lasting Influence of Illustration
    I love that my job allows me to learn something new every day—and the fact that the majority of those discoveries are art-related make them all the more inspiring. Lately I've been in art-historian mode, and I've have been trying to better
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  • Solving the Mystery of Monet
    The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet, oil painting, 1899. Mitchell Albala is an inspiring art instructor in the field of landscape painting , and it turns out he's an awesome detective as well. Recently, he did some sleuthing on a rare video clip of
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  • Painters Who Made the Biggest Splash
    Sometimes the question shouldn't be what to paint as much as how to paint. There are centuries' worth of artists who fill art history textbooks, but those who stand heads and shoulders above the rest do so because they turned their painting art
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  • Is White Really a Color?
    There are differing opinions among color theory purists whether white should be considered a color at all, since it represents the absence of hue or chroma, and cannot be made from the three primaries, as black theoretically can be. It's not usually
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  • Lust for Line
    There are a few artists that I would like to watch step-by-step, drawing in their sketchbooks or painting in their studios. Okay, more than a few, but after seeing Van Gogh's drawings, he would definitely be at the top of my list. Cottage Garden by
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  • Playing Studio Detective with a Monet Painting
    If there were any artist, past or present, into whose studio I could magically transport myself and observe him paint, it would be Claude Monet. I have always been intrigued by his painting style, especially his highly textured and complex surfaces. When
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  • What's the Wisp?!
    Elton , 11 x 14, mixed media on gesso board, 2011. Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I thought I was near finished with a painting I had been working on for over three months, but when I sent it over to my agent in New York, who I call my third
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  • Color Wars
    When I asked friends and colleagues about landscape painting artists with the best use of color, the conversation got downright heated. Mostly because there's so much to consider when you look at each individual artist's color "theory"
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  • Drawing, Winter 2012
    In this issue, our Drawing Fundamentals series moves from looking at the historical roots of copying as an instructional practice to offering specific recommendations about how artists can copy master artwork in order to benefit the most from their efforts.
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  • Drawing Magazine Going Where It's Never Gone Before!
    Love to draw? Love to surf the internet? Then check out Drawing magazine's new Facebook page —featuring artists, tips on drawing basics, unique educational opportunities, and exclusive news about the magazine and the fast-paced world of drawing
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  • Make Your Mark, But Make It Different
    Recently, artist and our contributing blogger Daniel Maidman wrote a really insightful article about varying your mark making that I want to share because it seems like so many of us are refocusing our interest to drawing, and this is a great approach
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  • Do You Know All Your Lines?
    Two Women with Still Life by Willem de Kooning, pastel and charcoal on paper, 22 1/4 x 18 3/4 in., 1952. The artifice of line is one of the aspects of drawing that I am most in love with. The fact that we can take line—which doesn't exist in
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  • Skies Don’t Have Brushstrokes In Them
    Watercolor artist Thomas Schaller achieves convincing and dynamic effects in his skies ( Salisbury Cathedral , watercolor painting). I know it is a bias, but sometimes I can't help thinking that painting skies belongs to a particular realm of watercolor
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  • Drawing Basics: Working in Black and White
    A photo of the cast I am drawing. My drawing, in progress. You may remember that in the fall of this year, I discussed Darren Kingsley's class and his comment that we would be working for many weeks on our drawing of a facial feature in his class
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  • Drawing Basics: Grateful for Shades of Grey
    Figure drawing by Judith St. Ledger-Roty, charcoal drawing, 2011. I have been taking a figure drawing class that focuses on doing a comparatively long figure pose, working in charcoal. (We do one minute, five minute, and ten minute drawings, too, so 'long'
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  • The Artist Watch List—Are You On It?
    In the December/January issue of American Artist magazine, the editors and staff put out feelers throughout the art community to find artists who are established or up and coming, and deserve recognition. They had limited space in the print issue, so
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  • How to Put On the Brakes
    Matthew Carr refused to use pure white in his drawings, treating his surface with charcoal before he began. ( Gordon , 2006, conté pencil on prepared charcoal paper, 56 1/2 x 44.) As you all might remember, charcoal drawing and I haven't always
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  • Drawing the Strength of Bones and Folds of Flesh
    Pastel drawing by Lea Colie Wight. At Studio Incamminati, it is not unusual for instructors or fellows who are not teaching a particular class to come in to draw or paint beside the students. This happened recently when Lea Colie Wight joined in a figure
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  • My Handmade Holiday
    This is a monotype print I just made of a winter scene. I went over it with pastel to get the motion of the swirling, whirling snow. It'll make a great card for some lucky friend this season! I've long been fascinated with holiday greeting cards
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  • Give a Dreamy Sigh for My Painting Hero
    Taking just a few minutes to survey a scene and sketch it can help work out any challenges you might come across with the orientation of objects, color, and more. Okay, it isn't a he or a she, but an 'it': composition! I know, not the handsome
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  • Colored Pencils and Exploding Heads: Welcome to the Fall Issue of Drawing
    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
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  • Can a Caricature Help My Portrait Painting? Plus Our Self-Portrait Contest!
    The Grimaces by Louis-Leopold Boilly, 1823, lithograph, 13 1/8 x 10. A few weeks ago I was in the Met and saw "Infinite Jest," an exhibition of drawings and prints that explore satire and caricature from the Italian Renaissance to the present
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  • Drawing Basics: Varying Your Mark Making
    Last time we discussed the idea of switching up art practice techniques . The concept was that, while repetition builds skills, change keeps the mind sharp and the work lively. I've been thinking about ways I personally switch up techniques. The first
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  • A Stress-Free Drawing Master Class
    This is a blog about drawing people from one of my favorite co-workers, Cate, the online editor of Cloth Paper Scissors . Enjoy! Proportion is key to life drawing. When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, I was privileged to take classes at Cranbrook
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  • Don't Set Yourself Up for Failure from the Start
    Optimal Orientation of Subject and Artist in Plein Air Before the first daub of paint is squeezed out of the tube and brush is put to canvas, many plein air painters have already set themselves up for failure. How? By selecting a site that doesn't
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  • Three Works of Art I Would Kill to Have
    It's not as if the wall space in my apartment is getting any bigger, but still, I'm always looking at works of art and murmuring, "I know just the place for you..." And for the past several years I've been particularly drawn to works
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  • From Me to You: Free Drawing eBook on Pencil Shading Techniques
    Drawing after the sculpture The Cylinder Man by Eliot Goldfinger by Jon deMartin, 2009, pencil drawing. Drawing for Epiphany by Michael Aviano, 2009, charcoal drawing, 39 x 32. Going from "the cylinder man" to a fully-realized figure is a matter
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  • Painting a Season in All Its Glory
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  • Portrait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves - your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100 pages
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  • Heading Back to School for More Drawing Basics & Beyond
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  • How do I think? I sketch!
    Looking at Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of birds I imagine how the artist likely thought about more than just the birds themselves. He would have been caught up in ideas of flight and soaring in air. That's the power of a sketch. It can transport
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  • You Want a Free eBook on Making Color Work When Pastel Painting, Right?
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  • Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About
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  • Don’t Finish That Drawing—It’s Perfect Right Now
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  • Drawing Basics: Using the Egg to Draw Anatomy
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  • 3 Paintings I'd Take in a Heartbeat
    Unknown Woman by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, 1890, pastel painting on paper. I love the effects and colors you can get with pastel paintings . . . at least I do now. It wasn't too long ago that I felt like I had some kind of weird complex where I could
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  • Ah, Vacation.....Time for More Painting!
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  • Life Drawing Gymnastics
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Judge My Artistic Progress & Learning from Robert Liberace
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  • Drawing Basics: Meet Your Master and Then Throw Him Away
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  • Drawing Basics: Making Art According to Leonardo da Vinci's Motto
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  • Drawing Basics: Costumes, Clothes or Nothing At All
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  • Drawing Basics: Think Egg!
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Drawing Art Books
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  • Drawing Basics: Measuring and Proportion in Life Figure Drawing
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  • Lightening My Plein Air Pack
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  • Composing On the Fly When Painting Outdoors
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  • Plein Air Painting with Clyde Aspevig
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  • Drawing Basics: Get In That Box!
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  • Drawing Basics: Look at John Singer Sargent's Swirls and Squiggles
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  • I Need a GPS for Drawing Faces
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  • Drawing Basics: Mixed Bag of Anatomy Inspiration
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  • Painting This Uniquely American Place
    America is a land of rich diversity that extends throughout our landscapes, cities, and regions. I'd say that one of the most distinctive places we have is Cape Cod. Now, being a born-and-raised Southern girl, I have always romanticized the northern coasts and beaches because they always look so
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Make Sense of All Those Bumps and Ridges
    As I was struggling to pull my drawings together, I realized that it didn't matter how good my line got, because I couldn't tell what I was looking at. The topic was the human body, and more specifically, the back. If you've gone through life drawing, perhaps you know the problem. You're
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Start My Pencil Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: Learning the Lesson of Line Drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: Breaking Down the Head
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  • There's Nothing Quite Like Custom Made
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  • Drawing Basics: To Tone or Not to Tone
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  • Drawing Lessons from Edward Hopper
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  • May I Introduce Scott Waddell?
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  • May I Introduce Quang Ho?
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  • May I Introduce C.W. Mundy?
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  • Nothing Watered Down About Her Work
    Over and over again I hear artists cooing about the thick richness of oil paints and its appealing spreadability, and yes, all of that is totally true. But artist Bev Jozwiak is giving oil a run for its money in terms of buttery appearance and saturated colors, and she’s doing it with watercolor
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  • It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s an Artist?!
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  • Finding Meaning in the Details of My Painting
    Sometimes in making a small study for a larger oil painting, an artist will sketch in certain areas very loosely. It's almost as if she says to herself, "and there's some other stuff that fills in this area of the composition, but I'll think about that later." With the set of small
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  • And the Award Goes to...
    I've been waiting all my life to have a red-carpet moment, but who knows when the Academy will get around to remembering my searing director's debut at the age of 14, when I put on a musical version of Hamlet to the theme song of The Beatles' "Obladi Oblada." (Maybe you had to be
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  • Forget Everything You Know About Line
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  • It's Time to Take Sides: Color vs. Form
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  • An Artist's Logic: Perspective Drawing Basics
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  • Drawing Basics: On Midtone Paper by New Blogger Daniel Maidman
    My pencil drawing, Alley , was the result of a 40-minute pose that I did a few weeks ago. Hello, all, and thanks for having me as part of the Artist Daily community. I’m an artist working in New York, and I’ll be offering thoughts on the art
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  • Free Video Demo—Watercolor Painting With Mary Whyte
    Learn more about Mary Whyte’s full-length DVD. I'm a reader and studier by nature, but the lessons and techniques that I learn from books and magazines always seem to click much quicker when I watch an artist paint, rather than try to puzzle
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  • Bring Together the Outdoors and Indoors In Your Landscape Paintings
    When I’m landscape painting I’m always drawn to the curious, in-between places where the outdoors and indoors meet. This could be an ivy-smothered barn that almost looks like it is disappearing into the landscape, or an ocean view from an open window. The places where architecture and the
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  • Make a Painter’s Resolution
    I’m starting this year by reassessing my approach to painting and recommitting to more concentrated studio time. I don’t necessarily feel that I want to completely revamp my process, but there are a few old habits that I want to break and a few new ones I want to instill. I’ve found
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  • Become a Master Draftsman With Our Free Drawing Basics eBook
    Studies of Heads and Hands by Hans Holbein the Younger, pen-and-ink. We all know that a strong foundation in drawing can make a significant difference in all levels of art making. “When in doubt, go back to your drawing” is the advice I’ve
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  • Portait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves – your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100
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  • November 2010
    On the Cover: Belle (detail, reversed) by Galina Perova, 2007, oil, 50 x 44. Private collection. FEATURES Rosemarie Beck: Exploring the Physicality of Paint by Eric Sutphin This New York artist used themes from mythology, music, and literature as ways
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  • Our Latest Free Drawing eBook Is Yours
    When asked why painting the human figure was so important painter Scott Burdick was matter-of-fact. “Because we are human,” he said. “If an alien species were to come down today, they wouldn’t respond to the human form or face like we do. Just like pictures of lobsters don’t
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  • What’s the Best Way to Create Your Studio Space?
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  • Sharpen Your Ability to Judge Color Tone and Value
    In last Friday's post featuring artist-instructor Kerry Dunn, we explored some of the opportunities and challenges that an extensive color palette offers. On the flipside, Bulgarian-born painter Ignat Ignatov understands how an artist can benefit from the use of a limited palette. For a time Ignatov
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  • Recouping Lost Artistic Opportunities
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  • Taking Advantage of Free Instruction
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  • Drawing, Winter 2010
    On the Cover: Untitled (detail) by Mark Tennant, 2009, charcoal, 24 x 18. Collection the artist. DEPARTMENTS Editor's Note Contributors Sketchbook Where to Study Drawing: A Sponsored Guide to Some of the Best Educational Programs Learning From the
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  • 15 Beginner Drawing Tips on Learning How To Draw People the Classical Way
    Ramona by Tony Ryder, 1995, graphite, 24 x 18. Private collection. My father has been in the construction industry for nearly 40 years. When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do was visit him on the job site before a building was finished and
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  • Taking a Creative Gamble
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  • The Importance of Getting Youth Involved in Art
    Last week I had the opportunity to get together with a handful of art-materials retailers from around the United States and Canada to discuss concerns about reaching the art-making world and to share what artists are purchasing and what materials they
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  • December 2009
    Check out what's featured in the December 2009 issue of American Artist .
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  • Drawing Fundamentals: Modeling Planes
    Objects look convincing when a draftsman models the form correctly. Here, we take it step by step to ensure accuracy and a solid foundation.
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  • Why Paint Quality Matters
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  • Behind the Scenes: Artists' Studios
    My office is also a conference room on the third floor of a building on 46th Street in Midtown New York City. The desk and file cabinets are pushed against the east wall of what was once a library, and a large conference table and eight chairs are arranged
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Is Memorization?
    When I first moved to New York City about a dozen years ago, I drew my father's face from memory quite a lot. It usually wasn't a good depiction at all, but occasionally it resulted in a decent drawing of a handsome man — which reminds me
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing People Using Perspective Lines
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  • Drawing Basics: Does Mr. Ed Have an Advantage Over You?
    It's crazy to say that horses have a visual advantage over humans, but with eyes on opposite sides of their heads, they surely don't see in three-dimensional terms like we do. There are times especially for beginners when seeing less--seeing a
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  • Drawing Basics: The One Rule We Hear More Than Any Other From Art Teachers
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  • Drawing Basics: Densely Marked Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: In Praise of Sparseness When Drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing People in Ink Frees You
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  • Drawing Basics: Draw It 2 Times
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  • Drawing Basics: Draw Why You Love Your Home
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing on the iPhone
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Day Results
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  • Drawing Basics: The Drawing Day Project Wants People to "Drop Everything and Draw"
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  • Qiang Huang: Myth Buster
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  • Drawing Basics: Whistler's Etchings of Venice on View This Summer
    It's always a good time to visit The Frick, especially this summer, when people in New York will get a chance to see the exhibition "Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection," a gathering of the museum's Whistlers, spanning three media.
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  • Drawing Basics: Anatomy Drawing Like No Other
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  • Drawing Basics: 10 Favorite Articles from Drawing Magazine's Archives
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  • Drawing Basics: Surf's Up--Thought-Provoking Art, Wise Words, and Pleasant Diversions From Around the Web
    We surf the web for interesting new drawings and random information on art so you don't have to. April 28 edition.
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  • Drawing Basics: Pencil Drawing & the Pull of Black and White
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  • American Artist Cover Competition Winners Announced
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  • Art That Preserves Memories
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  • June 2009
    The table of contents for the June 2009 issue of American Artist.
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Capture a Likeness When You Draw People
    What facial feature do you find to be the best indicator of a sitter's likeness?
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  • Drawing Basics: Bargue, and Step by Step Instruction on How to Draw People
    A look at the Bargue plates, a series of 197 lithographs that guide an art student through an increasingly difficult course of study.
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  • Drawing Basics: How One Artist Sells His Work During This Recession
    The doom-and-gloom talk prompted by the recession has squashed sales in galleries. So why was the recent opening of a young realist's show such a success?
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  • Drawing Basics: Surf's Up---Thought-Provoking Art, Wise Words, and Pleasant Diversions From Around the Web
    We surf the web for interesting new drawings and random information on art so you don't have to. March 24 edition:
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  • Drawing Basics: Another Foreshortening Tip From Dan Gheno
    In this passage, which we had to cut from the print article in our Spring 2009 issue of Drawing for space reasons, artist-instructor Dan Gheno explains how visualizing the arc that body parts move through will help you place the joints in the right location, ensuring proper proportions.
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  • Drawing Basics: Where Did Your Love of Drawing Come From?
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  • Drawing Basics: Don't Forget That People Get Suntans
    In this passage, which we had to cut from the print article in our Spring 2009 issue of Drawing for space reasons, artist-instructor Dan Gheno explains how the tanned portions of a nude model seem to stand out and push forward, and he reiterates the value of studying individual body parts.
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  • Extreme studio temperatures
    Q: I currently keep all of my finished oil and pastel paintings in my Manhattan studio. In the winter, the studio gets very hot because I can't control the heat. Can the extreme temperature hurt my paintings? A: Extreme changes in temperature are
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  • Line drawing
    Q: What, if any, is the difference between an outline drawing and a contour drawing? A: While an outline drawing merely points out the division between form and the space it occupies, a contour drawing is a means of describing form and its relationship
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  • Airbrush
    Q: How does an airbrush work? A: An airbrush is a sophisticated instrument that ejects a combination of compressed air, paint, and medium onto a surface. This technique allows an artist to achieve dynamic effects, such as subtle gradations of color and
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  • Turpentine on pastel paper
    Q: Can I use turpentine on pastel paper? A: The turpentine may not hasten the deterioration of the pastel paper but it will likely leave a dark stain, as it is a resinous material. Mineral spirits are less likely to leave a stain, and many pastelists
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  • Drawing basics
    Q : I've been mostly a casual drawer, so I’ve stuck mainly to drawing the human figure. Now that I'm looking into pursuing a career in art, I need to improve my skills in sketching backgrounds. Is there a good online tutorial or a book that
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  • Choosing the Correct Canvas
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  • Varnish Recipe
    Q: I paint in oil and acrylic, and I've successfully used an acrylic final varnish for both. I seem to have misplaced this final varnish recipe, but I believe that it was part gloss and part matte. Can you recommend a recipe of this type for me? A
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  • Drawing Basics: Use Bread as an Eraser?
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  • Quang Ho: Essential Information for Painters of All Levels
    Colorado artist Quang Ho’s new instructional DVD series offers a concise version of what students can expect in his workshops, including his eight visual approaches to painting, his views on developing understanding, and a discussion of everything he wishes he had known before he started painting
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  • Drawing Basics: Electric Color Flies off the Pages of Fred Hatt's Drawings
    Here's a sneak preview of an upcoming feature in Drawing magazine: the lively, colorful figure drawings of NYC artist Fred Hatt.
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Proving Leonardo's Theories on Human Proportions
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Draftsman Drawing Magazine Can't Cover?
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  • Mary Buergin Gallery
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  • A Practical Approach to Creating & Marketing Oils and Pastels
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  • Janet Monafo Chat Transcript
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  • Tony Curanaj's Workshop: Knowledge and Structure Allow Freer Painting
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  • Acrylic: Ellen Rolli: Painting Coach
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  • Drawing Basics: Exploring Humor in Drawing
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  • Pastel: Masters
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  • Watercolor: Step by Step: Margaret M. Martin's "Country Jewels"
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  • Oil Painting: Ron Hicks' "Noelle With a Black Dress"
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  • Oil Painting: Mary Anna Goetz's Colorful Landscapes
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Drawing Storyboards for the Coen Brothers Movies
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  • Watercolor: Shanna Kunz: Tonalism and Contemporary Design in Watercolor
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  • Drawing Basics: A History of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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  • Drawing Basics: Colored Pencil Drawings of Natural Objects
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Bleu"
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "The Moroccan Vase"
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  • Drawing Basics: Arlene Steinberg's Colored Pencil Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: "Male Back" by John Singer Sargent
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  • Drawing Basics: Edges
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  • Watercolor: Jane Paul Angelhart: A Practical and Creative Approach to Commissioned Portraits
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  • Drawing Basics: Philip Pearlstein's Prints and Army Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: Looking at "Study for Mirror (I Against I)" by Dan Thompson
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Philip Pearlstein's Unrelenting Gaze
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  • Drawing Basics: Henry Casselli Draws from the Inside Out
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  • Drawing Basics: Anthony Mitri and Mary Reilly's Other Locales in Black and White
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  • Technique: Sherry Camhy: When Black Is White
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  • Drawing Basics: Caran d'Ache's Pencil-Making Process
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  • Pastel: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan's Favorite Drawing & Why
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  • Pastel: CRITIQUE: "Maddy No. 1"
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  • Watercolor: Clint Herring's Watercolors: Celebrating Regionalism
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  • Oil Painting: Michael Albrechtsen: Spend More Time Looking
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  • Oil Painting: Daniel Graves: Steward of Humanist Art
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  • Hudson River School for Landscape: Reviving an American Tradition
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Looking South—Hollywood Beach, Florida"
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  • Drawing Basics: Julia Randall's Colored Pencil Mouths
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    Water-soluble colored pencils offer the perfect solution for artists who want to create watercolor effects without the hassle of watercolor paints. by Stephanie Kaplan Plumeria 2006, watercolor pencil, 8 x 10. Watercolorist Kristy Ann Kutch owned a set
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  • Drawing Basics: Henry Casselli's Portrait Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: BACAA Recommended Books
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  • Watercolor: Steve Hanks: Romantic and Inspirational Watercolors
    Although viewers may first be attracted to the beautiful and romantic subjects of Steve Hanks’ extraordinarily detailed watercolors, they soon become engaged by the expressions of love, loss, and hope conveyed by the images. That’s because
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  • Pastel: Albert Handell's Pastel Paintings
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Evidence & Interpretation in Master Landscape Drawings
    Many great landscape drawings were created as preparatory studies, educational exercises, or informational journals and not as finished works of art. We can now study those freely made graphic images for evidence of the drawing essentials , ideas, and
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Mise en Page
    by Bob Bahr Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing to the Right by Leonardo da Vinci, 1508–1512, black and red chalk on paper, 8 x 6?. Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Leonardo filled the sheet with the subject’s
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  • Drawing Basics: Preparing Your Surface
    In the June 2007 issue of American Artist, we discussed how the large charcoal drawings that Montana artist David C. Powers creates on toned pano Artistico hot-pressed watercolor paper are inspired by the feelings of danger, freedom, solitude, and the
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  • Pastel: Ann Sanders: The Practical Pastelist
    Santa Barbara artist Ann Sanders finds natural beauty in her surroundings and puts it down in pastel using proven methods—and she stresses that you can too. by Bob Bahr Devereux Afternoon 2006, pastel, 11 x 15. Collection Shirley Dettmann. The scenes
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  • Oil Painting: Frederic Edwin Church: A Great Landscape Painting Teacher
    There are few American painters who were as celebrated, successful, or influential as Frederic Edwin Church. by M. Stephen Doherty Twilight, a Sketch by Frederic Edwin Church, 1858, oil, 8¼ x 12¼. Collection Olana State Historic Site, Hudson
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  • Oil Painting: Using Subtle Grays in Still Life Painting
    Two masters of still life painting have much to teach us about developing our paintings. by Joseph Gyurcsak Ochre & Blue Gray 2007, oil, 12 x 16. Collection the artist. Two of the most admired masters of still life painting are the Italian artist
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  • Oil Painting: Ismael Checo: Color, Richness, and Light
    This Dominican-born artist uses rich color to create an exotic and intense experience of the world. by John A. Parks Standing Nude Study 1988, oil, 20 x 16. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated. Although he has long
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  • Drawing Basics: 70th Anniversary Competition Grand Prize Winner
    John P. Smolko won the Grand Prize—a new MetroShed, furnished by Blick Art Materials, for use as a stand-alone studio—for his imaginative colored pencil piece, Homage to Klimt (The Virgin). Read more about the artist, and view five online
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  • Drawing Basics: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the drawing category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Study for the Portrait of Autumn by Chusit Wijarnjoragij, 2007, brown and white colored pencil, 25 x 19. First Place: Chusit Wijarnjoragij For Thailand-born Chusit Wijarnjoragij
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  • Watercolor: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the watercolor category. by Karen Stanger Johnston After the Harvest by Gail M. Wheaton, 2003, watercolor, 30 x 22. Collection Evan and Patricia Harter. First Place: Gail M. Wheaton Arizona artist Gail M. Wheaton completed
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  • Drawing Basics: Colored Pencil 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the colored pencil category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Ya Reckin by Rosemarie Rush, 2006, colored pencil, 16 x 20. First Place: Rosemarie Rush Like most of the images of Western life by California artist Rosemarie Rush
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  • Drawing Basics: Printmaking 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the printmaking category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Eulogy for Kreischerville by Bill Murphy, 2006, etching, 11 x 21. Image courtesy The Old Print Shop, New York, New York. Collection Newark Public Library, Newark, New
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  • Masters: John Ruskin and His Influence on American Art
    During the second half of the 19th century a single writer held enormous sway over the hearts and minds of American artists, critics, and their public. by John A. Parks Devonport and Dockyard, Devonshire by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1825–1829
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  • Masters: Ingres’ Materials
    In the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine, we explored how Ingres taught us much about contours and portraiture. Here, we offer an excerpt from the feature about how the artist's use of graphite on smooth white paper was ahead of his time. by Mark
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  • Masters: Whistler's Mark
    This expatriate American turned away from realism to create an art of stylish and ethereal beauty, ably represented in his drawings. by John A. Parks Crouching Figure in The White Symphony: Three Girls 1869-1870, chalk on brown paper, 10 5/8 x 10¾
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  • Masters: Rembrandt's Shorthand Drawing Style
    The greatest of Dutch masters used a rapid, abbreviated technique in drawing to record visual impressions from the world around him and his own cornucopian imagination, foreshadowing developments in modern art more than two centuries later. by Joseph
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  • Watercolor: Elizabeth O'Reilly: An Oil Painter Takes on the Figure in Watercolor
    Primarily an oil painter, Elizabeth O’Reilly makes a point of painting the figure in watercolor, where she stretches her painting skills to solve new kinds of problems. by Lynne Moss Perricelli Large Woman With Umbrella 2006, watercolor, 16¼
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  • Drawing Basics: Classical Art in the Modern World
    Chicago’s School of Representational Art offers a classical art education in a modern world. by Mark G. Mitchell Tartan by Steve Ohlrich, 1999, charcoal and pastel on white paper, 25 x 19. On the top floor of an old factory warehouse in the arts
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  • Beginner Drawing Logic: Draw What You Don't See
    Faintly draw construction lines to remind yourself of the parts of the form you don't see. by Bob Bahr Contour of a Woman Relaxing by Alex Zwarenstein, 2002, graphite, 20 x 30. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated
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  • Pastel: Liz Haywood-Sullivan: Dynamic Darks With Pastel
    Liz Haywood-Sullivan relies on several techniques to ensure she consistently achieves rich, velvety darks. View an online exlcusive gallery of Haywood-Sullivan's work. by Christopher Willard Southwest Solitude 2005, pastel, 24 x 36. Private collection
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding the Anatomy of the Ear
    A look at the anatomical structure of the ear, and some helpful tips on how to draw people . by Ephraim Rubenstein Maddie 2005, pastel on sanded board, 19 x 15. In this portrait of my daughter, Madeleine, her ear is lit very dramatically from behind.
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Ashcan Drawings
    The artists of the Ashcan School, known for their raw depictions of urban life, shared a background in newspaper and magazine illustration that shaped their drawing and painting styles. by Edith Zimmerman Far From the Fresh Air Farm by William Glackens
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  • Technique: Design Aesthetic
    How theatre set design, an eye for detail, and the study of historical traditions and transitions can inform composition in painting and drawing. by Ray Rizzo For his class on the history of costume and decor, New York artist and educator Lowell Detweiler
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Moonlit Forest"
    Be sure to locate the light source in the composition before you begin painting. by Elizabeth Pruitt Moonlit Forest 2006, acrylic, 24 x 30. This artist demonstrates some good, basic painting skills; however, the artist might want to consider the following
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  • Oil Painting: Heavy Paint, Big Brushes, and No Cleanup: The Paintings of Ken Auster
    This California artist pursues an aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach to plein air painting. by John A. Parks Dos Roses 2006, oil, 12 x 9. Courtesy Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Ken Auster uses loads of thick paint and
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  • Drawing Basics: Hard Edges, Bold Colors
    Screenprints can have subtle colors and edges, but the most stimulating examples are bold and crisp, as a selection from the Print Research Foundation, in Stamford, Connecticut, shows. by Bob Bahr The Hitchhiker by Robert Gwathmey, 1937–1943, screenprint
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  • Beginner Oil: Oil Painting Materials: The Basics
    Oil Painting Pigments and mediums Oil paint is pigment suspended in oil, usually linseed oil. Painters thin oil paints by adding either more oil or a solvent, such as turpentine--or a mixture of both. In addition to linseed, artists use walnut, poppy
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  • Drawing Basics: Chat With Dan Gheno
    Read the transcript from our online chat with top artist-instructor Dan Gheno. If you have more thoughts to share, chat with your peers on Artists' Forum , and check back for more online chats with featured artists. This chat was brought to you by
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  • Beginner Oil: Color Theory, The Basics
    We offer a color theory guide to assist novice painters. by Bob Bahr A painter can mix nearly every color with just three pigments. Exact hues vary from one manufacturer to the next, but an artist could go far with any company’s Indian yellow, naphthol
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  • LESSON PLAN: Looking at Impressionist Landscapes
    This valuable lesson plan explains how to teach high-school students to draw landscapes. by Erica Yonks Green Trees 9th grade student, 2006, colored pencil. Grade Level: 9 Duration: three days Objectives • To depict landscapes with the illusion of
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  • Drawing Basics: Brian Bomeisler's Global Skills of Drawing
    We offered words of advice about drawing basics from Brian Bomeisler in the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine. Here, we present his five global skills of realistic drawing. Bomeisler helped a student correct and adjust the proportions of his self
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  • Drawing Basics: Painterly Effects With Colored Pencil
    California artist Alyona Nickelsen uses odorless mineral spirits to dissolve some of the pigment in her colored pencil drawings, eliminating the pencil strokes and creating rich, luminous color. by Lynne Moss Perricelli Sincerely Yours 2006, colored pencil
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  • Drawing Basics: Chat With Colored Pencil Artist Alyona Nickelsen
    Read the transcript from our online chat with colored pencil artist Alyona Nickelsen. This chat was brought to you by Legion Paper . 2007-03-08 11:00:27.0 Administrator: You have joined a chat with Alyona Nickelsen, a colored pencil artist featured in
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Without Symbols on the Right Side of the Brain
    As a supplement to our feature in the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine, we offer a more in depth look at Brian Bomeisler's drawing workshop with an extended version of the article, additional images of student work, and more photographs of the
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  • Drawing Basics: The Benefits of Sight-Size Drawing
    Cast Study—Laocoon 2005, charcoal and white chalk, 26 x 19. Collection the artist. Students attending contemporary art schools modeled after 19th-century academies often spend their first months on the drawing basics and making sight-size copies
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Put the Human Form Together
    In past issues, we explained how to analyze and correctly draw different areas of the body. In this tutorial overview of the figure, we bring it all together. by Dan Gheno Weighted Stasis by Dan Gheno, 2006, colored pencil and white charcoal on toned
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  • Beginners Drawing: Making Better Lines, Making Lines Better
    Line has been around for a long time. Ever since the prehistoric era, when that first artist picked up a lump of wood ash from a spent campfire and outlined a hand on the cave wall, lines have described forms of all types--human, animal, and landscape
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding Anatomy of the Arm
    If you know the anatomy of arms, you can use them to express much. by Ephraim Rubenstein Study of Arms 2006, red chalk, 26 x 19. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated. This study shows the major masses of the arm in
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  • Pastel: Mark Norseth: Capturing the Ocean in Pastel
    Nine years ago, Mark Norseth moved his family to Hawaii and discovered the perfect place to record the power, movement, and coloration of the sea in pastel paintings. by Tamara Moan It’s easy to spot Mark Norseth around the town of Kailua, perhaps
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  • Pastel: Jean Ranstrom: Discovering Unexpected Subjects for Pastel Paintings
    Jean Ranstrom’s artist-friends are often surprised that she can create stunning pastel paintings in locations they would ignore. “If a painting has a strong focal point, as well as varied edges, values, and color temperatures, it can be successful
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  • Drawing Basics: Woodcut Prints or Oil Paintings?
    In the March 2007 issue of American Artist , Utah artist Brad Teare used a number of techniques to give his woodcut prints a fluid, organic quality that brings them closer in appearance to his plein air oil paintings . Here, we offer more the prints he
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  • Watercolor: GALLERY: Mark Norseth's Oils and Watercolors
    In the February 2007 issue of American Artist , we discussed Mark Norseth's pastel paintings of the sea. In contrast, we present several of his oil and watercolor paintings in this online exclusive gallery. Approaching Twilight 2006, oil on linen
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Draw Dynamic Heads
    Depicting features is only the beginning. Putting life into a head drawing requires assimilating it with the rest of the body, capturing an attitude—and much more. by Dan Gheno Study for the Angel in Madonna of the Rocks by Leonardo, silverpoint
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  • Beginner Oil: Transistioning into Fine Art
    It's understood that a career in the visual arts can be personally fulfilling and professionally risky. That's why most people work secure 9-to-5 jobs and enjoy drawing and painting during evenings and weekends. But those limited hours just aren't
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  • Drawing Basics: From a Roman Fountain to a South Bend Studio
    In this excerpt from the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , David Mayernik discusses how copying the work of Old Masters trains his taste so he can draw and paint original work with the classical beauty he reveres. by Bob Bahr For David Mayernik , who has gone
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  • Drawing Basics: A Foreshortening Exercise
    This helpful drawing exercise for drawing faces appeared in the fall 2006 issue of Drawing . If you have trouble seeing and drawing the nose close to the eye when you are drawing a head, be sure to try this exercise. by Dan Gheno Skull From Above by Dan
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  • Drawing Basics: Modeling a Face With Light
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored the art of drawing realistic heads. Here, we present an excerpt from the article about drawing with light and shadows. by Dan Gheno Study of a Boy With His Hand to His Mouth by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
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  • Drawing Basics: Put Your Head in a Box
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored the sometimes daunting task of drawing accurate heads. Here, we suggest one technique from the article that will help you use perspective to better gauge the tilt of the head. by Dan Gheno Stereometric Man
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  • Pastels: The Meaning of Things
    In contrast to his methodical, painstaking technique, G. Daniel Massad takes an intuitive approach to conceiving his pastel still lifes, allowing the imagery to emerge in its own time. by Lynne Moss Perricelli The Way Through 2001, pastel, 161/2 x 16
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  • Drawing Basics: Sargent in Black and White
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored John Singer Sargent's brilliant drawings. Here, we offer an excerpt from the article that discusses Sargent's use of light and dark values. by Mark G. Mitchell ”I think the chief characteristic
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  • Drawing Basics: Preserving the Landscape in Colored Pencil
    Ohio artist Linda Wesner depicts American scenes that are quickly disappearing because she feels it is important that the viewer recognize the universal theme of change. by Bob Bahr Light Along the Hudson 2006, colored pencil, 25 x 12¾. All artwork
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  • Drawing Basics: Linda Wesner's Colored Pencil Landscapes
    In the January 2007 issue of American Artist , Ohio artist Linda Wesner depicted American scenes that were quickly disappearing because she felt it was important that the viewer recognized the universal theme of change. We offer 16 more of her colored
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  • Drawing Basics: Measuring Facial Features
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explained how to draw dynamic heads. We present an excerpt from the article about measuring facial features. by Dan Gheno In my “Portrait Painting” article in the February 1993 issue of American Artist
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Lessons from John Singer Sargent
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored how the best lessons in value, light, and form are clearly visible in John Singer Sargent's drawings. We present a excerpt from the article that discusses how he taught drawing classes. by Mark G. Mitchell
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  • Pastels: Teaching Values
    Maintaining a distinctive value structure is at the core of Joann Ballinger's pastel instruction--and her own paintings. by Lynne Moss Perricelli In both her teaching and her own pastel paintings, Joann Ballinger emphasizes the importance of a distinctive
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  • Watercolor: 20 Emerging Watercolor Artists
    What will the 25th anniversary issue of Watercolor magazine look like? The answer could well be determined by the artists in this article who were recommended by teachers who are in contact with some of the most promising watercolorists. We asked those
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  • Oil Painting: Timothy R. Thies' Color Charts
    In the fall 2006 issue of Workshop magazine, Timothy R. Thies taught students how to capture the temperatures of light and shadow in their landscape paintings. Here, we offer an excerpt from the article regarding color charts. by Edith Zimmerman A few
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  • Drawing Basics: Christopher Hart's Cartoons from Drawing Faeries
    We recently spotlighted Christopher Hart and his cartooning techniques. Here, we present more images from Hart's Drawing Faeries series (Watson-Guptill, New York, New York).
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  • Drawing Basics: Sigmund Abeles' Five-Minute Drawings
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored how Sigmund Abeles has shown several generations of artists the drawing basics : how to draw with organic lines, logical compositions, and lots of empathy. Here, we present an exerpt from the article about
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  • Drawing Basics: Lisa Dinhofer's Playful Oil Paintings
    In the summer 2006 issue of Drawing , New York artist Lisa Dinhofer drew convincing objects in imaginary spaces, finding meaning in both the items and their presentation. In contrast, we offer nine of her playful oil paintings in this online exclusive
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  • Drawing Basics: Between Drawing and Painting
    Chicago artist Tim Lowly communicates compassion and acceptance in his depictions of vulnerable humans. by Joseph C. Skrapits Portrait of K 2006, charcoal on toned museum board, 19 x 141/2. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise
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  • Drawing Basics: Just Imagine--Drawings by Lisa Dinhofer
    This New York artist draws convincing objects in imaginary spaces, finding meaning in both the items and their presentation. by Lynne Moss Perricelli Into the Light: Yellow 2004, colored pencil and collage, 19 x 22. Collection the artist. New York artist
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  • Drawing Basics: The Emergence of Tonal Drawing
    Tonal drawing--the juxtaposition of relative values, the notion of seeing masses rather than outlines--more closely replicates the way humans see than do lines. This emotional way of depicting the world has been explored since Leonardo; modern artists
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  • Watercolor: 10 Tools for Better Watercolors
    Artists often limit their potential by not taking full advantage of watercolor paints and supplies. Here’s advice that has proven helpful to my students. by Catherine Hillis There is so much conflicting information and advice available to watercolor
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  • Drawing Basics: Jon DeMartin's Drawing Workshops to Improve Paintings
    “One of the biggest reasons painters get into trouble is because their pictures don’t have a solid foundation of accurate and expressive drawings,” says New York artist Jon DeMartin. That’s why his drawing workshops are so helpful
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  • Drawing Basics: Inside the Atelier: Learning How to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain
    As the son of Betty Edwards, the author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain , Brian Bomeisler helps students access the right side of their brains to improve their drawings. The following describes the first day of Bomeisler’s five day drawing
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  • Oil Painting: Painting Interior Light
    Room interiors provide an excellent opportunity to paint a variety of light intensities, colors, and effects; but they also present challenges in trying to capture the subtleties of forms within those dimly lit spaces. by Joseph Gyurcsak Interior scenes
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  • Drawing Basics: When It Hurts to Draw
    Drawing can cause a repetitive strain injury (RSI), but with a few precautions and the right equipment, this risk can be minimized. by Edith Zimmerman Drawing is not usually thought of as a high-risk occupation. Calluses, dirty fingernails, stained clothes
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