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Charcoal Drawing

A drawing technique that employs an implement of charred wood, charcoal drawing is a staple of any artist’s study. Charcoal drawings are a great way for any artist to practice gesture and how to zero in on big shapes without getting bogged down in detail. A charcoal artist is able to create great levels of gradation by merely varying the pressure of his or her fingers, and simply turning or rotating the implement can create a whole new kind of stroke on the surface of a work. As with many drawing media, charcoal responds strongly to the grain of the paper it is used on.

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  • Um, Are Those Angel Wings??
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  • 4 Tips for Drawing People
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  • Our Free & Brand New eBook on Figure Painting
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  • What the Heck Is Gesso?
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  • Painting of the Month for January 2013
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  • Read Drawing Magazine? Take Our Survey & Tell Us What You Think!
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  • The Foundation of Figurative Art Is...
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  • Guess This Famous Painting to Win a Holiday Prize!!!
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  • A Dreadful Flood of the Unexpected
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  • Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Drawing Faces
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  • Does This Painting of the Month Belong to YOU?
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  • Creativity and Apple Pie
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  • Kudos For An Awesome Review in the New York Times
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  • I Hate to Say It, But Geometry Helps
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  • Curing Myself of the Holiday Frenzies
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  • What a Roux Has to Do with Youx
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  • Do You Have Your Own Personal Symbolism?
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  • A Simple Productivity Tip from Da Vinci
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  • Broken, Dirty, and Torn Up
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  • What You Really Want in a Winter Landscape Painting
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  • It's Not Because I'm Lazy
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  • You Know You Are Lucky If...
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  • When In Doubt, Go For the Weird
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  • The Art of Slow Time
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  • Why Are Brush Sizes as Confusing as a Currency Converter?
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  • I Must Be Doing Something Wrong
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  • You Won’t Get Anywhere With Half Measures
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  • Holiday Sweepstakes--Nuff Said!
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  • Is the Devil in the Detail?
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  • Taking That Leap of Faith
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  • Drawing On Timeless Principles Before Techniques
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  • Feel Its Rough and Smooth Surfaces
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  • Bargains & Blowouts--Cyber Monday on Artist Daily
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  • Santa, Here’s My Art Wish List
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  • A Weekend of Black Friday Deals
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  • Her Face Is Round--But in a Good Way!
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  • 3 Ways to Train Your 'Wild Child'
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  • Into the Arctic: The Plan
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  • Bumps and Grooves That Mean I'm a Psycho Killer
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  • Back Away From the Hydrangeas
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  • Get Outta Here, Hallmark!
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  • The Most Important Question Is WHERE!
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  • Winners Announced Soon!
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  • Can't Get No Satisfaction?
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  • I Am Torn Between Two Men
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  • Watercolor Update
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  • What Other People Think
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  • Learn It, Then Forget It
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  • Artist Daily has joined the ArtistsNetwork.com family!
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  • Sketch I Will!!!!!!!
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  • Recognize This Famous Painting? Name It & Win!!
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  • It Means Never Having to Worry
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  • Einstein Thoughts
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  • It Can Kill Creativity
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  • My Secrets to Financial Success as an Artist
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  • From the Simple to the Complex
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  • "Greatness Is Determined by Service"
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  • Find Me Guilty
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  • Light, Light, Burning Bright
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  • Looking Into My Crystal Ball
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  • The Erotic Frigidaire
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  • Seriously, All You Need Is Average Eye-Hand Coordination
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  • Money and Fame May Not Be Enough
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  • The Best Instructor I've Ever Had
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  • Rembrandt Says Don’t Take It Slow
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  • Sneak Peek: Fall Drawing
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  • No Crisis Here, Look Elsewhere
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  • Comics: The True Descendants of Classic Art
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  • Frustration Isn't Always a Bad Thing
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  • It's High Time for Some Brutal Honesty
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  • More Than Skin Deep: Our New Free eBook on Drawing Anatomy
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  • No One Said a Picture Needs to Be a Photo
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  • 5 Tips for Using Social Media to Market Your Art Business
    We all enjoy using Facebook to stay connected to our friends and family, and Pinterest is a lot of fun for collecting and sharing ideas, but have you thought about how you can utilize these social media tools as part of your overall marketing efforts
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  • With Skill Comes Style
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  • October's Painting of the Month
    Hi all! This month's winning artwork is now posted on Facebook. Every month a painting or drawing is chosen from the Member Gallery on Artist Daily, and posted on Facebook and included in the Artwork of the Month album. It's a great bunch of artworks
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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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  • I Learned To Love This Painting
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  • Hunting the White Whale
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  • Deliberate Practice
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  • Her Work Is Haunting and Powerful
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  • American Artist: 75 Greatest Artists of All Time
    American Artist puts together a list of the greatest artists of all time, including the most influential teachers of today, the greatest female artists, and 25 artists of tomorrow.
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  • American Artist Magazine, November 2012
    In this issue, we trace how representational art has alternated between hyper-realism and a more lyrical expression throughout history and look at some ways in which both past and contemporary practitioners utilize these techniques.
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  • They Appreciate First-Rate Art
    I'm so excited to tell you about the opening night for the Contemporary American Realism exhibit at the Beijing World Art Museum . We were all blown away by the scale of the presentation, the press core, the ceremony, and the huge crowd. This has
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  • It Makes Me See Red
    "The last mad throb of red just as it turns green; the ultimate shriek of orange calling all the blues of heaven for relief and support...each color almost regains the fun it must have felt within itself on forming the first rainbow." --Charles
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  • Special Color for a Special Month
    In my first job right out of graduate school, I really wanted and needed a mentor. My friend Beth became that--and more--to me. She taught me the ropes, gave me support, and rooted for me. Beth got breast cancer when we were working together and I have
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  • 3 Things Every Well-Designed Painting Has & How to Join the Cure!
    Of course there are more than three painting techniques that will allow you to create a compelling artwork, but learning how to paint a picture well can certainly start with these elements. Rhythm. Painting objects that actually look alive, in the case
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  • American Kids Growin’ Up In the Heartland
    I love that John Cougar Mellencamp song! Mostly because it reminds me of being young, and that life is full of possibilities and change. It's also a great reminder that the "small" stories of our everyday lives are the ones that matter most
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  • Don't Forget to Look Behind You
    When walking through a landscape looking for that magical spot that compels you to stop to sketch or put up your plein air easel, don't forget to look behind you (and not for muggers, but the view!). Stop regularly, turn around and consider the view
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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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  • Drawing with a Social Purpose
    In some recent blogs, I have thought about drawing for the sake of drawing, and drawing for the sake of painting. Ja Fang Lu, an artist and instructor at Studio Incamminati, draws for these reasons too, but she also uses drawings that she is currently
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  • How to Let Flashes of Inspiration Come
    Swimming in the ocean of life, so to speak, it sometimes feels as though we must use every bit of energy to keep our heads above the waves. Over many years we have developed some techniques that help us to shed the heavy seaweed and barnacles of the daily
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  • Painting the Arctic: Turning a Dream Into Reality
    Most artists tend to be dreamers, myself included. In 2006, with just my passion for painting the wilderness, I began to let my mind wander in and around the idea of painting places I'd only dreamed about--incredibly wild and remote landscapes. Places
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  • Yup, My Junk Drawer Taught Me Painting
    When it comes to certain creative sensibilities--awareness of color, editing a concept--I trust my judgment. I think I have pretty good instincts--maybe not in the execution of said sensibilities in an oil painting I paint myself, but I know good color
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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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  • Hello From Beijing!
    Do you remember my post on the insanity and sheer wrongness surrounding the fact that the Chinese people have never seen contemporary American paintings before? Well, we are doing something about it with the opening of the historic exhibit, "Contemporary
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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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  • What Does This Painting Photo Say to You? Give It a Caption & Win!!
    As you know I love, love, love the New Yorker 's back page illustration challenge--where they give you an pen and ink drawing and you write in with a caption that you think goes with the image. Some are funny, some are curious, some are just plain
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  • Dare I Say It: Greatest Painters of All Time?!
    Even writing the words "Top 10 Painters of All Time" makes me cringe a little bit because...really? Really? I find it a herculean task to narrow a list down to the best 100 oil painting artists of all time, let alone just ten. But in the spirit
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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 Not Like Eating Junk Food
    When it comes to putting additives into your paints, it just isn't the same as eating a Twinkie or bag of Doritos. Additives are necessary in some cases, especially for landscape artists who work with varying conditions when painting outdoors . They
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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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  • Sketching Isn’t Painting
    Sketching is information gathering and painting is translating the information. That's where I've ended up after pondering one particular comment made in response to my Wimping Out of Plein Air Painting post: "even if you are doing a plein
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  • All Is Art in the Artist's Hand
    Looking at the world through an artist's eyes is a bit like peering through a pair of rose colored glasses or the equivalent, where everything--colors, shapes, people, landscapes--can serve as inspiration for a painting or drawing . But that doesn't
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  • 3 Painting Tools That Aren't Used Enough
    It is just reality that certain painting techniques and tools will get more of your attention than others as you develop your artistic interests and style. But knowing how to paint the way you want to paint should still leave room for new things, too
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  • Art For Thought: An Artist’s Lifespan
    "It's really hard for young artists. You're an adult at 18, but for a painter it takes longer. You really don't get it together until 35 or 45." La Blanchisseuse by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1884-1888, oil on canvas . Some research
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  • Your Website--Keeping It Up to Date
    There's a lot of work to getting an artist website up and running , and once it's done, take some time to pat yourself on the back and indulge in a flavored coffee with lots of whipped cream. But after you're done, it's time to wash the
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  • It Gets Complicated When The Clothes Come Off
    Human figure painting, particularly painting skin, is the height of artistic prowess for me. I'll know I've made significant strides as a painter when I can recreate the opalescent glowing surface of skin. But I have a strong handicap to overcome
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  • Drawing to Remind Me of Where I’ve Been
    I've always thought of art as a bit of a touchstone for really great memories in life. A few months ago I was reminded of this when I went for a visit to Scotland because, while I have snapshots galore to show for my trip, the one item that really
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  • September Painting of the Month!
    Is it you?????????? Come on over to the Artist Daily Facebook page and check out the September Painting of the Month and congratulate the winner!
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  • Free Kittens
    It's no wonder artists are starving. People want their art for free. This morning I received yet another plea from a charitable agency, offering us the opportunity to support their ongoing mission by promoting Steve Henderson's oil paintings.
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  • How to Get the Most Out of a Painting Workshop
    I don't get to attend as many oil painting art workshops as I would like, so when the opportunity to participate in one does present itself, I really want to get the most out of my time there. Here are a few of my own "warm-up to workshop"
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  • Sharpen Your Color Sense
    Because the eye and the brain are constantly adjusting to the changing hues and values of sunlight and shadows when painting outdoors , it can be difficult to see those changes as they happen to our subject. If one is unaware that the original light has
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  • Entering an Art Show: Following the Submission Process Is Important, Too
    Following the submission process, exactly, when you send your portfolio to a gallery is crucial, be it emailing your website or sending off a package for consideration. The same attention to detail applies when you enter an art show or group oil painting
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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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  • A New Wave of Art
    Tricked ya! Sort of! On the one hand, fantasy art isn't that new at all. But as I was sitting in a meeting flipping through American Artist magazine's May 2012 issue --while still paying close attention to what was being said, of course!--I was
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  • When Less Is More: Dying Dog Edition
    I'm fascinated by the concept of "less is more," especially as it applies to representational painting. It's hardly intuitive that having less detail makes a painting more realistic, but that's often the case. We've all been
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  • American Artist Magazine, October 2012
    This issue explores realism, both contemporary and historical. We also take a trip to the Woodmere Art Museum, in Philadelphia, currently hosting an exhibition filled with unconventional approaches to the realist tradition.
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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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  • Plein Air Nocturnes: More Alive Than the Day
    "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." --Vincent Van Gogh Moonrise Road by John Hulsey, plein air painting. Plein air painting at night in bright moonlight is great fun and a wonderful learning experience
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  • Gallery Submission Process--What Following It Exactly Means
    My kids accuse me of saying obvious things, along the lines of, "The car won't get you there if you don't put gas in it," or "Your clothes won't be ready to wear tomorrow if you keep them in the washing machine." But I
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  • Paint Faceoff: Tube Takes On Jar
    For those who are painting with acrylics , this can be a big issue if only because you are constantly dealing with the consequences or benefits of your decision to work with jar color or paint from tubes. What I have gathered from my acrylic painting
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  • What's So Hard About Sitting in a Chair?
    Plenty--especially if you are trying to figure out how to draw a person in that chair. Drawing people standing up is waaaaaay more straightforward than puzzling out how to proportion and position a figure sitting down. But to draw people this way opens
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  • A Few of My Favorite Things
    A couple of weeks ago I spent a rainy Sunday cleaning out clutter—one of my least favorite things to do, but something I am always infinitely grateful for when it's complete. I cleaned out bookshelves, closets, storage bins, and shelves full
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  • It’s Never a Matter of Black or White
    I was in the studio of my oil painting artist friend the other day and she had a really sizeable bucket filled with oil paint tubes sitting beside her palette. Some of the tubes were so squeezed out and folded up that I wondered if there was anything
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  • Art for Thought: Defining Realism
    Attempting to define realism or to clarify the various styles of representational painting can be a challenging task. When writing about today's painters, I always hesitate to use words like "classical," "realist," "contemporary
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  • Your Online Portfolio--What Not to Do with It
    Your website can be a terrific online portfolio . But there are definitely ways to not use your website when marketing art. An initial temptation for many artists is to find as many gallery e-mail addresses as they can and send out their website information
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  • 3 Tips So You Don't Wipe Out on Smooth Washes
    I am rolling my eyes with embarrassment when I tell you that when I first saw watercolor paintings with wide expanses of color I assumed that these were applied and then wiped out and smoothed over after they were laid down. I had no idea that there were
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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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  • Not Created Equal
    Not all art competitions are created equal. There are some that are themed art contests, and others are more open-ended about narrative. One art competition could have an open call for artists, and another could require its participants to submit work
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  • What's in a Nose?
    I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that successful portraiture is successful when the portrait artist, foremost, captures a likeness. Yes, I ardently believe that there has to be something more to the story—a
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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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  • Zero-Point Perspective—Ever Hear of It?
    There's no shame in your game if you haven't heard of this kind of perspective drawing ...or lack thereof. I kind of pride myself on knowing a good bit about how to draw perspective (although my actual execution of a perspective drawing is usually
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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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  • Coming Soon: Summer Issue of Drawing
    I thought I'd share a sneak peek of the new issue of Drawing , on sale soon! The amazing cover drawing is by British artist Greg Eason . In my opinion, the drawing is even better inside the magazine--on the cover it's cropped, and there's
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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, Summer 2012
    Drawing includes many types of art, and to a great extent, what is considered to be drawing is a personal choice. In this issue, we look at artists working in nontraditional drawing styles and media, whose work can expand our perception of what drawing can be.
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  • 4 Tips to Get a Gallery to Call You Back
    I don't believe that gallery representation defines an artist or even makes one a professional, but if you are interested in pursuing that kind of relationship with a gallery there are a few tips to keep in mind. Make a solid connection. All the artists
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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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  • Painting of the Month for August--Check It Out!
    Hello August, and hello Facebook Painting of the Month ! Check to see who is on our radar this month and wish them congrats! Enjoy!
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  • 3 Bad Art Habits to Break Right Now
    I don't mean to be an alarmist, but there are certain habits that artists develop when oil painting that can be detrimental to the larger arc of their professional progress. None of us intend to pick up bad practices but routine and absentmindedness
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  • 3 Tips on Finding a Place to Make Your Art
    There are people who can sleep anywhere--in a car, on a couch, even standing up. I'm not one of those people. And it is the same for when I find the time to make art--I can't just plop down and do it anywhere. It doesn't feel right, and I
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  • Simple, Solid Shapes of Color
    Greetings everyone, Hello from Incamminati in the fine city of Philadelphia! A few days ago marked the fourth day of the Intensive Workshop being led by oil painter Lea Colie Wight , one of the senior Incamminati instructors, and a rising star in the
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  • I Coulda Been a Contender!
    It's that time again: the time for nations big and small to meet and lay claim to their dominance based on overinflated biceps--um, I mean, athletic prowess. I'm talking about the Olympics, of course. Whether you're an avid Games-watcher or
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  • This Sci-Fi Guru Can Draw
    I'm totally a sci-fi junkie and H.R. Giger is truly a master artist in the genre of fantastic realism. I first came across his work through his designs for Alien . Lately, with the release of Prometheus , his art came up on my radar again. Now, his
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  • Making Money with Your Art
    It's not an unreal aspiration to make money by selling your oil painting artwork or watercolors, but it will take a significant amount of work in two areas: 1) Your art. While it is possible to make money off of art that isn't particularly good
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  • He’s a Water Whisperer
    Every now and then an artist's body of work will resonate with me as being amazing, incredible, and just right not because the paintings or sculptures show technical skill or I'm moved by the subject matter, but because the artist seems to have
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  • May I Introduce Jeffrey Watts?
    Jeffrey Watts: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Jeffrey R. Watts is a southern California native. Growing up in rural San Diego county with an artist father, Watts demonstrated an early aptitude for the visual arts. After an injury cut short his
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  • May I Introduce Jennifer McChristian?
    Jennifer McChristian: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Jennifer McChristian was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. In 1986 she and her family took permanent residence in Los Angeles. In 1990 she earned a B.F.A with honors from Otis Parsons Art
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  • May I Introduce Michael Klein?
    Michael Klein: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Karina's Rose by Michael Klein, oil painting. Michael Klein is a young artist in the NovoRealist movement (new realism), creating melancholic oil painting art that has a distinct and haunting
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  • May I Introduce Daniel E. Greene?
    Daniel E. Greene: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Daniel E. Greene is a former instructor of painting at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York, both in Manhattan. He is the author of the book Pastel , which was
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  • May I Introduce Ken Backhaus?
    Ken Backhaus: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Kenn Backhaus was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and spent much of his childhood on the family farm near Burnett, Wisconsin. His fondness for nature became the catalyst for his art. Backhaus' parents
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  • May I Introduce Ken Auster?
    Ken Auster: Weekend with the Masters Instructor Clearing Skies by Ken Auster, oil painting. Ken Auster grew up with his feet deeply implanted in the sands of Southern California beaches. Caught up in the surfing culture of the 1960s, Auster ate, slept
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  • May I Introduce Juliette Aristides?
    Juliette Aristides: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Alexis by Juliette Aristides, oil painting. Juliette Aristides is a Seattle-based painter who seeks to understand and convey the human spirit through art. Aristides is the founder of and an instructor
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  • Soft Lines and No Tension
    I'm not a napping kind of person. When I'm up, I'm up and I want to be doing something or on the go. That's usually the kind of body drawing that I'm pulled to as well--muscles torqued, body indicating action, and an underlying sense
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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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  • A Portfolio of Passion
    When I had the chance to interview artist Gregory Manchess for our May 2012 "Fantasy Issue" of American Artist , I could barely contain the nerdy little kid who still lives inside of me. Manchess works with the technical skills of a classical
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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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  • Do I Have to Be a Fulltime Artist to Be a Real Artist?
    Given what we've discussed in the last two articles, Am I an Artist? and Am I a Real Artist ? Not to mention Part-Time Artists Are Artists, Too --you probably have a pretty good idea of what my answer to this one will be, but let's talk about
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  • Sketching the Wild Wilderness
    If art was a place on the map, pencil sketching would be its somewhat lawless backcountry. Sketching is all about freedom from rules and learning how to sketch what's in front of you no matter how unexpected. That's why sketching seem like the
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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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  • Put a Caption to This Artsy Photo and Win!
    I love, love, love the New Yorker 's back page--where they give you an illustration and you write in with a caption that you think goes with the image. Some are funny, some are curious, some are just plain silly, but it just goes to show the power
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  • Life As YOU Know It
    When an artist chooses to work representationally, he or she inevitably has to take a stance on the use of photographs and the artistic merits of photorealism. Whether perusing a workshop catalog or engaged in a debate with fellow colleagues, the question
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  • Traditional, Unconventional, and Just Plain Bizarre
    You can tell a lot about an artist's point of view by how they draw people . It sounds simple but in fact the diversity of vision and execution is pretty vast. There are contemporary artists out there practicing in a traditional vein dating back to
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  • American Artist Magazine, September 2012
    Education plays a major role in our development as artists, and by extension has a significant impact on all visual culture. In this issue, we explore the history of art education and visit a range of schools and programs that can help guide your study and teaching plans.
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  • Another Question That Never Goes Away
    "Am I a Real Artist?" This question is slightly different from last week's question , in which nuclear physicists and non-nuclear physicists ask if they are artists--the addition of the word "real" adds new dimension, along the
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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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  • Art For Thought: Student or Convert?
    Because this issue of American Artist focuses on art education, I thought it would be interesting to explore the teacher-student relationship, particularly what happens after a student completes a course of study at an academy or an apprenticeship with
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  • Words of a Winner
    The winners of our Self-Portrait Cover Competition are featured in the September issue of American Artist, and they share advice about how to paint the figure and how to maintain a successful painting practice. When we asked David Tanner, the winner of
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  • Drawn to the Extraordinary
    Painters and draftsmen alike puzzle through perspective drawing issues. They almost have to if they want to establish any kind of sense of space in their work. Without linear perspective, all that remains is the flatness of the surface-and no artists
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  • The Question That Never Goes Away
    "Am I an Artist?" I can't help but wonder how many nuclear physicists get up out of bed each morning and ask themselves whether they are nuclear physicists. Granted, if one is a nuclear physicist, one has concrete evidence of the fact--education
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  • Artists and Artistes
    An artiste is something you don't want to be, that is, if you consider yourself an artist. While it sounds akin to archaic words like poetess or authoress, which in years passed denoted a female poet or author, an artiste is a "sort of"
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  • Workshop: Professional Practices
    In this extra-length special issue, American Artist takes you through the business of being an artist, including advice for securing commissions and information on how you can use the internet to reach your professional goals. We also visit master workshops from artists such as Bo Bartlett and Donald
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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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  • Dawn, Day, Dusk, Darkness
    Plein air artists are the first to tell you that you can go back to the same site over and over again during different times of day and it is like being in a whole other place. Light does that! It can turn a bright and sunny scene into a murky and mysterious
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  • The Beginning of the Affair
    We had a run of some pretty severe thunderstorms in the New York City area recently, and as a father of three, that's terrifying. Nothing can be worse than three kids under the age of five locked up in a house for a day, especially when the thermometer
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  • George Washington Looks Studly
    When I think of one iconic American oil painting , Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emmanuel Leutze always come to my mind. I love talking to people about the work because it is so polarizing--some love it but some people absolutely hate it. So here's
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  • Part-Time Artists Are Artists, Too
    Last week we talked about whether "real" artists take workshops (they can, and do). Now let's consider whether you have to make your living full-time as an artist in order to be considered one. Many of us hold down other jobs while we pursue
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  • Awesome, Famous, and Get to Do What You Want
    Over the weekend, a friend of mine joked that an artist's ultimate goal should be something like 1) making work that is awesome, 2) being famous or having people appreciate your work so you can make a living doing it, and 3) doing what you want--meaning
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  • From the Window to the Wall
    I've always wondered how an artist decides how to paint the background of an artwork. Did Sargent--who painted everything, even air, with volume and texture--employ certain painting techniques for this section of his works? Are there actual painting
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  • Painting on Panels
    Focusing on traditional painting methods and their contemporary application including encaustic used in the Fayum region of ancient Egypt, egg tempera from early Renaissance Siena and oil painting from Renaissance Venice is a way to connect your studio
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  • I Am Captivated--I Hope You Are Too
    I have always loved charcoal drawings. A few years ago, I came across a book of charcoal figure drawings by Henry Yan , who was then an instructor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I immediately bought two copies of the book--one to keep
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  • Have You Met Édouard Vuillard?
    There are many wonderful exhibitions happening in New York City this summer, and one of the shows that has left a lasting impression with me is "Édouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940" at The Jewish Museum. Visiting this
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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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  • Resistance, Rejection, and Recovery...Phases of an Artist's Life.
    Sometimes the hardest thing to do is that thing we have to do. Resistance...I call it the "R" word. It gets me in trouble more often than not. And, crazy as it may seem, it is usually my own resistance I find myself fighting against. I want
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  • Are You a Real Artist?
    I chatted with a watercolor painting workshop student the other day who sighed, "I'm not a real artist. I probably never will be." "Why?" I asked. "First, because I'm still taking painting workshops and learning. Second
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  • AAA: Abstraction is an Asset to Your Art
    Abstraction is a key part of how you paint or draw anything. It is seeing completely with the eye, and not allowing the brain to contextualize what we are seeing. But turning off the brain is no small task! I've found that painting with acrylics has
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  • Centerfold Models Don't Come Along Every Day
    The number one strategy for still life painting and drawing that professional artists have recommended to me or have explained to art students within my hearing (yes, I'm a major eavesdropper) is that you should not settle for the first object that
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  • A Votre Sante--To Your Health
    Watercolor Painting Step-by-Step Demonstration Rousillon is a sleepy village in the Luberon region of Provence, well-known for its ochre mines that provided the pigments for the manufacture of paints, including the ones we artists use. On our last workshop
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  • More Portable, Less Messy
    The size, clarity, and portability of an iPad begs for it to be used as a digital oil painting canvas or sketchbook page, and now you can do just that. I'm consistently amazed at the apps for artists that are being released on smartphones and tablets
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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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  • Attitude Is Everything
    We've all had those moments when the details and concerns of keeping all the plates spinning distracts us from the one thing, the most important thing, that those of us who are creative people must do--create. Even doing chores that are pleasurable
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  • Is Art a Luxury?
    Let's talk about this term, luxury, first. A luxury is something that you don't really need, and by that definition, lots of things fall into this category. We need shelter; we need protection from the elements; we need food; we need water; we
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  • How Did They Get It To Look Like That?
    Have you ever looked at an abstract art piece or oil painting genre scene or pastel seascape and wonder, how'd they do that?! Chances are the answer lies somewhere in mixed media. Art that tends to defy our eyes does so for a reason--it isn't
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  • Ahoy Matey! Your Free eBook on Painting Water Has Arrived!
    Being outdoors revitalizes us in a number of ways. You can relax and laze away the day in the shade, climb the tallest peak in sight, or be awe-inspired by the waterways around you. Of late, I am definitely in the latter camp. A good friend of mine has
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  • A Grumman Fighter Plane Crash Lands
    The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Presents Work by Emerging Artist Jordan Griska for Lenfest Plaza In the newly constructed Lenfest Plaza located adjacent to Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), artist Jordan Griska
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  • What Is Grisaille and Why Do We Care?
    When I discovered grisaille oil painting I thought I'd gone to heaven. Learning how to oil paint is a lot of fun, but it is also just a lot . There is so much to deal with--getting your forms right, steering toward an interesting composition, brushwork
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  • Art for Thought: The Golden Land of Opportunity
    California has long been seen as a land of opportunity. People have been flocking there since the Gold Rush of 1849, which brought close to 300,000 settlers to the state and incited an economic and cultural boom of epic proportions. For artists, the attraction
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  • The Self Taught Artist – Who Isn’t?
    Some artists make a big deal out of being self taught, but truth of the matter is, all artists are self taught. The difference between the two is encapsulated in two questions: Are you learning oil painting for example only from yourself, just from what
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  • Struggle, Overpaint, Layer, Sand, Soul-Search
    When you can do something well, it can be difficult to set it aside or modify that skill for the good of your art. John Evans is an American artist who admits to battling the tendency to overwork his oil paintings, sliding between depiction and evocation
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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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  • Plein Air Watercolor Survival Guide
    When plein air painting , one of the most enjoyable and facile medias I've found to work with has to be watercolors. Hands down. The supplies are minimal, you can paint quickly and move from place to place making sketches of what catches your interest
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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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  • It's Stilleven, Nature Morte, Dead Nature, or Still Life
    The art of still life painting is a time-honored one that has been around since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. Still life paintings were often used to adorn the interiors of Egyptian tombs with the belief that these depictions of food and
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  • Watercolor, Summer 2012
    In this issue, we reveal the finalists in our self-portrait cover competition and look at the atmospheric landscapes of David Dewey.
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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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  • Forget the Finishing Touches
    I love Masterpiece Theater on PBS. Recently the movie Birdsong aired--a love story about a soldier on the battlefield of World War I and the lover he left behind. Claude Renoir Writing by Pierre Auguste Renoir, lithograph, 1902/3. There was a scene from
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  • Inner Visions: Women Artists of California
    Mural From the Oaks Hotel by Jessie Arms Botke, 1953, oil on canvas with gold leaf, 82½ x 173½. Courtesy The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California. The Irvine Museum in California is shining a powerful spotlight on the artwork of talented female
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  • Finding Your Space
    If you do not have an official, proper, "real" painting studio, don't feel bad. Your studio can be in a corner of your dining room. Many people's are. Or it can be a section of the garage where you make your oil painting art ; a spare
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  • Checking Your Proportions, Drawing Three-Dimensionally, and Winning Competitions
    It Kinda Draws the Eye In by Matt Tucker, 2011, graphite and white charcoal, 7½ x 14. The spring issue of Drawing is now available, and it's full of resources for artists, especially if you are into figure drawing or figure painting. Here's
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  • 4 Paintings That Rock & Why
    And what do they all have in common? They are all done with acrylic painting techniques . Peter Drake's Mother W/Out is an unusual but fairly uncomplicated composition that makes the viewer question if the figure is real or a figment. The way the
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  • Wax On, Wax Off!
    I now have my own range of watercolor painting brushes and while going through the process of choosing their design, fond memories came flooding back to me from my time living and studying art in China. There I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderful
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  • The Fugitive Color
    We are big admirers of J. M. W. Turner's work in oil and watercolor, especially his magnificent, ethereal watercolor paintings . Unfortunately many of his paintings are much less vivid today than they were when he painted them. We know this from written
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  • Sometimes You Want People to Stare
    When I was in Art History 101, my professor touted the competition for the design of the Baptistry doors in Florence in 1401 as one of the greatest historic art competitions of all time. In one corner we have the young Lorenzo Ghiberti, only 21 at the
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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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  • The New Three-Day Rule
    Regardless of the kind of art you practice, if you have any hopes of making a living at it, you'll eventually have to share your creations, whether at an open mic, in a YouTube video, or putting together an oil painting group show with artist friends
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  • Classic, Commercial, and an Art World Constant
    You don't have to think terribly hard to figure out that the painting genre that has all of these characteristics in common is floral painting . It is a practice that has inspired artists to create beautiful, graceful paintings for centuries, but
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  • The Right Stuff
    I work with knitters, and a student recently told me, "I don't like the way my stuff turns out." When I asked her what kind of yarn she used, she replied, "Oh, I just picked up something cheap. I didn't want to spend money on something
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  • That Time of Year
    Recently we added an informative article to the members' area of The Artist's Road called "Understanding Light in the Landscape: The Carlson Theory of Angles." It gives the student a crucial tool to make sense of the confusing array
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  • He Makes Scribbling Seem Worthwhile
    Some artists, you love what they draw. But with every landscape drawing of Georges Seurat, it is the way that he draws that makes all the difference. Take any of his sketches and chances are it is fairly simple in composition. There are very few elements
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  • Sharing Tea and Portraits with Natalie Italiano
    Recently the students at Studio Incamminati went to New York. I chose not to go, instead wandering around the school looking at the drawings and paintings on the student walls. Natalie Italiano , an instructor in the core program as well as a Fellow there
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  • What Do Painters Really Do?
    Do you know how frustrating it is to love something, but not necessarily know everything about it? That's sometimes the way I feel about color. I have such a visual lust for color--learning new colors, discovering new paint mixes, figuring out how
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  • A Small Price to Pay for a Life Lived Fully
    As an artist, I often feel that I am more sensitive than others, or perhaps I am more in touch because I need to be so that my work will flow genuinely from my heart and allow me to respond from a deeper place. That is one of the reasons that I faced
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  • Grandpa Is Wearing His Batman Costume Again
    Earlier this week I was lucky enough to attend the opening of Jason Bard Yarmosky's solo show "Elder Kinder" at Lyons Wier Gallery, in New York City. It's a terrific painting exhibition, and it got me thinking about how an artist can
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  • His Feet Seem to Grow Into His Neck
    Imagine life with no television, no computers, and where books are a rarity. The power of art would increase exponentially because you wouldn't be inundated with visual images all the time. The handful of artworks you might see in your entire life
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  • Is It You??????
    The Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month has been decided. Check in at the Facebook page to see who it is and help us celebrate with the winner. Enjoy!
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  • Painting on Autopilot
    I can't think of a single parent who lolls in the passenger seat of the car, detached while observing their teenaged driver's inaugural foray into the city streets. Sometimes we rest, relax and dream--not, however, when we are actively painting
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  • Where Gesture Is King
    Comics, of course! Back in college I got a little bit obsessed with the history of comics, mostly as an art appreciator, although I was also fascinated by how much social commentary was injected into the narratives and stories. But my interest in comics
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  • Artist Mother, Artist Son
    My mom is an artist, but she's nothing like me. For all that, we're both artists. If you want to know where I got my artist genes, I got most of them from her. Genes alone don't make an artist, though. Making art is kind of a stupid career
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  • Drawing, Spring 2012
    Master instructor Dan Thompson teaches you how to combine numerous measurement and proportional strategies during gesture and figure drawing to create rewarding, unified results.
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  • American Artist Magazine, July/August 2012
    In this issue of American Artist, we look at both the plein air and figurative work of the California art scene. Articles feature the upcoming “On Location in Malibu” exhibition, the philosophies and artwork of NovoRealism, Weekend With the Masters instructor Jennifer McChristian, and the
    Read More >>
  • Get It While You Can: New Free eBook on Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques
    In its most elementary form, a pen and ink drawing is stark black marks against a white surface. No dilution of color, no shades of gray. But artists who've spent time inking their way across a page know that drawing with ink can actually be an incredibly
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  • Don’t Struggle with Perspective Drawings Like I Did
    Can you think back and remember what it was like to really struggle with a concept? I've got no pride. I've done this a ton of times--riding my bike, algebra, Avogadro's number...and perspective drawing . I thought once I got to college and
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  • It's Not What You Know--It's Who You Know
    I've come to realize that that old saying "It's not always what you know, but who you know," is spot on. Even at American Artist magazine . Luckily, "we" know a lot of people, and as a result we have remarkable access to some
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  • Getting Trashed
    I've heard of painting for yourself, for school, for work, but painting for the trash can?! Artist and watercolor painting instructor Jean Haines explains why working this way isn't rubbish at all. Enjoy! The aim of being an artist is to create
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  • Variation By Subject
    Emma Twice , 2009, oil on canvas, 48 x 48. All works by Daniel Maidman. Over the past few posts, we've been discussing shocks to the system as a way of avoiding growing complacent and thoughtless in your art. I shared two of my own tricks— varying
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  • Not Painting
    The Norwegian Artist and I have a friend who specializes in painting small pet animals...that is, when he paints. While to paint regularly, you don't need a huge space, you'll find yourself happiest with a designated one. On the Horizon by Steve
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  • Here's One From the Heart
    In their day, the Hudson River School landscape artists were so popular with the public that people would line up and pay a fair amount of money just to view a single painting. Our plein air blogger Jennifer King shares her insights on why the works of
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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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  • Words of Wisdom From Antonio López García
    I'm sure many of you are aware of the Spanish living legend Antonio López García, but I'm ashamed to say I was not familiar with his artwork until recently. And as with any new discovery, once you become aware of a new person, place
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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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  • Value Division in Landscape Painting
    Landscape values are easier to understand when viewed as falling into four major divisions or zones. Reading values in landscapes is somewhat different from reading values in other subjects. All subjects have a light source, but the source in a landscape
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  • Silver Bullets and Miracle Pills
    Different people attend painting workshops with varying expectations, but the ones who get the most out of the experience are those who recognize that workshops are not: A workshop gives you the opportunity to start at one point in your artistic journey
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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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  • Now Everyone Squeeze Together
    It's funny how I have gotten so immersed in art that I tend to project very human emotions or ideas to inanimate objects in paintings and drawings. Still life painting objects that don't spatial connect in some way most often won't connect
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  • American Artist Magazine, June 2012
    In collaboration with the Hispanic Society of America, we take a trip to Spain, where we consider the legacy of that country’s greatest masters. We explore the working methods of Sorolla, the lasting influence of Goya, and the techniques Velázquez used to create portraits of such power.
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  • Toning Your Canvas
    A few weeks ago I had a studio session with Lea Colie Wight , a great painter who had a really lovely tone to her oil painting surface that many of us loved and wanted to know more about. I wanted to share that info with you! Canvas Toning Process The
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  • Cave Paintings in the Digital Era
    Whiskers. Spinach. Drip. Beyoncé. How easy do you think it is to draw those words? How about when you have to draw them on a 2-by-3-inch screen with just your fingertips? Draw Something is the new hot app for iPhones and iPads--it's essentially
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  • Get Your Work Seen By 100 People a Day
    Yep, it is a pretty lofty goal. I know it. But there are so many incredible artists out there who are doing incredible work and deserve more visibility! Here are a few ways that you can elevate your artistic profile in the wider world. By no means are
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  • Painting Into the Light
    One of the major challenges of painting outdoors is the need to gather enough visual information about our subject in a brief moment of perfect light. In rushing to capture the light in nature, it is easy to lose those subtle details and tonal changes
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  • How Do You Pick the Right Workshop?
    Whether or not you like to be around a lot of people is one thought to consider when you choose the right workshop for you. Descent into Bryce by Steve Henderson, 18 x 18, oil painting, also available as a limited edition signed print . Let's assume
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  • He's So Sketchy
    But in the very best way! When I was trolling for artists who draw like they paint and vice versa, Giovanni Boldini immediately came to mind. His mark making is a tour de force, no matter if he is working in oils, pastels, or when charcoal painting. Spanish
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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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  • Prix de Rome, American Style
    In France in 1663, during the reign of Louis XIV, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture instituted the Prix de Rome, an art competition award that offered the winning artist a stay of several years at the Palazzo Mancini, in Rome, at the expense
    Read More >>
  • April's Painting of the Month
    Check out the April Painting of the Month on Facebook and wish the winner congratulations! Join us there too for a daily art fix! Enjoy,
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  • Bodies Come Crashing to the Ground
    Drawing human anatomy can be an adventure if you take it to the limits. Artist and draftsman Leah Yerpe certainly does. Her large- and small-scale drawings feature figures freefalling, tumbling, and twisting as they swoop across the page. Pleiades by
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  • The Lost Art
    Losing a painting somewhere is never fun, but losing a good painting can drive one to temporary distraction. While teaching our plein air painting workshop in Rocky Mountain National Park last September, I was demonstrating the direct-painting method
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  • Should You Take a Workshop?
    I deliberately entitled this post using a word that I have eliminated from my vocabulary: Should. Like sunrise to a new day, the right workshop can lead you to fresh new beginnings in your art pursuits. Awakening by Steve Henderson, 24 x 40, oil painting
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  • I'll Be the Judge of That
    As the editor of Artist Daily, I constantly experience art on the screen of my computer. It just isn't possible for me to go everywhere to see everything that I would like to in person, but images in any given online art gallery or art blog have come
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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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  • Is It Ever Too Late to Start Painting?
    Not if artist Claudia Seymour has anything to say about it. This year I had the pleasure of meeting Seymour at the Salmagundi Club in New York City to create two three-hour DVDs with her, including this year's The Art of Painting Flowers in Oil .
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  • Art For Thought: Great Artists, Great Paintings
    A Summer Night by Winslow Homer, 1890, oil on canvas, 30 3/16 x 40 3/16. The word "great" (or "greatest") can be pretty subjective, and lately I've been thinking about how to better qualify the term. To celebrate our 75 th Anniversary
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  • Think I Can Get Batman to Sit For a Portrait?
    Portrait painting is serious business. Truly, there is a lot at stake for the many professional portrait artists out there who paint dignitaries, presidents, and the like. But portraiture can also be incredibly fun! A show I recently saw at Elisa Contemporary
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  • Licking the Dog's Nose
    A friend mentioned to me that someone challenged her to read, within one year, a particularly long and demanding book. "I didn't really want to do it," she confessed. "But he's knowledgeable and he was insistent, so I did."
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  • Looking Without Getting Lost
    Lea Colie Wight drawing of a seated female. I am sure I have said this before, but it's true and deserves repeating. Watching great artists at work can be so instructive, especially if they follow a general process of work. Lea Colie Wight does exactly
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  • Behind Every Good Painting Is a Good Still Life
    The Sensorium by Walton Ford, 2003, watercolor, gouache, pencil and ink on paper, 152.9 x 302.3 cm. Yes, that is a complete exaggeration. But my point is that a lot of times in the art world people tend to silo or separate genres of painting to such an
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  • The Agony and the Ecstasy
    A few weeks ago an artist friend of mine rotated his wrist and made a wincing face after he had finished working on a quick pencil drawing , and it made me realize that drawing isn't just fun and games. It can cause strain in the hand, wrist, elbow
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  • Pick Up a Few Pointers from This Dutch Master
    A willingness to experiment with perspective and style is often the determining factor between a competent artist and a master. A new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art , "Van Gogh Up Close," takes a compelling look at the choices
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  • How I Built an Art Network in My Hometown
    Patricia Watwood is a skilled oil painter and incredibly deserving of a lot of praise for the art career she has built for herself. She's also quite willing to share her approach to building a network for her art, as she attests below. Enjoy! The
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  • Afraid of the Dark?
    Carnations flowing in a loose watercolor with exciting watermarks and color effects evident within the composition. I have just taken a week of watercolor painting workshops and I came across a problem that many watercolor artists have in common. Many
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  • Being a Copy Cat Is a Good Thing
    It's funny when you think about it but the art world is built on copying. However, unlike plagiarism in journalism or literature, copying master drawings is something many artists have incorporate into their studies for centuries because it is an
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  • It Means Never Having to Say ‘No’
    One of my first self-assigned duties at Artist Daily was to get out in the local American art community and see the kind of work that is being made all over the country, what kind of art techniques are gaining in popularity, and how artists are communicating
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  • Are Artists Born—Or Made—To Mix Media?
    "It may seem controversial, but I really think artists are born, not made," says Meagan Shein. Definitely bold words, especially coming from someone who has advanced degrees in fine art and art history. "It doesn't mean that the innate
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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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  • Is That Goat Wearing a Pink Suit of Armor?
    Whether or not Thomas Woodruff's paintings are to your taste in terms of subject matter is one thing—although who doesn't love maniacal butterflies and tigers prowling through lush, jewel-tone landscapes?—but the artist definitely
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  • Same Subject, Different Visions
    On Location with Michael Stasinos and Mitchell Albala It never ceases to amaze me how unique each painter's vision can be—in everything from the subjects they choose to the color choices they make or the type of painterly handwriting they use
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  • Tell Me What It Feels Like
    Anting by George Boorujy, 2011, ink on paper, 55 1/2 x 108. That's always the statement that rings in my head when I focus on how to draw animals because in my mind, drawing animals is all about physical appearance and movement. A bear, an owl, and
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  • Plaid, Polka Dots, and Prints
    So often with still life paintings, we focus on the objects in the painting first—and rightly so; they do take center stage. But still life artists know that backgrounds can play a major role in the look and feel of a painting as well. A still life
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  • Is It Better to Learn From One Artist or From Many?
    While I was working recently on American Artist's new special issue, The Complete Painter's Handbook ( order now! ), I had a little debate with myself. The question at hand: If you are working to learn how to paint, is it better to focus on following
    Read More >>
  • Here Comes a Video Series on Portrait Painting
    Portrait artist and painter David McLeod is amidst an exciting project: creating a 10-part video series on portraiture . McLeod takes viewers through the steps that all portrait artists go through to create a compelling, visually appealing portrait, but
    Read More >>
  • Spare Me All the Dirty Details
    Moonrise, La Giudecca, Venice by JMW Turner, 1829, watercolor painting, 8 7/8 x 11 1/4. Delicacy, luminousness, light, and color--these are what you can expect when you look at a watercolor painting . But details? Heck no--or at least, not much. With
    Read More >>
  • Why Can't You Be Blue Over Me?
    Where would painting be without the color blue? It is so easy to obtain artist paints of any hue these days that we forget that in the time of both Michelangelo and Titian, a pure, vibrant blue pigment could only be made by laboriously cooking and hand
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  • Announcing the Winner of Drawing Magazine's 2012 Self-Portrait Cover Competition
    Drawing magazine and Artist Daily are proud to announce that Beñat Iglesias Lopez is the winner of Drawing magazine's self-portrait cover competition. Autoteatro No. 2 (Homage to A. Ametzka and G. Martinikorena) by Beñat Iglesias Lopez
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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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  • If This Sounds Harsh, Forgive Me...
    Below you'll find artist and blogger Jennifer King's discussion of when a plein air painting can be too real. I don't think she's being harsh at all, but you'll have to decide for yourself. Enjoy! ***** I think it's time for some
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  • Art for Thought: My Eye It Is A-Changin’
    There was a time in the not-so-distant past when my interest in art history stopped at Post-Impressionism. When I read art books and visited museums, I was instinctually drawn to artwork from the Italian Renaissance through Impressionism and curious to
    Read More >>
  • Live My Dream
    When I was six years old, I won an art competition in my local newspaper. As my reward, my drawing appeared in the comics section, right near Hagar the Horrible and Beatle Bailey. I didn't receive any sort of monetary prize, but I didn't care
    Read More >>
  • American Artist Magazine, May 2012
    The pursuit of commercial and fine art has been explored by many artists, including those working in a fantasy or symbolist mode. In this issue, we look at James Gurney, of Dinotopia fame; comic-book-artist-turned-portraitist Everett Raymond Kinstler; and Howard Pyle.
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  • Don’t Use That Tone With Me
    The appeal of tonal drawing is that it truly embodies visual subtlety. Instead of being the domain of line, the techniques that lead to a successful tonal drawing reside in value and shape. But learning how to draw tonality has been, for me, a hard road
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  • Watercolor, Spring 2012
    In this issue, we look at a few artists who are doing new and exciting things with mixed watermedia, including the 44th Annual American Watercolor Society Gold Medal winner, Jeannie McGuire.
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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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  • Want to Show Painting Improvement Now?
    Portraiture is, in my humble opinion, the domain of artistic masters. All the greats, such as Velazquez, Rembrandt, Goya, and Sargent, can be counted as incredibly skilled and innovative portrait artists in addition to being pretty brilliant at everything
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  • The Truth About Drawing Faces in One Free eBook!
    Woman with a Hat (detail) by Henri Matisse, 1905, oil on canvas. Archimedes (detail) by Jose de Ribera, 1630, oil painting. Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, 1888, oil painting. A few days ago I was hanging out with a mixed bag of artists. And by mixed
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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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  • Will This Work Even If I Hate Geometry?
    Cube figures allow me to focus on the basic shapes of the body. This can lead to a better understanding of the body's form and the creation of works that are incredibly natural, such as Lea Colie Wight's drawing, Kate , conte on paper, 17 x 23
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  • Putting the Air in Plein Air
    I don't care how many times I see Monet's paintings, they never cease to inspire me. I just had the great pleasure of seeing the new Monet show at the Cincinnati Art Museum with my art buddies, and especially for those of us plein-air artists
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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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  • Your Paintings Reviewed By the Finest Artists in the Country
    The SourceTek cover art competition opened March 1. It's always an exciting prospect to have your work seen by artists whom you respect and admire. SourceTek, maker of canvas panels, plein air panels and more, certainly agrees. For fourteen years
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  • He’s So Freakin’ Formal!
    Yellow Pen by Nat Meade, oil on linen, 24 x 20, 2011. Focusing on formal concerns in art does not make an artist uptight or unimaginative. Quite the opposite actually—pursuing matters of pattern, line, space, and color can prove to jumpstart free
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  • Is That a Six-Pack? An Eight-Pack?!
    Core Values: The Belvedere Torso and the Birth of the Renaissance The Belvedere Torso The earliest modern record of the Belvedere Torso dates from the 1430s. What we now view as an icon of ancient Greek civilization had just resurfaced in Rome. It was
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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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  • Artistic Keys to the Kingdom: Flexibility and Discipline
    Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Steve Henderson Summer Breeze by Steve Henderson, oil on canvas, 24 x 24. Artist Daily: Tell me about your oil painting process . Are there rules you adhere to or just the opposite? Steve Henderson: Although I do follow
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  • Artists Who Bring the Bling!
    I love the idea of the recent Museum of Art and Design show, "The Artist As Jeweler," because I love art...and I looooove jewelry. But more than being able to indulge in my obsession for bracelets, the exhibition really shows that artists are
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  • Beating the Winter Blues
    Call it the blues, call it the doldrums, call it what you will--it seems that many of us plein-air painters go through a slump about this time of year. Even if the weather is good enough for painting outdoors, nature isn't always at her finest when
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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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  • Reflections on Creating an Artistic Body of Work
    Inkhead , 2009, oil on canvas, 29 x 16. Dorothy , 2010, oil on canvas, 14 x 14. Anakin Padawan , 2009, oil on canvas, 44 x 28. I have been blogging this past year about preparing for my exhibit, "Myths and Individuals." Now, it's time for
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  • Seeing and Drawing...in Italy
    I really think artistic breakthroughs happen most often when you are outside of your usual mode of working, and that includes where and how you work. Think about the times when inspiration has struck you. For me, these moments are often when I am outside
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  • 3 Techniques Moved Me to the Head of the Class
    At least I feel that way. I set myself a goal this week—I wanted to learn a few new watercolor painting techniques because I feel like when I contemplate working in watercolor, I only know the "first gear" approaches. I feel like Tim Saternow
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  • Art Dieting: Skip Dinner and Paint It Instead
    When I was young and taking art classes, I was always stumped when my teachers would let us decide individually what to paint. There were just too many creative options and I would simply shut down. One time I went home in a funk, stressed out about what
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  • Painting for the (Trash) Bin
    The aim of being an artist is the ability to create. But with this desire of wishing to constantly achieve wonderful paintings that can be framed or exhibited comes an enormous amount of pressure on our shoulders. We expect to always succeed in our goal
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  • If You’ve Been House Hunting, You Know What I Mean
    Have you ever been looking for a new place to live, visiting different apartments or houses, and every time you experience a new reaction to a place and its spaces? It always happens to me. Either I love the architecture and light in this one, or the
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  • And At The End of 20 Weeks We Have...a Nose
    You may recall that a few months ago I described my horror at learning from an instructor that we would be working on a small drawing of a facial feature for 20 weeks . Novice that I am, 20 weeks seemed an inordinate length of time to spend on a small
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  • Pharaoh, It's the Great Pyramid of the Head. Duh!
    Structural drawing by Dan Thompson, mixed media, 15 x 25, 2010. Self-Portrait After Palmer by Dan Thompson, mixed media, 19 x 25, 2003. I've taken notes from a lot of art instructors and sat in or participated in plenty of drawing classes, but when
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  • Our Newest eBook on Mixed Media Painting Techniques Has Arrived!
    Intimate Gathering by Russell Irwin, 2002, acrylic and torn paper on board, 48 x 60. When I was flipping through the American Artist magazine archives for mixed media art inspiration, I was prepared to do some pretty extensive digging. I assumed that
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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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  • Fish, Lemons & Glass Bowls
    Dutch still life painting set the standard for out-of-this-world virtuosity in the 17th century, and I'll never get over the unusual mix of objects artists chose to depict: food of all kinds, polished silverware and gleaming glass, embroidered and
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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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  • I Heart Contemporary Painters Who Use Classical Methods
    Artists working today that I admire most all usually have one thing in common—they have developed their own unique contemporary practice while still utilizing classical methods. I've come to realize that I have a bias for artwork that has a
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  • Only As Good As the Hand Wielding It
    A painting brush isn't animate. It isn't going to teach me how to paint or go about painting art when no one is looking. It needs the hand of the artist to do its job. Penitent Mary Magdalene by Titian, 1560s, oil on canvas. But one thing a brush—by
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  • Educate + Inspire + Equip
    Old Cedar by Bill Guffey, oil, 18 x 24. Peasant by Joan Langdon, watercolor painting, 10.5 x 11.5. Tomiko by Adriana Guidi, oil on canvas panel, 14 x 18. That's Brian Neher's mantra for his upcoming free art contest , and it is one that I can
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  • Are Your Colors Going to Be "In" This Spring?
    I know it is only January, but I'm already thinking spring! And so is the Pantone Color Institute . The organization has just released their seasonal color report, and while this is specifically written for the fashion and design industry, we art
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  • Hello, February Painting of the Month!
    Come like the Artist Daily page on Facebook and see our February Painting of the Month . Enjoy!
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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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  • It's a First for Us--See What's Coming in the Newest Issue of Drawing Magazine!
    Pages from Sabin Howard's drawing sketchbook and a finished sculpture. We just put a wrap on the winter issue of Drawing —you'll be seeing it in your mailboxes and on newsstands in February, and can order it in the Artist Daily Store as
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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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  • Let Me Arrange Your Life
    The grapes establish dominance in an otherwise bland still life painting setup. Your still life! By following a few key guidelines when creating still life painting setups, you will be on your way to creating successful, dynamic paintings that really
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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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  • The Cosmic Dance en Plein Air
    Spring in the Hills II by John Hulsey, 5 x 7, oil painting. Whenever we get to feeling that there is nothing really new to be discovered in art or the world, we have to keep in mind that the "undiscovered country" often lies in our own backyards
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  • That Dog Won't Hunt
    Cirque Tents by Terri Ford, pastel painting. It's what I thought to myself when I started to look into how to get layers of pastel to build up. It just didn't seem possible, or easily possible. But I did my research, and that dog will hunt! Here
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  • Why Collect Art?
    Children on the Seashore by Joaquin Sorolla, oil on canvas, 1903 . I was once again reading through my copy of the catalog for the 1989 exhibition, The Painter Joaquin Sorolla , and came across this 1933 quote by John Paul Getty in an article called Creative
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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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  • Do It with a Stranger
    Eva Mullarky by Kristin Künc, oil on linen, 9 x 13, 2011. I can be a really hard sell when it comes to portraiture because from a beginner painter's perspective, I'm not always sure how to get the most out of a portrait painting session.
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  • Insane: They've Never Seen Contemporary American Paintings Before!
    Venus Awakes by Patricia Watwood, 2011, oil on canvas, 38 x 34. Karen in White by Paul McCormack, oil on canvas, 40 x 29. Enigma (Self-Portrait) by David Leffel, 2009, oil on canvas, 52 x 34. On Sunday, January 22 nd , the ACOPAL group will celebrate
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  • Drawing Skills that I Can Take Outdoors
    In a recent painting of mine, you can see the sky and clouds are the lightest value, the towering waves and rocks are the darkest, as they are more vertical to the light of the sky. The flat of the ocean is the second lightest of the values, equating
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  • Painting with a Magical Medium
    Astor Place by Emily Falco, watercolor painting, 14 1/2 x 14 1/2, 2009. It warms my heart when I hear artists expressing excitement about their chosen painting medium because artists are the ones in the business of knowing all the ins and outs of their
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  • Art for Thought: Save the Date for...
    The Dog, and the Great White Shark Jaw by Jamie Wyeth The Groom by Daniel Graves Friends by Dan McCaw Save the Date for... American Artist's 75 th Anniversary Exhibition April 2013 | The Salmagundi Club | New York City In celebration of American Artist's
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  • Where’s Your Free eBook on Life Drawing & Drawing Models? Right Here!
    Slumber at Chuckwalla Valley (detail) by Sharon Allicotti, drawing. If art were a banquet, I would constantly be going back for more helpings of life drawing. It is a consistently rewarding artistic experience because I've never met a more inspiring—and
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  • Photograph Your Art Like a Pro
    Our contributing bloggers John Hulsey and Ann Trusty of The Artist's Road wrote a really informative blog about how to get the most out of a photograph of your painting or drawing, and I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy! Film holder frame attached
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  • What Would Rubens Do?
    Leah by Patricia Watwood, pencil on toned paper, 18 x 14, 2011. I have just finished two big projects. Foremost, my show Myths and Individuals opened at the end of October at Saint Louis University Museum of Art. In two months the show will open for it's
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  • A Fresh Foray with New Artists
    I get excited and a bit chagrined whenever I discover oil painters of the past that I've never heard of. I realize that I'm no walking encyclopedia, yet I like to think I've got sound footing in oil painting . But the history of fine art oil
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  • January's Facebook Painting of the Month is here!
    Check out how we are starting the new year with our first Facebook Painting of the Month for 2012 . Enjoy!
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  • Don't Let Your Plein-Air Skills Grow Cold
    Don't give up your plein air focus over the winter months. Try to paint from life indoors and keep sketching. ( Melting Snow by Ben Fenske, 60 x 75, oil on canvas.) For some of us, winter weather is just a bit too unpredictable and chilly to spend
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  • It Calls to Me…My Precious
    Precious by Russell Irwin, paper mosaic. Okay, that might have been a little too Gollum from Lord of the Rings , but Russell Irwin's latest mixed media collage titled Precious is certainly mesmerizing because of the unusual creative process that goes
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  • Paint the Body Parts That Turn You On!
    Back II (Joshua) by Martha Mayer Erlebacher, 2003, oil on canvas, 42 x 42. The human body is beautiful—as a whole and in its parts. Body drawings that accentuate the sensuous lines of the body and the power of the human form are steeped in a knowledge
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  • Why I Workshop
    We spent a lot of painting time along the cliffs outside San Juan. Painting can be a pretty isolating affair, and though I love the alone time spent with my muse, I miss the collective energy that working in a group of like-minded colleagues provides
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  • American Artist Magazine, March/April 2012
    Happy Birthday to us! In our expanded March/April issue, American Artist celebrates its 75th anniversary by revisiting some of the most inspiring artists we’ve covered throughout our history. We also feature our annual workshop and art school directory.
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  • Come Winter, I Head to the Hothouse
    The botanical gardens in Washington, DC, near the Capitol. When I'm visiting family in Virginia during winter, I always make a point to walk through the botanical gardens near the Capitol in Washington, DC. It is one of my favorite places, and the
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  • Working Through My Moods
    BlueBillie by Shen, acrylic on claybord, 18 x 24. I am finding myself in a little bit of a battle with the blues. Whenever I'm feeling down, I find it especially difficult to create. However, I am learning more and more as I get older that it is important
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  • Shrink Your Painting—Does It Still Work?
    Philadelphia Story II--Spires by Sarah Yeoman, watercolor painting, 14 x 20. I don't mean literally shrink it, but if you take a photo of your painting and reduce it to thumbnail size and it still holds together compositionally, you've got a good
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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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  • Such a Diversity of Shapes in Her Landscape Paintings
    Turquoise Sky 3 , acrylic on panel, 5 x 5. All works by Lisa Snow Lady. I give a lot of credit to professional and semi-professional artists who seek out ongoing training or the advice of peers, even after their initial successes. I firmly believe that
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  • A Positively Festive Way to Paint
    Orange and Holly by Alan Bateman, acrylic painting. Alan also won our Move Over Hallmark! Holiday Card contest . It's the time of year for decorated garlands, ribbons and bows, and cheery lights, all of which have me in a festive mood to create a
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  • Art's Highest Achievement--Drawing the Portrait
    There are so many significant milestones that an artist can mark his or her career by, but the one that is most exciting for me is the possibility of drawing people and capturing their likeness, whether it is a certain gesture they have or just the interesting
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  • I Can’t Believe I’m About to Say This, But…
    I plan on spending quality time with the catalog published by the Whitney Museum on Lyonel Feininger ( Gaberndorf II , oil on canvas, 1924, 39 x 30.5). Take this time and don't draw or paint. Okay, I was kind of thinking the world would end if I said
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  • How About Making This Art Promise With Me?
    Painting together with family and friends of all ages can be really rewarding. Art has been a gift in my life. It has allowed me to live more richly and fully than I could otherwise imagine. But I'm especially lucky because art found me; I didn't
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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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  • It's Time for the Painting of the Month
    Hi all, We've chosen the final Facebook Painting of the Month for 2011. Join me in congratulating the artist and here's to twelve more amazing paintings in the New Year!
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  • Ala Carte Your Art
    Grisaille copy of Jacques-Louis David's Patroclus , oil on linen, 48 x 78. At this time of year, we all travel so much that it can be a real challenge to figure out how to bring our painting supplies with us when we visit family and friends. Whether
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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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  • Color That Can Be Saturated and Subtle—Who Knew?
    I adore color—deep ruby reds, bold blues, verdant greens, rich golden yellows...I could go on and on, but one thing that I often forget in my zeal is that color is not just a matter of hue. Saturation and subtle color layers also play a huge part
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  • Art for Thought: Always Respect Truth
    My view of Michelangelo's David in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence, Italy. I recently returned from my first trip to Italy, the inspiring and enriching experiences of which could fill the next year's worth of "Art for Thought"
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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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  • Move Over Hallmark! Holiday Card Contest Winner Announced!!!
    I want to thank all of you for all the wonderful entries for this year's Move Over Hallmark! Holiday Card Contest . Who needs to go buy a holiday card from a drug store when you're as creative as, well, all of you! You all have helped us celebrate
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  • How I Built an Art Network in My Hometown
    The Honorable Clarence Harmon, Mayor of St. Louis by Patricia Watwood, oil on canvas, 24 x 18, oval, 2002. Collection of St. Louis City Hall. Someone recently asked me what I did to get recognized and become part of the art scene in my hometown of St
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  • American Artist Magazine, February 2012
    This issue considers artists who paint the figure in context, such as Martha Erlebacher, who paints figures in classically informed configurations, and acrylic artist John K. Harrell, who offers a demonstration of how he paints city scenes filled with pedestrians, trees, and bright lights.
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  • Your Free Portrait Painting eBook--But I Didn't Get a Chance to Gift Wrap It
    Ariadne by Janet Rogers, watercolor painting. Since coming to Artist Daily, my parents are both super supportive of me and our web community. My mom does her best to get everyone she knows to join us at Artist Daily, and my dad buys me art supplies in
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  • You Paint Them By Not Painting Them?
    T o Be Where There's Life by Ryan Coleman, oil on canvas, 30 x 40, 2010. The coolest thing I ever learned about painting flowers , specifically how to paint a rose, was when a painting teacher told me that you paint them by not painting them. Back
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  • Free Video Lesson on Color Strategies in Plein Air Painting
    This short video is excerpted from a demonstration I gave at my annual plein air painting workshop in Skagit Valley, Washington. ( Gage Academy of Art , July, 2010.) The video talks about painting strategies in general and gives specific examples of the
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  • Surviving the Trauma of an Art Breakdown
    I remind myself that even artistic legends like Michelangelo struggled. When he did the Sistine ceiling in fresco, a medium he wasn't familiar with, the first few sessions were stressful and trying for the artist. But he persevered and created one
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  • Winter 2012
    In this issue we start the new year with the delicate but bold paintings of Law Wai Hin, whose landscapes, still lifes, and floral paintings combine Eastern and Western sensibilities to create a personal vision.
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  • Video Lesson on Using Photos for Studio Landscape Paintings
    Upper Ridge at Dusk , 2011, oil on panel, 18 x 18 . Mt. Shuksan in Sunlight , 2010, oil on panel, 12 x 12. At my April 2011 exhibition at Lisa Harris Gallery, I gave an hour-long presentation on my "In Sunlight" series. This was a special opportunity
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  • Art Can Live on Line Alone
    When I think about how to draw the sights around me, my mind immediately starts envisioning line. For me, it is foundational for any good drawing. And I'm not alone. When I first saw artist Steven Ketchum's work I was amazed by all the ways he
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  • Painting with Dreams, Memories, History and Myths
    Sonata of the Sea--Finale by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1908. One of my favorite movements in art is the Symbolist movement of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The artists were so free in exploring what mattered to them—personal
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  • Painter's Magic 8 Ball--All Your Burning Questions Answered
    Winter Radiance by Claudia Seymour, 2005, pastel, 15 x 11. What sort of fixative, if any, should pastel artists apply to finished works? "Used properly and sparingly, fixative is a godsend," says artist Claudia Seymour. Our experts agree—but
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  • How I Restored Freshness to My Work
    We've been discussing shocking your system to keep your art practice from falling into routines. Another excellent means of accomplishing shock is to switch media. By and large, I work in two media: graphite and white pencil on toned paper, and oil
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  • It's an Excuse to Paint Umbrellas
    The Coming Storm by George Inness, 1879, oil on canvas, 27 1/4 x 41 3/4. Are you as bored of pretty outdoor painting scenes as I am? My eyes just seem to glaze over when I see a plein air painting scene with picture perfect sunlight over an idyllic landscape
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  • 3 Things I've Got to Have to Keep Going
    My family and I at my opening. Cute bunch, right? The show included works from the last 10 years. I know it's been a while since I've written. Let's see--the last time was just when I got back from my summer vacation. And now it's....November
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  • "Let's Get Physical. I Wanna Get Physical..."
    Ugh, after all the holiday eating I've been doing, I should probably go exercise or run laps. But as a warm up I thought I would talk about physicality, power, and movement in oil painting . Maybe this'll be the inspiration I need to get off my
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  • That Painting Just Said ‘Eat Me!’
    This being the day after Thanksgiving, we celebrate leftovers in my house—and pretty much all other activities that result in eating. So I thought, why mess with family tradition? I'm devoting today's column to one subject matter I rarely
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  • Photograph Your Art Like a Pro
    All the hard work and unique vision that we pour into our painting and drawing can result in artwork that we are proud of. The next step is to make an accurate photographic record of our art to share with friends, collectors, galleries and perhaps to
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  • Norman Rockwell in the House!!!
    The Gossips by Norman Rockwell, 1948. I think every one of us loves Norman Rockwell's illustrations, whether it is a little bit or a lot. They tell stories and always seem to capture expressions and reactions so perfectly. My favorite has always been
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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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  • I'm Scared--What If I Freeze Up When I Paint This Way?
    Faded Glory by Rose Frantzen, 36 x 48, oil painting. If there were daredevils of art, I certainly would not be one of them. I'm always hesitating and rethinking what I'm doing. (In my day-to-day life I'm not such a scaredy cat—I swear
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  • Big Controversy: Should Artists Use This Tool?
    David Hockney asserted that Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait was created with optical tools. The camera lucida is something I've known about for years, but I didn't know there was such controversy surrounding it--or that people felt so passionately
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  • This One Is From the Heart
    Lake Tahoe by Albert Bierstadt, 1868. In their day, the Hudson River School landscape painters were so popular with the public that people would line up and pay a fair amount of money just to view a single painting. So I think it's safe to say that
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  • Can You Outgrow Your Art?
    Train Tracks by Valerio D'Ospina, 2011, oil on melamined MDF, 30 x 24. Some artists such as Jackson Pollock discover and use their own visual language to communicate with the world, and this singular voice takes them through an entire career of putting
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  • Beat Art Studio Boredom with Prompts
    I love this post from Cate, the web editor of Cloth Paper Scissors , which is the mixed media sister site of Artist Daily. Enjoy! Doodles by Robin Olsen, designed by using prompts. "I'm so bored." Now there's a lament anyone who's
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  • Bringing Artists Together
    I want to share an inspiring story I just heard from one of our members, Mark Beale . Enjoy! Bryce Canyon by Bruce Stam, oil painting, 8 x 10. Backwater Twilight by Mark Beale, oil painting, 9 x 12. Bruce Stam and I are two landscape painters from opposite
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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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  • Wild But True: I Want to Paint Light
    Lee's Ranch - Sunny Day by Camille Przewodek, 9 x 12, oil on canvas. Even now it sounds like a beautiful, incredible, impossible thing to accomplish. I mean, paint light ? It seemed like magic to me at first. And I didn't understand what it all
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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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  • Drawing a Nose for 20 Weeks...Really?!
    Drawing of a nose by Darren Kingsley with graphite pencil. The fall session at Studio Incamminati has begun, and I am taking classes with Darren Kingsley. One is in charcoal, and the other in graphite pencil . Last year as a new student, I was introduced
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  • Art That Reminds Me of Home
    During this time of year I like to reflect upon and appreciate all the blessings in my life (...also eat a lot of carbs and watch TV marathons). But lately I've been dwelling on how lucky we are to have so much amazing art created and inspired by
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  • Move Over Hallmark!
    Frederic Edwin Church's Aurora Borealis would make a stunning holiday card. Who needs to go buy a holiday card from a drug store when you're as creative as, well, all of us! Celebrate the holiday season with us at Artist Daily and American Artist
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  • Oatmeal: It's Good for Your Art
    Another fun idea from Cate, the online editor for Cloth Paper Scissors . You'll never look at oatmeal the same way again, and will have an easy surface design technique to start your next painting with. Enjoy! Fabric art quilt by Lisa Kerpoe . Fall
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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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  • Your Artwork. Our Cover. Your Chance Is Now!
    Darren Kingsley Self-Portraiture: An Essential Artist's Exercise Regardless of style, artists are known to return time and again to working from the life model. The human form speaks to us on an instinctual level and offers a wellspring of fresh inspiration
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  • Breakfast of Champions: Free Still Life Painting eBook!
    The Remains by Joe Gyurcsak, 2007, oil painting, 24 x 24. If I start my morning with a bit of artistic inspiration, it really carries me through the whole day, just like a wholesome breakfast does! And today is a very good day because I was able to begin
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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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  • Check Out These Beauties
    Every time I get on Artist Daily I am a little bowled over by the strides and accomplishments we all are making in our art. I get the same feeling when I look at the winners of the Utrecht 3rd Annual Art Competition , whose winners were just announced
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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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  • Paint the Place You Call Home
    We plein-air artists seem to put a lot of emphasis on traveling to far off places to paint, don't we? The fields of Tuscany, the rugged California coast, the farmhouses of the Cotswolds all seem to beckon. And heeding that call can be fantastic. I
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  • Priceless: A Representational Artist Who Understands Abstraction
    Delphinium by Sherrie McGraw, oil painting, 8 x 10. Sherrie McGraw's work always surprises me because she doesn't allow the objects she is painting to dictate how she paints. Instead, McGraw paints to articulate form, masses, and her own ideas
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  • Facebook Painting of the Month Chosen!
    Hi all, Check to see whose work was selected to be our Facebook Painting of the Month for November. Wish the winner congrats! Enjoy!
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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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  • Will You Please Put Some Clothes On?
    Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard (attributed), 1585. I can only imagine the excitement and thrill of sitting for any one of the great portrait painters in history such as Bronzino, Velazquez, and Sargent. But then my mind goes directly
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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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  • Take a Peek at Jamie Wyeth’s Watercolors
    This is one of the artist's more traditional pieces in terms of his painting process. ( Raspberry House by Jamie Wyeth, 1988, watercolor, 22 1/2 x 28 1/2.) Watercolor is one of those wondrous materials that can be manipulated in so many different
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  • Desperately Seeking Homer
    The Red Canoe by Winslow Homer, watercolor painting, 1889. Some years ago, Ann and I drove to New York to deliver a vanload of watercolor paintings to a gallery for a solo exhibition of my work. The exhibition was going up for a month, after which we
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  • Fall 2011
    This issue considers the gentle and peculiar graphite portraits of Jason Bard Yarmosky, who draws his grandparents wearing various costumes in order to reassess cultural assumptions about old age. It also includes another article that explains how artists can use the proportions of the figure to aid
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  • Like Seeing Myself in the Mirror
    Drawing by Edward Schmidt. When I was the one in charge of my infant cousin, I would always scramble frantically for ways to keep him entertained. Toys, sounds, and funny faces—I tried everything. But the most memorable way I kept him happy was
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  • Tricky Stuff--Limit Your Focus & Expand Your Painting Options
    Demonstration: Exploring Composition Through a Limited Focus A "limited focus" isn't limiting at all, but expands our options in composition The first compositional move any painter makes is to apply a limited focus. Whether it be a still
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  • He Was Rejected Over and Over
    Camille au métier by Claude Monet, 1875, oil painting. "My rejection at the Salon brought an end to my hesitation [to settle in Paris] since after this failure I can no longer claim to cope... alas, that fatal rejection has virtually taken
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  • American Artist Magazine, December/January 2012
    In honor of 2012, this issue offers a survey of 12 new or unknown artists, based on the recommendations of respected art professionals. We also feature our art materials buying guide, with shopping tips for all your studio needs.
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  • My Artistic Love-Hate Relationship
    Untitled (#April 08) by Hilary Brace, charcoal on polyester film, 6 x 11.625. In the past, I have had a love-hate thing going with charcoal. Basically, I love it and it hates me. Seriously! I love what charcoal can do. The fact that you can use a stick
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  • The Bravest Painters I Know...
    ...are ones that paint self-portraits. As we all well know, artists have a lot of firepower at their disposal. It comes from being trained to look critically and creatively at the things you see. For an artist to turn that kind of acuity on him- or herself
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  • If You Don’t Enjoy the Creative Process, Then It’s Over.
    Blue Bird by Tonja Sell. Artist of the Month: Tonja Sell A new member to Artist Daily, Tonja Sell is the kind of artist whose creativity has so many places it wants to go that nothing is off limits, especially when it comes to the materials she uses.
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  • Make the Sun, Sand, and Sea Your Studio!
    This December, Signilar —the maker of top notch art instruction videos—is hosting a painting workshop led by portrait artist Judith Carducci in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. To gush just a lil' bit, this seems like an amazing opportunity
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  • Capturing a Sense of Place--What Does It Mean To You?
    When discussing landscape painting , we often hear the phrase "capturing a sense of place." What does that mean to you? To me, it means so much more than just recording the physical attributes of the location. It goes way beyond suggesting the
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  • Calling Him a Landscape Painter Would Be a Stretch
    Anselm Kiefer is not a landscape painter by any stretch of the imagination, and yet his incredibly powerful work is based in and of the land. Observing his mixed media paintings and sculpture has taught me a lot about what a truly impactful landscape
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  • Anselm Kiefer’s Landscapes Are Anything But Picture Perfect
    But that is exactly what makes them so powerful. I've never been more moved by seeing a work in person than I am when I see Kiefer's. They floor me. As I said in my other post on Kiefer , it certainly has to do, in part, with the fact that his
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  • Are We Wired for Beauty?
    Flamenco by Ann Trusty, oil painting, 48 x 60. The science community is busy investigating the mechanisms and processes by which people are able to perceive the world around them and make visual sense of it. There are many basic questions still to be
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  • He’s Nobody’s Fool When It Comes to Putting a Painting Together
    Breaking the Light by Don Demers, 24 x 36, oil painting. Don Demers knows that inspiration is always there if you know how to look for it, but he's also nobody's fool—he understands that to create a breathtaking and moving painting you sometimes
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  • Winter 2011
    5 Step-by-Step Demonstrations Show You How to Capture The Movement of Water, Create Vibrant, Dense Washes, and Collaborate with Other Artists; Create a Figure in 30 Seconds
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  • My ‘Duh’ Moment in Art
    Here it is: Make better art by learning from better artists. Duh, right? But I don't think that way often enough. I'm all about looking at artwork—more and more and more artwork—but sometimes I don't really put my thinking cap
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  • Art for Thought: Recognizing Hidden Talent
    On the Threshold of Eternity by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890, oil. Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands. Vincent van Gogh, today recognized by generations for his contributions to art, was largely ignored and dismissed in his own
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  • The Artist as Jeweler
    I love the idea of the Museum of Art and Design show of the same name— The Artist as Jeweler —because I love art...and I looooove jewelry. But more than being able to indulge in my obsession for bracelets, this exhibition really shows that
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  • Tall Order: Drawing the Windows to the Soul
    Click on any of the above images to see David Kassan's Drawing the Eyes . That is no small task, no doubt about it. Yet hundreds of thousands of us search every year online about how to draw eyes. Mostly, I think, because we take drawing eyes for
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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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  • His Painting Palette Was the Size of a Piano Top
    Under the Awning by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1910. "There is nothing truer than truth. All the mistakes committed by great artists are due to their having separated themselves from truth, believing that their imagination is stronger...There
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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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  • Just Put a Nail in the Wall and I'm Done
    Isn't hanging a painting as easy as that? Yeah, right! There are so many ways that you can showcase your work, and each one can make such a difference in how each painting or drawing is perceived. Unframed. I prefer the art that I have in my apartment
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  • American Artist Magazine Wants to Know What You Think!
    Dear American Artist Reader, American Artist will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2012! In celebration of that important milestone, we are rolling out a new design for the magazine. We pored over past issues, and the various incarnations of our logo
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  • A Very Different Kind of Landscape Painting
    Ernest Lawson (1873 - 1939) came to maturity at the dawn of the 20th century, so his work was modern and gritty and real. His are not the idyllic landscape paintings of Corot , nor are they the dazzling light shows in Monet's plein air paintings
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  • Learning How to Let Inspiration Come to Me
    Slicker by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting, 18 1/2 x 18. I went through a phase when I thought I could control everything--where my career was headed, how my relationships were going to turn out, and what kind of life I was going to have. Ah, I crack
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  • Shock to the System
    Am I built like Jason Statham? Hell no! But a parallel approach to art practice has helped me when I make pictures of guys who are. I find it useful to phrase the ongoing practice of painting and drawing in exercise metaphors. Whatever your daily practice
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  • October Is Here & So Is the Facebook Painting of the Month
    Come see who the lucky artist is , and like us on Facebook, why don'tcha? Happy Autumn!
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  • Painting a Season in All Its Glory
    Study for Gapstow Bridge in Sunlight by Bennett Vadnais, oil on canvas, 12 x 16, 2007. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's my birthday season, so of course I'm partial, but I also just love the smell of autumn. It's crisp and clean, and
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  • Plein Air Painting, Fall 2011
    The last two editions of Plein Air Painting were a huge success—they flew off the shelves—and now the newest edition of the beloved magazine is back with even more on-site landscape painting instruction, handpicked by the trusted editors at American Artist, introducing the new special-issue
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  • Still Life Painting Higlights
    25 Skilled Artists Teach Their Best Techniques; Step-by-Step Lessons & Lists of Materials; How to Paint Floral Still Lifes With Skill & Understanding
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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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  • American Artist: Everything You Need to Know About Plein Air Painting
    20 Top Artists Reveal How To Adjust to Regional Sites, Pack What You Need, Scale-Up Sketches, & Travel Safely Abroad; The history of the Plein Air Movement, and much more!
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  • Sitting Down with the Editor of Watercolor Magazine
    Farm Visitors by Hardie Gramatky, watercolor, 1971. I can't get over the fact that Watercolor magazine is celebrating its 25 th year. For a quarter of a century it has been the eyes and ears of watermedia artists all over the country, and has featured
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  • Summer 2011
    In this issue, Kenneth J. Procter discusses his work in the medium of powdered charcoal and looks at his own evolution as an artist. The issue also features a special section on portraiture, a subject with great expressive potential despite the restrictions portrait artists sometimes must work under
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  • Heading Back to School for More Drawing Basics & Beyond
    My early charcoal drawing. The charcoal drawing using the Studio's method. Once again, time for me to go back to school at Studio Incamminati . In preparing for classes, I have been reviewing my last year's drawings again. I am reminded of something
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  • 3 Tricks So People Remember My Painting
    Notice how the composition of this sparse still life is deft--from the angle of the bottle to the serpentine curve of the ivy sprig. (Dried Ivy by Kristin Kunc, 8 x 12, oil on linen, 2008). I'm not a knick-knack girl, but I do really have a connection
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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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  • Painting with the Sight-Size Method
    I'll be honest with you all--I am not a painting technician. I read a lot about art and, as you know, love to look at paintings and drawings all day long, but I am still a babe in the woods when it comes to many methods and approaches to painting
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  • Winter 2011
    Employ A Wide Range Of Media And Styles; Spanish Masters From Ribera To Goya; Mapping The Face Through Large Self-Portraits; How To Draw Active, Lifelike Figures; Advice For Drawing Leaves+ Plants In Perspective.
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  • Spring 2011
    Mastering the art of simplicity; large-scale graphite drawings; improve your drawings through anatomy; 15 cover contest winners revealed; how to draw the outline of a figure.
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  • Can’t I Be Part of a Painting Dynasty?
    Paris by Danny McCaw, 24 x 16. Not to be a whiner, but I don't have an artistic legacy to build on. So far as I know, no one in my family is an artist or has any particular leanings towards painting or drawing. That's why I'm so enamored with
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  • Please Forgive Me If This Sounds a Little Harsh...
    But I think it's time for some straight talk. I've participated in many, many plein air painting critiques over the years, and I can't begin to tell you how often I've been faced with landscape paintings that are a little off. Perhaps
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  • I Could Start Every Painting This Way
    Here's the oil painting by Casper David Friedrich that I have on a postcard called The Sea of Ice (1824, oil on canvas, 38 x 50). In college, I created a series of mixed media collages that incorporated several of the same images, but each looked
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  • Before You Accuse Me, Take A Look at Yourself
    And I am! I'm calling myself out on the carpet. I've got a handful of mirrors in my apartment and don't take advantage of what is right in front of me. Which is why I'm fired up about getting people to do more self-portraits--including
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  • You Want a Free eBook on Making Color Work When Pastel Painting, Right?
    Manhattan Nocturne by Frank Federico, pastel painting, 20 x 24. I have a tried and true love affair going with color. I'm drawn to it across the spectrum, but I'm a late bloomer when it comes to pastel painting, which has to be some kind of crime
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  • Who Is Odd Nerdrum and Why Do We Care?
    Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum, currently facing time in prison for tax fraud, is certainly a character, taking on more of a dramatic persona than most people do in their day-to-day lives. He's also a bit of a polarizing figure. I know artists who think
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  • Want a Portfolio-Ready Painting?
    Cast drawing and painting is a tried and true method of learning how to draw in a classical manner. It forces a student to acquire new perceptual and conceptual skills in order to complete the given task at hand. Normally, the process takes several months
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  • Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About
    Lucrezia by Francisco Benitez, 30 x 30, encaustic on panel. I recently had a conversation with an artist about how she is struggling to get her drawings and oil paintings noticed by the "art world" and her frustration that she can't seem
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  • Art for Thought: Self-Promotion--A Hindrance or Help to an Artistic Career?
    “Most artists do not have the luxury of an agent, spouse, or supporter to raise their value in the art world, so they are left to their own devices to create a marketing plan that best positions them in the highly competitive world of fine-art sales
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  • Thomas Eakins Taught Me All About Painting People
    Female Nude by Thomas Eakins, oil painting, c. 1881. The Thinker by Thomas Eakins, oil painting, 1900. Thomas Eakins earned himself quite a reputation during his lifetime. He didn't suffer fools gladly, he didn't hold his tongue, and he didn't
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  • Fall 2011
    This issue marks the 25th Anniversary of Watercolor. To celebrate, we present 25 tips, 25 painting locations, and 25 tools that today's top watermedia painters say they can't do without. We also take a look at the innovations of early practitioners and trace the masterful use of watercolor throughout
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  • American Artist Magazine, November 2011
    This issue of American Artist features consummate classicists Jacob Collins and Daniel E. Greene—artists who champion figurative art and its embrace of beauty and humanist thought. The autumn season is approaching, and the lazy days of summer will soon be a hazy (and humid) memory. Our collective
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  • October 2011
    The October issue of American Artist explores the infinite world that lies outside of our understanding. This display of mystery and magnificence, brilliantly depicted by the 19th-century landscape artist Albert Bierstadt, has inspired generations of artists to paint their ?finest works. We hope the
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  • September 2011
    Realism today comprises a myriad of working styles that derails any effort to define it based on select studio practices—such as whether an artist works primarily from life or from photographs. Nor can realism be equated with an effort to capture exacting detail, which would leave out the probing
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  • July/August 2011
    As the sun grows warmer and the days lengthen, we begin to yearn for our favorite vacation spots-—seaside towns, mountain-top retreats, or maybe just our backyards. In this issue we take a look at art inspired by romantic getaways and the carefree days of summers past and present.
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  • Do’s & Don’ts of Artist Websites
    Self-Portrait by Kristin Kunc, oil on linen, 2011. As you probably well know, I'm online...a lot. And I'd like to think of myself as somewhat well informed about artist websites. I'm on them all the time—whether it is through an email
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  • Fall 2010
    Using Edges to Improve Your Compositions; How to Draw Arms With Strength and Conviction; Drawing Fundamentals: The Figure in Action; Depict the colors of the Night; Dramatic Shadows for Subtle Effect.
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  • Landscape Painting Lessons from the Masters: Inness
    These four oil paintings have something in common. Yes, of course, they were all painted by George Inness (1825-1894), one of the greatest American landscape painters of all time. But there's something else, an incredibly valuable lesson. Have you
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  • Painting to Preserve and Protect
    I'm a sucker for a good cause, and the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery is putting on a great one this October: The Green Paint Out, a plein air landscape painting competition with the mission of preserving and protecting America's national parks
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  • A Few Favorite Resources from My Bookshelves
    Sarah Simblet (her pen drawing, Isis 38 , above) taught me a lot about how intertwined the semblance of motion and mark-making are in really good drawings. Maybe it is part of having an arts career or maybe it is just me, but I love books and magazines
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  • Plein Air Paintings Created By Torchlight & Preserved Forever
    Drawings of horses in the Chauvet caves. We recently watched the Werner Herzog film, Chauvet: Cave of Forgotten Dreams . Herzog made the film about the prehistoric, 30,000- to 32,000 year-old cave art discovered in 1994 in the Ardeche region of France
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  • That’s a Chicken with the Body of a Snake
    When I flipped through the Fall issue of Watercolor magazine—celebrating their 25 th year in print (whoop whoop!)—I was super impressed with the feature article on "25 Artists to Watch." It confirms what I know is happening out in
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  • Drumroll Please.....
    The September Painting of the Month on the Artist Daily Facebook page has been selected. Check it out, see who it is, and wish him or her congratulations! And don't forget to Like the Artist Daily Facebook page to get a chance to win a bonus bundle
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  • Don’t Finish That Drawing—It’s Perfect Right Now
    Frank by Eileen Healy, pastel drawing. Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Eileen Healy I don't think any of you know how often I brag about you and the great work you show off in the Artist Daily Member Gallery. Recently I had several colleagues looking
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  • A Study In Edges
    Daniel Gerhartz is a prize-winning artist and workshop instructor, and his new book, Not Far From Home , is a high-level guide that both inspires and instructs. The book's pages are filled with beautiful reproductions of Gerhartz's paintings as
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  • American Artist Highlights: Guide to Painting Flowers, Fall 2011
    Learn classical techniques with an inspiring guide that shows you how to create stunning pieces with ease and confidence. Make your colors sing and enhance your process—top contemporary masters of today show you how. Challenge yourself with more complicated arrangements and develop the confidence
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  • Painting Bridges, Alleys, and Avenues of My Favorite Cities
    I was born and raised in the suburbs, with rural farmland and city centers nearby so I have an unbiased appreciation for both. I'm attuned to the natural elements around me and I love to be outdoors, but I also get so energized by the sights and sounds
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  • Landscape Painting Lessons from the Masters: Corot
    Recollection of Mortefontaine by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, landscape oil painting, 1864. One of my great heroes in art is Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), the world-famous French artist who is still considered one of the best landscape artists
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  • Help! I’m Stuck in a Plein Air Rut!
    Schloss Kammer at Lake Atter I by Gustav Klimt, 1908, oil on canvas. It seems impossible, right? I mean I'm out there painting, everything looks so fresh and crisp, the air and wind feel so good on my face, and then all of a sudden I am practically
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  • Will You Join Me in This Black Hole?
    Female Nude, Seen From the Back by Jacob Jordaens, ca. 1640, chalk drawing, 10 x 8. Collection National Gallery of Scotland. The Drawing Blog on Artist Daily is like a black hole for me. I just get sucked in and click around and read what catches my eye
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  • Drawing Basics: Using the Egg to Draw Anatomy
    Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 1. Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 2. Taking a painting or drawing class is always a learning experience, but often I find I learn a great deal from other artists in the class as well. This is especially
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  • Painting Darks That Are Too Dark to See
    Nicole at Mille Fleurs 3 , acrylic painting on canvas, 48 x 30, 2010. In the Afternoon Light , acrylic painting on canvas, 48 x 30, 2011. Contrast is the difference between light and dark values. The human eye is able to see clearly across a contrast
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  • Treat Your Model Like a Well-Trained Pet
    I am kidding! So kidding! But I was thinking about this article and how I wanted to discuss working with a model, specifically how to position your model in a figure drawing , and what that position can convey both compositionally and as part of the narrative
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  • Art for Thought: The Nerdrum Effect
    Odd Nerdrum gave a two-hour lecture on his philosophies on painting in the library of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen building at American Artist's Weekend With the Masters Intensive: New York City this past June. There are certain
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  • I'm Going to Paris!
    One of the offerings in the show is Degas' Two Dancers , a pastel painting on Canson vellum paper. I wish! But there is an amazing art show going on that I should be going to (along with eating assorted baked goods and cheeses and chocolates). Matisse
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  • What It Means to Be an Artist
    Seeing John Phillip Osborne at his canvas reminds me of all the things I think of and value as an artist. I know I don't have to explain it to all of you , but when I am in situations with people who aren't as passionate about art I find myself
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  • Money and Prizes and Fame?! Outta My Way!
    Hi all! It's time to submit your drawing, painting, and sculpture to the Utrecht Art Supplies 3rd Annual Art Competition ! I'm excited to see all the entries and who is going to take home all this great stuff! Details about the prizes below. And
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  • 3 Painting Pointers That I'll Always Remember
    Notice how Gury scratches through the paint in his oil painting Autumn Glow , reinforcing the shape and outline of the tree limbs. I'm not one to ask or judge someone by their resume or history because we all walk our own paths and get meaningful
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  • All the Painting Ladies
    Judith and Her Maidservant by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1613, oil on canvas. I'm not one to put artist before artwork. If I like the painting or drawing, it has nothing to do with who the art-maker is. But that doesn't mean that I don't believe
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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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  • Prelude to a Kiss…Gotta Paint Lips First!
    In this large scale painting by Stephen Bennett ( Beach Baby , 2001, acrylic, 80 x 64), the faint lines and varied color on the lips are faithfully rendered. As an unrepentant smart mouth, I know how much value two lips have, in real life and especially
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  • Abandon and Control: Robert Liberace's Contradiction in Oil Painting?
    Oil painting demonstration by Robert Liberace. To listen to Robert Liberace talk during one of his demonstrations, sometimes, fleetingly, it sounds to me like there is an occasional contradiction. The most recent example I can point to is when he talked
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  • Say Bon Voyage to This Kind of Painting
    Passing clouds from my window by Jos van Riswick . The artist has made a commitment to doing a postcard-size oil painting a day. Wherever I visit, I always send my parents postcards. It's a way of sharing my travel experience with them; giving them
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  • Ah, Vacation.....Time for More Painting!
    I put aside my oil painting work to take up a sketchbook and watercolors to capture the sights and sounds around me during my trip . If you are a painter, you know that sometimes the best thing to do is get away from it all...and do more painting. I was
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  • Who Sent You Flowers? Me!—Our Newest Free eBook on Painting Flowers Is Here!
    Rhododendron by James Sulkowski, 2001, oil painting. Notice how the flowers are arranged in a curving S-shape, starting in the back and bring your eye to the foreground. Most artists have a love-hate relationship with floral painting. There's plenty
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  • Painting the Illusion of Distance—Is It Just About Perspective?
    Fifty by Mitchell Albala, 2006, oil painting on canvas. In this painting, the artist strongly distinguishes the land and sky to give a sense of vertical distance. This summer I've been traveling a bit, but of course it's never as much as I would
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  • The First Plein Air Painters
    The cave paintings of Lascaux. Legend has it that Pablo Picasso remarked upon emerging from a visit to Lascaux cave that, "we have discovered nothing new in art in 17,000 years." The beautiful artwork from this ancient era is a reminder of our
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  • Move Over MacGyver. I’ve Got a Painting Studio Gadget for You!
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  • Finishing My Oil Painting, Leaves of Grass
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  • Landscape Lessons from the Masters: Monet
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  • August's Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month Has Arrived!
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  • Life Drawing Gymnastics
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  • Speed Painting Outdoors
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  • I Want to Sculpt My Drawings
    Minerva by Auguste Rodin simultaneously shows the centered grounding of the human body's core and the fluidity of its limbs. Painting is closer to three-dimensionality than drawing simply by way of the medium. You can build up sculpted areas and thick
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Judge My Artistic Progress & Learning from Robert Liberace
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  • Mixing Harmonious Greens in My Plein Air Painting
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  • What’s the Impressionist Way of Painting with Color?
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  • Oil Painting Lessons From John Singer Sargent
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  • Drawing Basics: Meet Your Master and Then Throw Him Away
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  • We Don't Have to Settle for Paint & Brush
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  • Plein Air Painting, Spring 2011
    The industry’s favorite plein air magazine is back with more of what you love! Last year, Plein Air Painting magazine flew off the shelves! Capture info from on-site studies, direct observations, and outdoor painting instruction from top plein air painters of today. Perfect your plein air painting
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  • Drawing Basics: Making Art According to Leonardo da Vinci's Motto
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  • Painting Outdoors: Fast and Easy Block-Ins
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  • 4 Crucial Figure Painting Tips
    On Hamilton's Prairie by Rose Frantzen, 32 x 40, oil painting. Rose Frantzen's work has been on my radar for a while and even more so after I saw her oil painting portrait show at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, which featured
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  • Just Back Up and Let the Painting Breathe
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  • Drawing Basics: Costumes, Clothes or Nothing At All
    Julie Seated with Hands Clasped by Steven Assael, 2007, drawing, 22 x 15.5. We all know that drawing the nude figure is a, if not the, classical way of depicting the human body. But breaking the mold and adding clothing to your figure drawing art can
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  • A Fine Art, In-Depth Look at Color
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  • 5 Tips That Fine-Tune My Outdoor Paintings
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  • Drawing Basics: Think Egg!
    Ethel Smyth by John Singer Sargent, chalk drawing, 1901. Adapted from an article by Dan Gheno Facial features can be used and contorted to tell us all kinds of things in a drawing . But you don't always have to think up dramatic scenarios for a drawing
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  • Don’t Just Paint. Pour!
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  • Art for Thought: Banding Together to Break the Mold
    Revue by Everett Shinn, 1908, oil painting, 18 x 24. Everett Shinn was one of the Ashcan School artists or "The Eight," which was led by Robert Henri and included Arthur B. Davies , William Glackens , Edward Hopper, Ernest Lawson , George Luks
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  • Plein Air Essentials: The Anatomy of Water
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  • It’s What I’m Here For: Free eBook of Watercolor Lessons & Painting Techniques from Artist Daily
    Overlay by Ali Cavanaugh, 12 x 12, watercolor painting. As a wannabe artist, I have a lot of years ahead of me to invest in perfecting my painting. Knowing this, I often think about the medium I will choose to work with—what will grow with me through
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Drawing Art Books
    Plate VIII, Study for a Picture , chalk and pastel drawing. From The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed. I was just telling a friend of mine that artists love books. That surprises some people, but it is totally true, especially if you love
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  • Planning Values In A Hurry When Painting Outdoors
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  • Oil Painting Odyssey: Making Pandora
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  • Make It Come Alive, But Not Like Frankenstein
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  • Drawing Basics: Measuring and Proportion in Life Figure Drawing
    Woman on a Treadmill by Kate Sikorski, figure drawing, 2009. I am a firm believer in starting a life drawing with the envelope—the shape you first draw before anything else. I've come to think of it as one of my drawing basics. This envelope
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  • The Art of the Dog
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  • Create a Painting On My First Try? Yes, Please!
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  • Check Out the Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month
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  • Art Isn’t Just About Pretty People
    New Year by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting of a milliner from Atlanta, GA; 2009, 22 1/2 x 29. Sometimes I get so sick of people calling a painting or drawing 'art' because it has a good-looking person in it. Who wants to hang out with Barbie
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  • Let Nature Walk Right In Front of You
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  • There's No Better Way to Begin Painting
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  • Painting Portraits with Personality, Mood, and Character
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  • Lightening My Plein Air Pack
    Scott Burdick often does plein air studies, like this one ( Vermilion Cliffs , 2009, plein air oil painting, 9 x 12), on lightweight panels that are easy to travel with. I was watching a documentary about the Appalachian Trail the other day and was amazed
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  • Come Paint in My Backyard...Practically
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  • What's the Association Factor and Why Is It a Painting 'Must'?
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  • I'll Know I'm an Artist When...
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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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  • The Best Art for a Control Freak Like Me
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  • Plein Air Artist Asher B. Durand Wrote Me a Letter...Sorta...Not Really
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  • Drawing Basics: Get In That Box!
    Head of 12-year-old Christ by Albrecht Dürer, drawing, 1506. Adapted from an article by Dan Gheno. As you know from my previous blog about needing a GPS to draw heads --because I get more lost in the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose than you'd think
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  • Sketch Away: Our Newest Free eBook of Pencil Drawing Lessons
    The drama of this charcoal and pencil drawing by Lilian Wescott Hale is in the bold contrast of value of the figure's skin, dress, and hair. I love all kinds of art: super complicated installations, amazing marble sculptures, and virtuosic canvases
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  • Pop Quiz: How Good Is Your Painting Memory?
    Squall Line by John Hulsey (30 x 40, oil painting). John Hulsey and Ann Trusty created their website, The Artist’s Road , to inspire their readers and students with practical art tips and plein air painting techniques for the traveling artist. John
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  • Drawing Basics: Look at John Singer Sargent's Swirls and Squiggles
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  • Building a Bridge to China with Oil Painting and Contemporary Realism
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  • I Need a GPS for Drawing Faces
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  • Plein Air Painting on a Freshly Primed Surface
    Wait until you are in front of your outdoor painting scene before deciding what to tone your surface. I've found that how you prepare your canvas has a huge impact on the finished result of your plein-air painting . Do you start your painting right
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  • Drawing Basics: Mixed Bag of Anatomy Inspiration
    Peter Kelsey's cast drawing of the male torso. Hey fellow artists! Drawing anatomy seems overwhelming to me sometimes, but if I focus on strategies for HOW to learn it, it starts to seem doable. Here are a few tips I learned from a recent article
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  • He Told Me I Could Share His Secrets
    Looking at paintings can be like unraveling a mystery, especially with watercolor. Layers are so delicate and there are many interesting watercolor painting techniques that are quite subtle to the eye. That's certainly what I felt when I looked at the work of watercolor artist Miguel Dominguez. I
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  • Summer 2011
    As any artist can attest, versatility is the key to a long and illustrious career. The ability to work with a variety of media, subject matter, and techniques helps keep skills up-to-date, the mind engaged, and one's creativity consistently challenged. With that in mind, we've decided to use
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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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  • 3 Ways to Assure You Are Always Growing as an Artist
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  • Plein Air Time Machine
    Plein air watercolor sketches of sites in Kansas and Charleston, South Carolina. All works by John Hulsey. It took me awhile to realize it, but I have invented a time machine. I didn’t set out to invent a time machine exactly, but like many other
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  • Help Us Get to 1,000 & Win!
    I'm graced with a pretty decent-sized competitive spirit, and I want to infect you with it too! Right now Artist Daily has more than 800 Likes on Facebook and I feel like 1,000 Likes are so close I can taste them. Not that I want to taste them--ew
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  • Are You the Winner of Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month?
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  • Bring My Painting Back From the Brink of Disaster
    Meeting artist and Studio Incamminati instructor Lea Colie Wight was a little bit like meeting a favorite celebrity and miracle worker all rolled into one. Lea's execution and subject matter resonates with me, but it is her perseverance and desire to share common experiences in painting that really
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  • Rembrandt-Inspired Etching Experiment
    I’m always ready for a museum trip, so when my friend asked me to come along and see a Rembrandt drawing show I jumped at the chance. Looking back, the detail that still sticks out to me is the beautiful, delicate line of Rembrandt’s etchings
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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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  • Draw with Your Brush
    When Scott Royston sets his sights on flowers for one of his still life oil painting compositions, he isn’t drawn to tiny buds or small bouquets but expressive flora in full bloom. For him, painting flowers is a gradual process that starts with a rough sketch in his sketchbook and toning his canvas
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  • More Painting Methods I’d Steal From Julie Heffernan
    Self-Portrait Sitting on the World by Julie Heffernan, 2008, 78 x 56, oil on canvas. I started with another post about Julie Heffernan’s out-of-the-box conceptual acuity and dynamic oil painting methods , but I just couldn’t stop there. Here
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  • I Want to Steal Her Ideas
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  • Building a Career for the Long Term
    For the Portrait Society of America Conference in Atlanta this year, I was invited to participate in a panel on Professionalism, Leadership, and Service. I was asked to speak to “Building a Career for the Long Term.” Now, anyone who saw my tax returns for 2010 would NOT have put me on a short
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Start My Pencil Drawings
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  • How to Paint Clouds in Watercolor
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  • Mixed Media Free eBook Extravaganza
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  • Fur, Feathers, Scales, and Tails
    Patricia Traub presents animals—above, The Collector , 10 1/2 x 14 3/4, 2008—in her work in a naturalistic way that emphasizes their unique physical attributes and bearing. I don’t have pets but I really love drawing animals because
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  • Highlights: Painting Instruction From Master Teachers
    Get instant improvement on your portraits, landscapes, and still life’s from master teachers.
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  • Art for Thought: Artist—A Solitary Profession?
    In John Milner’s introduction to his book The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late 19th Century , he shares an interesting, albeit semi-amusing, quote from Ernest Meissonier, one of the most successful artists of his era. Meissonier
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  • Finding the Warms and Cools of White
    Painting flowers is sometimes a study in the subtlety of color, as in Ann's flower oil painting, Philadelphus III (oil, 12 x 16). Painting large flower portraits has given me the opportunity to explore what seem to be the nearly infinite shades and
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  • What’s Up With the Floating People?
    That’s one of the first questions I put to artist Caitlin Hurd about her oil paintings, which feature dazed, inert figures floating through the landscape. But they aren’t floating as much as sleepwalking, according to Hurd. “It all started with how I wanted to live my life,” she
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  • It’s Like Coupon Clipping...But Not
    When I was a kid, my mom always cut coupons on Sunday morning. I’d sit beside her and do the same, but I’d flip through magazines and newspapers and cut out pictures I liked or lettering that I thought was neat, and I never gave up my artsy coupon clipping habit because it’s a great
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  • Must-Have Videos: Photoshop Lessons for Artists and the Basics of Color
    Art is a matter of infinite variation and the knowledge of a few tried-and-true essentials. As instructors, Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon bridge these two by focusing on sound technical practice in the larger context of what contemporary artist face working today--and the tools that are at our disposal
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  • Drawing Basics: Learning the Lesson of Line Drawing
    Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing, Head of an Angel , 1483. In my last post, I was telling you about how I decided to take Leonardo Da Vinci for my master when I was first studying art seriously. Choosing a master means taking a close look at great art
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  • Paint a Building, Build a World
    I love how artists can create worlds all their own—using the hills and valleys of a beautiful landscape or the sensuous curves of the human form. But that’s not all artists are capable of doing. Centuries ago, great artists like Michelangelo and Bernini didn’t just build worlds in their
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  • Drawing Basics: Breaking Down the Head
    When trying to draw the head correctly on the body, pay specific attention to the neck and the placement of the head upon it, above the ribcage. Double check the alignment of the center line of the face, as compared to the sternum ( centerline of ribcage) and linea alba (centerline of abdomen).
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  • American Artist Studios 2010
    Love your space as much as you love your craft American Artist Studios is back and bigger than ever with a special issue devoted to making beautiful and functional spaces for all your creative needs.
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  • Reaching New Levels of Creativity En Plein Air
    Do you ever feel like you’re just painting the same old same old when you go outside to paint? Couple of trees, maybe some water—it’s actually fairly easy to fall into the rut of painting the same subjects again and again. At least, that’s how I get to feeling on occasion.
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  • Weekend With the Masters 2011: Exciting New Educational Opportunities & Breathtaking Location
    Golden by Daniel Gerhartz, oil on canvas, 16 x 12. Since its inception in 2009, Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference has brought together some of the top instructors of representational art under one roof for a long weekend of workshops
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  • There's Nothing Quite Like Custom Made
    I’ve always dreamed of having something, anything—shoes, a coat, a car!—custom made. While all of those are pretty much still out of my reach, I know that I can custom design how I get my art training. There are a lot of options out there for us art-minded folk, but I spoke to Rob Zeller
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  • Got Five Minutes? Got a Drawing.
    You know how life can sometimes speed by and at other times crawl along at a snail’s pace? Well, drawing is that way too. There are drawing techniques that are incredibly labor intensive and deliberate, then there are others that are quick and unplanned.
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  • The Artist’s Road—A Journey Not a Destination
    When John Hulsey and Ann Trusty told me the name of their website— The Artist’s Road —I smiled to myself because they got it so right! Art—painting, drawing, sculpting, all of it—is a path, a journey. Sometimes the path is smooth and things go right, and sometimes it is
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  • Art for Thought: Art That Endures
    During a dinner conversation among artists last May at the National Arts Club, in New York City, Everett Raymond Kinstler was among the esteemed company, and he kept everyone engaged with his entertaining stories of artists past and present. When Kinstler speaks, everyone listens, as he has been a successful
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  • Drawing Basics: To Tone or Not to Tone
    I have found that toning my support, whether canvas or paper or board, is something I often do now. I’m showing two works to illustrate the difference between toning and not toning.
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  • The Grand Canyon of Painting
    When I first saw watercolor artist Joan Becker’s work, the word that came to my mind was pageantry because her work is colorful, rich, and all about giving the viewer an amazing visual spectacle. Take a look at any watercolor painting of Becker’s and chances are it is filled from top to bottom
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  • Step by Step: Sketch to Finished Painting + Plein Air Download for a Dime
    When Richard McKinley creates a landscape painting , he likens it to a dance, a push-pull between the artist’s feelings for the place and the tendencies of the medium. For his landscape art, he focuses on a subtle progression of color layers and
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  • Make Drawing a Part of the Art Journaling Process
    An ink drawing from an artist's journal. Art journals are a hot trend right now for mixed media artists, and one that I'm especially attuned to. I love art journals. They are akin to sketchbooks, but usually have a lot more finish to them--as
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  • Drawing Lessons from Edward Hopper
    I don’t think I’d be exaggerating by calling Edward Hopper one of America’s national treasures. His work captured a time and place like no one else, and his distinctive style makes his work instantly recognizable. But his drawings are an undiscovered secret, as I found out when I got
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  • Using Your Sketchbook to Good Advantage
    Hi all! This is my first blog at Artist Daily, and I wanted to jump right in and discuss one of the best things I think a plein air painter can do—use a sketchbook to plan your composition and clarify your vision of the finished painting you have in mind.
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  • Varnish, Varnish Everywhere
    I interviewed Sadie Valeri on her unusual wax paper paintings months and months ago, but since then I've been keeping an eye on her. She's got great spirit, enviable talent, and she's just super nice! Little did I know that her sweet exterior
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  • Is It Yours? Artist Daily Facebook Paint of the Month for May
    Come to the Artist Daily Facebook page and find out! Congratulate the winning painter and 'Like' the Artist Daily page to stay in the loop with us!
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  • What Could Be Better Than a Free eBook on Landscape Painting?
    My answer to that is nada! Zippo! Zilch! As the weather heats up from coast to coast, now is the time when artists turn their attention to the excitement of landscape painting. But I'll be honest with you. I'm still intimidated by the whole landscape painting process. There seems to be so much
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  • Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Asghar Gonchehpour
    One of the things I love best as the editor for Artist Daily is getting to know the artists in our community. A few weeks ago, I saw a mixed media portrait in the Member Gallery that caught my attention. The painting--a girl with wild, colorful hair and a tranquil expression on her face--looked like
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  • The Gowanus Ballroom
    The Gowanus Ballroom brought together installation art, contemporary sculpture, and realist painting. Every once in a while, I get to do something that is comes uniquely from the place where I’ve chosen to live—Brooklyn. My studio is in Gowanus
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  • Art—Bound with Two Covers
    So many of us keep sketchbooks to make quick drawings, work through compositional possibilities, and just practice mark-making. An art journal is exactly what it sounds like, a bound book of artistry that can take all of your exploration to the next level. Many mixed media artists create art journals
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  • Bring On the Botox...Or Not
    Artist Daniel Gerhartz's new book, Not Far From Home , is a visual compendium of his life's work as a painter. In it, you not only find inspiring, lush photographs of Gerhart'z paintings, but insightful and instructional information as well. To showcase all of the great content in the book
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  • Painting to Establish Intimacy
    Artists create for a lot of reasons--ego, instinct, livelihood--but author and painter Margaret Krug creates for a very unique reason: to enfold us in the intimacy and delicacy of her personal artistic vision. Often working on a small scale, sometimes on a surface no larger than a postcard, Krug paints
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  • May I Introduce Odd Nerdrum?
    Summit by Odd Nerdrum, oil painting, 2000, 93 x 88. Odd Nerdrum: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Odd Nerdrum was born in Hälsingborg, Sweden, in 1944. He was a student at The Academy of Art in Oslo at the time when Modernism made its delayed
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  • May I Introduce Rose Frantzen?
    Up the Block by Rose Frantzen, oil painting, 40 x 50. Rose Frantzen: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Rose Frantzen 's peers hold her in especially high regard as an artist's artist. In her 25 years as a full-time painter, she has also gained
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  • May I Introduce Lea Colie Wight?
    Lea Colie Wight: Weekend With the Masters Instructor "From time to time you notice something unexpectedly beautiful in the most ordinary person; the overlooked corner will tell the story of the people not present; something will tug at you and you
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Early?
    Glass Study 3 by Stephen Early, oil painting on masonite, 7 x 5. Stephen Early: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Stephen Early began his art education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He has received many notable portrait
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  • May I Introduce Scott Waddell?
    The Den by Scott Waddell, oil painting, 20 x 16. Scott Waddell: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Scott Waddell was born and raised in Central Florida. He received his B.F.A. from Florida State University. After college, Waddell spent the next several
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  • May I Introduce Steven Assael?
    Venus Pregnant by Steven Assael, oil painting, 72 x 48, 2002. Steven Assael: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Steven Assael was born in New York City in 1957. He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts, in
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  • May I Introduce Edward Minoff?
    Breton Wash Basin by Edward Minoff, oil painting. Edward Minoff: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Edward Minoff graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Throughout his high-school and college years he studied painting
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  • May I Introduce Nelson Shanks?
    Portrait of His Holiness, John Paul II by Nelson Shanks, 2001, oil painting on canvas, 54 x 50. Nelson Shanks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor One of the most sought after teachers and portrait painters in the world and founder of the post-graduate
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  • May I Introduce Dan Thompson?
    Persian Archer by Dan Thompson, 18 x 28, oil painting, 2004. Dan Thompson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Dan Thompson was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated from the Corcoran School of Art, in Washington, DC. He earned his M.F.A. from the
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Sprick?
    Untitled by Daniel Sprick, 2006, 24 x 24, oil painting. Daniel Sprick: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel Sprick was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied at the Froman School of Art and The National Academy of Design and received his B.F
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  • May I Introduce Ray Roberts?
    Seascape by Ray Roberts, oil painting. Ray Roberts: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Ray Roberts is best known for his seascapes, figurative work, and majestic views of California and the Southwest, and is one of California's most respected plein
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  • May I Introduce Rob Liberace?
    Figure Throwing Ball by Rob Liberace, chalk drawing on paper, 24 x 36. Rob Liberace: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Robert Liberace is considered by many to be a contemporary classicist, equally accomplished in sculpture, drawing, and painting and
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  • May I Introduce Ron Hicks?
    The Love on the Road by Ron Hicks, oil painting. Ron Hicks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Ron Hicks grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and was introduced to art at an early age under the influence of his artist mother. Continuing to pursue drawing through
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  • May I Introduce Dan McCaw?
    Seated Figure by Dan McCaw, 24 x 18, oil painting. Dan McCaw: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Dan McCaw was born in 1942 and raised in Montana and during his academic art career attended the Montana Institute of Technology, in Butte Montana; Academy
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  • May I Introduce David Leffel?
    Youth by David A. Leffel, oil painting, 15 x 13 1/2. David Leffel: Weekend With the Masters Instructor David A. Leffel is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished representational artists today and is often referred to as a living Old Master
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  • May I Introduce Albert Handell?
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  • May I Introduce Jacqueline Kamin?
    Red Carnations with Ming Rice Bowl by Jacqueline Kamin, oil painting, 20 x 16. Jacqueline Kamin: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in 1950 in Washington, DC, Jacqueline Kamin received her formal art education from the Corcoran Museum School in
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  • May I Introduce Jeremy Lipking?
    Skylar in Blue by Jeremy Lipking, oil painting, 16 x 12, 2010. Jeremy Lipking: Weekend With the Masters Instructor In a remarkably short period of time, Jeremy Lipking has emerged as one of the country's premier oil painters. His talent, which rivals
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  • May I Introduce Quang Ho?
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  • May I Introduce George Gallo?
    Connecticut Yankee Spring by George Gallo, 20 x 24, oil painting. George Gallo: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Award-winning writer, director, and painter George Gallo is capturing the hearts of both the general public and artist-audiences everywhere
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  • May I Introduce Nancy Guzik?
    Spring Dance by Nancy Guzik, 12 x 20, oil painting. Nancy Guzik: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Throughout her career in art, Nancy Guzik has been quietly perfecting not only her skills but also the focus of her work. The result on the surface of
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  • May I Introduce John Salminen?
    Champs Elysees by John Salminen, watercolor painting. John Salminen: Weekend With the Masters Instructor John Salminen was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree from the University of Minnesota
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  • May I Introduce Timothy J. Clark?
    Serra Chapel by Timothy Clark, watercolor painting, 29 x 40, 2006. Timothy J. Clark: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Timothy J. Clark is a master watercolorist and oil painter whose work is included in the permanent collections of The Butler Institute
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  • May I Introduce David Jon Kassan?
    Approaching Noise (in progress) by David Jon Kassan, oil painting on wood panel, 40 x 34. David Jon Kassan: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Following his initial drawing studies at University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, David Jon Kassan attended
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Pinkham?
    Sublime Order by Daniel Pinkham, oil painting. Daniel Pinkham: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in Los Angeles, Daniel Pinkham has been a principal force in the resurgence of plein air painting in California and throughout the country. Pinkham
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  • May I Introduce Mary Whyte?
    Graffiti by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting. Mary Whyte: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in Ohio in 1953, Mary Whyte grew up with all the rural Midwest has to offer. She graduated from Tyler School of Art, in Philadelphia, in 1976 with a Bachelor
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  • May I Introduce Anthony Ryder?
    Twilight by Tony Ryder, 1998, pencil drawing, 25 x 19. Tony Ryder: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Anthony Ryder studied at the Art Students League of New York, the New York Academy of Art, and the Ecole Albert Defois, in France, with oil painter
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  • May I Introduce Scott Christensen?
    Scott Christensen working on a large oil canvas. Scott Christensen: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Given that Scott Christensen rarely picked up a brush until his college years, some would say he came to the canvas late indeed. Yet in a sense, art
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  • May I Introduce Susan Lyon?
    Maya with Guitar by Susan Lyon, oil painting, 12 x 9. Susan Lyon: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Susan Lyon studied painting at the American Academy of Art and the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, both in Chicago. It is there she first
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  • May I Introduce Robin Frey?
    Untitled by Robin Frey, oil painting, 14 x 14, 2008. Robin Frey: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Robin Frey grew up in Sarasota, Florida, taking art classes as a child at the Ringling School of Art. She received her B.F.A. from Eastern Mennonite
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  • May I Introduce C.W. Mundy?
    Morro Bay Rock, Near Cambria by C.W. Mundy, oil painting on linen, 16 x 20. C.W. Mundy: Weekend With the Masters Instructor C.W. Mundy, an American impressionist, was born in 1945 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated with a B.F.A. from Ball
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  • May I Introduce Skip Whitcomb?
    Dawn, High Tide-Navesink River by Skip Whitcomb, oil painting on linen, 10 x 20. Skip Whitcomb: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in 1946, M.W. Skip Whitcomb has been interested in art since his childhood on a ranch near Sterling, Colorado. However
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  • May I Introduce Jean-Pierre Roy?
    A Wind to Ward Off Dreams by Jean-Pierre Roy, 58 x 68, oil painting, 2010. Jean-Pierre Roy: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Jean-Pierre Roy is an artist and teacher currently living and working in New York City. Born in Santa Monica in 1974, Roy pursued
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  • May I Introduce Peter Adams?
    Crashing Waves at Three Arch Bay; Laguna Beach by Peter Adams , pastel painting, 12 x 16. Peter Adams: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Peter Adams was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 27, 1950 and he received his training in California at
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  • May I Introduce Kevin Macpherson?
    Santa Catalina Island by Kevin Macpherson, oil painting, 30 x 50. Kevin Macpherson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Kevin Macpherson is one of the country's leading plein air painters and is highly respected among collectors and fellow artists
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Quiller?
    February Shadows, Rio Grande by Stephen Quiller, acrylic painting, 17 x 19 1/2. Stephen Quiller: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Stephen Quiller is an internationally known painter who works primarily in water media, monotypes, and intaglio printmaking
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  • May I Introduce Richard Schmid?
    Throughout his career, Richard Schmid has promoted art education through his books, articles, workshops, seminars, and television presentations. Richard Schmid: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Richard Schmid was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1934.
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  • May I Introduce Morgan Weistling?
    Stringbeans by Morgan Weistling, oil painting, 30 x 26. Morgan Weistling: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Well known for his paintings of early American pioneer life, Morgan Weistling began his art career as a movie-poster illustrator. While still
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  • May I Introduce Alyssa Monks?
    Window II by Alyssa Monks, oil painting, 2011, 48 x 36. Alyssa Monks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born 1977 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Alyssa Monks began oil painting when she was just a child. Later, when she embarked on her academic career, she
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  • May I Introduce Marcia Burtt?
    Winter Sun, Full Moon by Marcia Burtt , acrylic painting. Marcia Burtt: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Marcia Burtt graduated from University of California Berkeley with a major in psychology and earned an M.A. in art from the University of Montana
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  • May I Introduce Frank Serrano?
    Sunlit Birch by Frank Serrano, oil on canvas, 12 x 12. Frank Serrano: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Contemporary landscape artist and plein air painter Frank M. Serrano was born in Los Angeles on November 29, 1967. He developed an early interest
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  • May I Introduce Jacob Collins?
    Thinking Man by Jacob Collins, oil painting, 30 x 20, 2004. Jacob Collins: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Jacob Collins is a leading figure in the contemporary revival of classical painting. He earned a B.A. in history from Columbia College and attended
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  • May I Introduce Scott Burdick?
    Market Colors by Scott Burdick, oil on canvas. Scott Burdick: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967, where his mother and father encouraged his interest in art from an early age. "I spent a lot of
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  • May I Introduce Joseph McGurl?
    Light at Sunset by Joseph McGurl, oil painting, 24 x 36. Joseph McGurl: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Joseph McGurl has been referred to as one of the acknowledged leaders in the current American landscape painting arena. This has been confirmed
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  • May I Introduce Clayton Beck?
    Vermont Farmhouse by Clayton Beck, oil painting. Clayton Beck: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Clayton J. Beck III studied at the American Academy of Art and the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, in Chicago, and launched his career as a professional
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Scott Young?
    Handline Hook by Stephen Scott Young, watercolor painting, 2010, 10 1/2 x 19 1/2. Stephen Scott Young: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Stephen Scott Young grew up in St. Augustine, Florida, and studied at the Ringling College of Art and Design, in
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Graves?
    Self-Portrait by Daniel Graves, oil on canvas, 2007. Daniel Graves: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel Graves , born in Rochester, New York in 1949, is an oil painter, etcher, and founder and director of The Florence Academy of Art, Florence,
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  • May I Introduce Carolyn Anderson?
    Dave by Carolyn Anderson, oil painting, 16 x 12. Carolyn Anderson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Carolyn Anderson , a nationally recognized artist, is an accomplished pastelist and oil painter. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Anderson attended
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  • May I Introduce Camille Przewodek?
    Vineyard Melody by Camille Przewodek, 16 x 20, oil on canvas. Camille Przewodek: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Camille Przewodek is a plein air colorist based in Petaluma, California, who received her B.F.A. in illustration from the Academy of Art
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Gerhartz?
    Nouveau by Daniel Gerhartz , oil painting. Daniel Gerhartz: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel F. Gerhartz was born in Wisconsin in 1965, where he now lives with his wife Jennifer and their four children. His interest in art piqued at an early
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  • May I Introduce Sherrie McGraw?
    Drawing of Taheera by Sherrie McGraw, 2009, charcoal, 24 x 18. Sherrie McGraw: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Sherrie McGraw has been at the forefront of the American art scene for more than 30 years. As a young woman in Oklahoma City in 1978, she
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  • May I Introduce Joseph Paquet?
    Morning Light Crystal Cove , by Joe Paquet, oil painting on linen. Joseph Paquet: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Joseph Paquet received his Bachelors of Fine Art at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City, and had the good fortune of being mentored
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  • Utrecht Third Annual Art Competition Begins Today
    This is the third year that American Artist has partnered with Utrecht for their Third Annual Art Competition , and it looks like the prizes are the best yet. The grand prize winner receives a six-week scholarship to Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia
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  • Meet the Instructors of Our Weekend With the Masters Events
    The American Artist Weekend With the Masters events and art workshops are an opportunity to learn how to paint at the hands of some of the most inspiring, skilled oil painting artists, watercolorists, and draftsmen working today. Their artistic abilities
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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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  • More Tips for Painting Water En Plein Air
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  • What I Get From Other Artists
    Wilson uses the visual world as a lexicon of poetic images, as in his painting, Mary . In the 19th century, painters depicted modern life, embracing the “real” and eschewing narrative subjects and symbolism. Now, modern figure painters are
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  • 5 Forget-Me-Not Tips for Painting Eyes
    If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then a painter needs to get them right when creating a portrait. But the "oval, circle, dot" anatomy of the eye that we all first learned as children is far removed from how to give the illusion of a real eye in your work. Here are a few tips about painting
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  • Fiber--Good for You & Your Art!
    Gateway Drugs (detail) by Erin Riley. I'm always interested in seeing how artists use unusual materials to express themselves, which is why I always flip through my copy of our sister publication, Fiberarts Magazine , as soon as it hits my desk. Just
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  • Painting Clouds, Part I: Sunset Clouds
    Living as we do in the center of the country where the dominant feature of the landscape is the sky, we have always enjoyed painting the rich variety of clouds here. Besides being beautiful to look at, clouds can tell us all sorts of things about the weather, both present and future, that can prove very
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  • It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s an Artist?!
    Artists aren’t superheroes. No capes, no spandex onesies, and no butlers named Alfred. Artists don’t necessarily lead extraordinary lives in which they paint or draw between bouts of saving the world. Artists are like you and me. They are you and me, actually. We all go about our day-to-day
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  • The Romance Is Overrated
    I used to think so romantically about Monet, Pissarro, and the other Impressionists. Not romantic like Manet is so dreamy; romantic as in idealizing this particular group of painters—thinking they stepped outside of their studios and, snap, Impressionism just happened. Veneration can sometimes
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  • The Ultimate Backpack--Professional Tips for Packing Light
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  • Get Some Gallery Love: Part 3
    Bonita Williams Goldberg (her painting, Not Over Yet , above), is known as a Georgia Peach. She routinely sends new clients to her representatives, and she rotates consistently beautiful works in and out of her galleries. Artists love to gossip about
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  • Do You Speak The Two Languages of Art?
    No, not Spanish or Italian or French. An artist needs to be fluent in the languages of realism and abstraction. By realism I mean the formal aspects of art--the painting techniques and drawing skills we develop over time through experience. Abstraction is the other side of the coin, the visual language
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  • Video Lessons on Drawing from Susan Lyon and Scott Burdick
    Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon are skilled artists, inspiring instructors, and just really kind people. If you've ever been in a workshop with either of them, you are lucky enough to know what I mean. In watching them work, you get a sense of the sensitivity and thoughtfulness with which they craft
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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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  • A Painting Technique That’s Outside the Box…Er, Brush
    Breaking out of a painting rut sometimes requires a little more oomph than just adding another color to your palette or going from a still life to a figure painting. Sometimes your whole process needs an overhaul. A few years ago, artist Francis Di Fronzo took a fairly drastic measure to take his work
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  • How to Paint the Look and Feel of Spring
    I’m a color junkie. In fashion, in design, and especially in painting, vibrant color is what gets me creative. But before the image of Mimi from The Drew Carey Show becomes forever attached to my name in your mind, I’ll point out that I can control myself…sometimes. It’s tough
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  • The Importance of Choosing a Master
    Let's say you're Egon Schiele. You have a singular vision so original, so violently intense, that you can develop as an artist by feeding exclusively on your own inspiration. Your drive will crush every obstacle in your way--even feed on it, transforming your mistakes and flaws into revelations
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  • How To Transfer a Study to a Large Canvas
    Study for Leaves of Grass . All works by Patricia Watwood. With the image of a female figure reading in the summer grass in mind, I began to develop my oil painting , Leaves of Grass . I started with a preparatory drawing. I work with models and from
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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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  • Workshop, Fall 2010
    Measure First, Draw Second; The Pathway to Great Compositions; Make Every ?Brushstroke Count; Learn How Top Artists Paint; How the Academic Technique can Work for You
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  • Say 'Yes' to Flow
    With a deadline looming for a May group show of flowers and gardens, this past Saturday seemed an ideal time for me to create something for the exhibit during my first plein-air painting session of the season! Daffodils are already blooming everywhere, and the weather was perfect for a day of painting
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  • Okay, okay! You win! Here’s your Free eBook on Plein Air Painting
    Point Lobos , oil, 12 x 16. All works by Matt Smith . Have you ever had a moment where you’ve stumbled on something unexpected and you think to yourself, “What a find!” That was so me a few days ago. I read an amazing Q&A that one
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  • Palette Knife in Hand
    Palette knife painting sounds a little edgy and dangerous, but it’s really all about texture—the thick impasto swipes and flat sweeps of color that make up the surface of a painting. I’ve never created an entire painting with just a palette knife before, and I wanted to see what the
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  • Creativity wins the prize!
    My Superfine Studio Solution Competition is going on now! What solution--and no solution is too great or too small--have you come up with lately in your painting or drawing practice that has made your process easier? We want to know and reward you for
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  • The Art of Painting Water: 4 Plein Air Tips
    Water is perhaps one of the more challenging subjects to paint convincingly in a plein air landscape painting. Whether one is inspired by the ocean, a river, or a pond or lake, each subject requires a studied familiarity and often distinctly different paint handling. Here are a just a few tips that we
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  • Want to know what just happened?
    Hi Artist Daily, Lately I've realized there are so many interesting, water cooler-worthy art happenings that I want to share with you that don't necessarily make it up on the blogs here on Artist Daily. Like today I just found out that one of
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  • Weekend with the Masters forum
    Hi All, We've set up a forum devoted to Weekend with the Masters events. You can exchange information with other attendees, find each other before and after the events, swap ideas on lodging, and get the latest news from the events team planning all
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  • Forget Everything You Know About Line
    There’s one thing and one thing alone that makes for a successful tonal drawing : seeing masses rather than outlines. Lines are for flow charts, architectural blueprints, and driving on the right side of the road. To a certain extent I am kidding—there are some incredible draftsmen who work
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  • Get Some Gallery Love: Part 2
    In my first post on building healthy relationships with galleries, I explained that the top-selling couple of artists in any gallery are usually the same few who get heavily promoted as individuals by name. The rest of the gallery's stable of artists typically get promoted as a group, as part of
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  • Stuff of Dreams--Painting on Panels Workshop in Italy
    Margaret Krug, painter, writer for American Artist , and author of An Artist Handbook: Materials and Techniques, is teaching a one-of-a-kind program, Painting on Panels , from August 12-26 in Spannocchia, Italy. The scope of the workshop is traditional
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  • It's Time to Take Sides: Color vs. Form
    Leah , oil on canvas, 2010, 24 x 20. The Sicilian Expedition , oil on canvas, 2010, 60 x 40. They say that there are two kinds of painter: color painters, and the other kind--the kind that focuses on form, tone, and line. I'm that "other"
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  • Watercolorists Come Together & Meet the Editor
    Slicker by Mary Whyte, 2010, watercolor. Watercolor magazine and the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York have come together for a very special event: WaterMedia Weekend 2011 . It is the opportunity for total immersion in the medium you love
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  • Painting with a ‘Show Me’ State of Mind
    Darrell Brown paints simple, seemingly timeless "portraits" of fruits and vegetables. A few days ago a reader came to me with a good point: If an artist running a workshop can talk about the philosophy behind his or her oil painting art, all
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  • Who Is the Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month?
    Come to the Artist Daily Facebook page and find out! Congratulate the winning painter and if you haven't already done so,'Like' us to show your support!
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  • Free Video Tutorial on Drawing: Using Three-, Two-, and One-Point Perspective
    When I was first introduced to the concept of linear perspective, I was fortunate because it wasn’t in a dry, boring geometry lesson but in an art history class, where it was touted as a feat of the High Renaissance and associated with some of the most incredible art and architecture in the world
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  • The One Skill Every Artist Needs
    As plein air artists, we have had to become very aware of our own visual filtering processes--our visual biases. We train ourselves to focus our eyes and our minds on the subject before us, but it is only when we can quiet the mind from labeling and judging what we see that we are ever able to truly
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  • Workshop, Summer 2010
    10 Keys To Making Accurate Judgments; Use Measurements & Simple Shapes for Better Portraits; Learn Variations of Impressionist Painting; 4 Stages Of Successful Plein Air Paintings
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  • Developing a Narrative Theme for an Oil Painting
    For a while now, I have been exploring narrative themes. This is what R. H. Ives Gammell called “poetical pictures.” In the 19th century, this was commonly referred to as “history painting”, but by history they did not just mean world events as we define the term. “Poetical
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  • Plein Air Painting Essentials: How to Paint Trees
    This plein air painting by Tom Brown is impressionistic, but gives you a distinct sense of the form and structure of the scrub tree he's painting. We often think of trees in a very human way—that they have personalities and traits that distinguish
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  • Video on Light and Shadow: Portrait Painting with Scott Burdick and Daniel Gerhartz
    The American Artist Weekend With the Masters events are always a whirlwind of activity—new people to meet, alluring art to gawk over, and then there are the workshops. Articulate, passionate artist-instructors share their own particular artistic
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  • I'm a Mixed Media Artist at Heart
    An artwork by Andrienne Shishko that has been stuck in my head from my last visit to Cloth Paper Scissors. To me, one of something is never enough. And that goes especially for my artistic interests. I love painting and drawing as you well know, but I
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  • Jumbo Fruit, Giant Seashells
    Lemons by James Tormey, oil on canvas. Natural objects in sharp detail--that says it all according to artist James Tormey. For him, creating great still life paintings is a matter of painting natural objects in sharp detail. Tormey works on large-scale
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  • Plein Air Painting Techniques: How to Paint Clouds
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  • Get Some Gallery Love: Part 1
    Why do so many artists seem to have a love-hate relationship with art galleries? On the one hand, galleries are still one of the most prestigious and effective means of selling art, but on the other, artists often trash talk many aspects of the gallery system. Thanks to my recent work in a great gallery
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  • Home Ground - Finding Inspiration in the Familiar
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  • Art for Thought: Raising the Bar
    David A. Leffel painted this self-portrait in the style of Rembrandt, one of history’s greatest portraitists. Collection Nancy Greenawalt. In the new Art for Thought column in American Artist magazine, I offer my observations and reflections on
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  • A Painter's Best Bet: Stay in Kindergarten
    Jeffree , oil, 18 x 15. All works by David A. Leffel. I spend a lot of time brainstorming how an artist can become an Old Master of the 21st century. What kind of confidence, skill, and vision will it take for an artist working today to gain that reputation
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  • If I Could Paint Any Four Walls
    After developing an unnatural dependency on my galoshes and stocking my kitchen shelves with an outrageous amount of sugary sweets in case of snowstorms, I’ve come to realize that it is nice to be on the inside, cozy and warm, looking out. My creature comforts appreciation has definitely also influenced
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  • How Do You Paint a Natural Wonder?
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  • Faith in the Wilderness--How One Oil Painting Artist Stays Committed
    Perhaps sometime over the last couple of years, you looked at your most recent drawing or oil painting and thought “Why am I doing this?” The economic recession has caused all of us to rethink our commitments and has given many artists reason to doubt that “making it” as a professional
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  • How’s Your Plein Air Vision?
    Somewhere out there, maybe even as you read this, a group of hungry, dedicated artists are taking a plein-air painting workshop. And at some point during this workshop—perhaps right at this very moment—one of those aspiring artists will ask the classic question voiced at least once in every
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  • An Artist's Logic: Perspective Drawing Basics
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  • 5 Surefire Plein Air Painting Techniques
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  • Inspired Vision - Why Traveling to New Landscapes is Important to the Plein Air Painter
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  • Oil on Canvas: What I'm Up To
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  • Is "How to Paint" the Right Question?
    When we start making art, we don't start from a position of, "I want to paint like so-and-so," or not even, necessarily, "I want to paint well." We should start from a position of, "I have a need to make art." This is an important principle; it gives us the strength
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  • What's Your Superfine Studio Solution? Tell Us & Win!
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  • 4 Tips to Master Self-Portrait Painting
    When it comes to choosing a subject to paint, one of the most convenient is the face you see in the mirror every day. But self-portraiture comes with a complicated set of questions—how do you see yourself versus how do you present yourself? What are you trying to communicate with the work? Who
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  • Spring 2011
    Turn Mistakes into Masterpieces; create the element of surprise with acrylics; get creative with Sunlight and Shadow; use value studies To Save Time; go inside Workshops With the Pros
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  • How to Paint a Piece of Americana
    Shaker Barns by Charles Sheeler, 1945, tempera on board. When I think of the features that make up a truly American landscape, there’s one structure that always sticks out in my mind—a big, broadsided barn. They dot the countryside from coast
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  • Plein Air Painting: Finding Your Commitment and Accountability
    This past Saturday was a beauty. The weather was warm enough to be outside comfortably, the light was sparkling, and it would have been a fine day to paint en plein air. Would have... if I had painted. But I didn’t. Instead, I went to a meeting and then spent the afternoon on the computer, completing
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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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  • Our March Facebook Painting of the Month is Here
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  • Extreme Painting - Part III: Painting the Winter Night en Plein Air
    I like pastel for winter work because of the ease of not having to deal with paint thinner, stiff paint, or mixing color on a palette. When winter graces us with her charms and everywhere you look is covered in a beautiful layer of snow, Ann and I get
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  • Free Video Demo—Watercolor Painting With Mary Whyte
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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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  • The Upside of Plein Air Competition
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  • Oil Painting, Studio Practice, and More from New Blogger Patricia Watwood
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  • Winners of American Artist and Drawing Cover Competitions Announced!
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  • Extreme Plein Air Painting - Part II: Shadow Light
    Tracks II by John Hulsey, pastel. With the high-contrast conditions of winter sun on brilliant snow, we have been exploring the colors of snow and shadows in our plein air paintings. Shadows are essential because they create the form and interest in a
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  • How Do You Make Art When You Feel Blocked?
    J.M.W. Turner's works are awe-inspiring because the artist started with movement and power, light and volume, before ever even settling on his subject. I hit a wall trying to write today. I wanted to write about the importance of expressing strong
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  • Drawing Lessons from Thomas Hart Benton
    Hollywood Note: Thursday Night at the ***-and-Bull, It's the Maid's Night Out by Thomas Hart Benton, 1937. A few weeks ago, I left Manhattan and went to Manhattan—Kansas, that is. I was a bit wary as I landed in the midst of a harsh storm
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  • Twilight Painting en Plein Air--No Vampires, Please
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  • Landscape Painter Clark Hulings Dies at Age 88
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  • How to Make a Drawing Look 3-D
    It's always with a bit of anxiety that I do a pencil drawing. I want the form to look as if the paper doesn't exist--as if the image is coming right off the page, and that is a challenging task. I caught Scott Waddell's second installment
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  • Extreme Plein Air Painting--Conquering Old Man Winter
    Fire and Ice by John Hulsey, watercolor. We both love painting landscapes outside, especially in the winter, when the air is clear and the landscape is reduced to its architectural purity. But winter weather conditions are rarely moderate in the places
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  • Caution! Handle With Care
    Vermillion, crimson, scarlet, fuchsia—the color red comes in so many different shades. And of all the colors in the spectrum, it’s the most easily visible. It’s also the hottest of the warm colors and has even been proven to raise blood pressure and respiration rates. No matter the
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  • Harnessing a Mercurial Medium
    The limbs of each figure is achieved with a quick stroke in this watercolor sketch by Wendy Artin. When I think of gesture drawings or quick studies, I see myself with a pencil in hand—that's always just made sense for those kinds of spirited
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  • Sunset En Plein Air
    A sunset sketch by painter Thomas Van Stein. This blog has been adapted from an article written by Allison Malafronte. Plein air painting is all about light and atmosphere. Painting during sunrise or in the heat and intense light of the day can result
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  • New Video--How to Block in a Portrait
    Scott Waddell is an artist that I'm just getting to know, but his expertise and skills speak for themselves. He's a classically trained painter who studied at the Florence Academy of Art as well as the Waterstreet Atelier with Jacob Collins, and
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  • Plein Air Painting: Isn’t It Romantic?
    Oak in the Snow by Caspar David Friedrich, 1825, oil, 44 x 34.5 cm, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany. I think all landscape artists and plein air painters have a touch of the romantic in them. It doesn’t really matter what type of landscape
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  • It's Finally Here: Our New Free eBook on Oil Painting Techniques
    I’ve always prided myself on learning good technique when faced with any new skill, and doing this has definitely made a difference. That goes for when I was learning to dance, swim, draw, or paint in oil. Art techniques were always especially rewarding to tackle this way, because once you grasp
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  • You're Gonna Need a Pair of Boots
    Painting outdoors in winter can be an extreme sport. The snow, the wind, the cold—it takes a certain kind of artist to paint a winter landscape while in a winter landscape. The first time I attempted this was a couple of years ago when I was living in Connecticut. Two feet of snow had fallen the
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  • How to Evaluate Your Outdoor Painting
    Thomas Van Stein's student stepped back, with the help of her instructor, to evaluate her work. This blog has been adapted from an article written by Allison Malafronte. Amidst all the sights, sounds, and smells that swirl around you when plein air
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  • Painting Instruction Highlights from Master Teachers, Fall 2009
    14 Top Instructors Share Their Secrets; How to Paint From Photographs; Complete Instruction in Painting Figures, Still Lifes & Landscapes; 12 Step-by-Step Demonstrations & Lists of Materials Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of American Artist Highlights.
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  • Artist Daily Facebook Painting of the Month for February
    Check out the Artist Daily Facebook page to see our February painting of the month, chosen from the Member's Gallery.
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  • A New Blogger and Checking Your Plein Air Painting Checklist
    A beautiful afternoon, some free time in the fresh air, a stunning location...I can’t wait for the weather to get just a touch warmer so I can get out and paint again. And as we look to the future, I’m thrilled to be joining all of you at Artist Daily as a regular blogger on the life of a
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  • Don't Fear the Pack
    As much as the stereotype of the solitary painter working alone and shutting him- or herself off from the world makes artists seem mysterious and cool, I’ve found that artists tend to be fairly social creatures, and their cool factor isn’t lessened by their sense of community. Sometimes this
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  • Artist Daily Video--Watch A Master Start A Portrait
    Imagine breaking down even the most complex painting into just a handful of shapes. Painter Ron Hicks has found that the process of painting a portrait can be intimidating, if not overwhelming, to even the most practiced painters because a lot of detail is often confused with what makes a successful
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  • Premixing Your Paints: Pros and Cons
    A lot of painters have strong opinions about whether or not it is helpful to premix colors on the palette before painting. I’m not talking about making your paints from scratch but rather about mixing a few colors, or even just one, after you’ve identified what the main colors in the work
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  • 3 Things a Painting Can’t Live Without
    Good painters don’t merely re-create what is in front of them. An experienced artist knows how to create a successful painting no matter what situation or model he or she is presented with. Of course, this often comes after years of practice and experimentation—as well as the development
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  • The Italians Got It Right
    For Renaissance Italians, great art was primarily about disegno , or drawing—but not just the process of drafting in itself. Disegno encompassed the intellectual aspect of an artwork in conjunction with technique. This shift in focus raised the status of the visual arts, which had been until that
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  • Tissues, Sand Paper, and Razorblades
    Beginning at the Water's Edge by Jovan Karlo Villalba, oil on stainless steel, 24 x 24, 2010. I sometimes put so much emphasis on what I’m painting—thinking about what makes a strong composition and how to lead a viewer through a work—that
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  • Learn the Latest Tips in Our Free Portrait Painting eBook
    Trying to capture the likeness of a person in a finite period of time and meeting the high expectations often associated with portraiture are far from effortless tasks. They take commitment and savvy to do well. Our eBook Oil Painting Lessons on How to Paint a Portrait: 15 Portrait Painting Techniques
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  • Workshop, Fall 2009
    Use a Limited Pallette for Greater Benefits; 10 Concrete Solutions for Figure Painting; How to Accurately See the Color Light; Andrea J. Smith; Bryan Mark Taylor; Steve Huston; Clayton J Beck III.
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  • Nature with a Bit of Edge
    Shaped by Reaction , acrylic on maple panel, 2010. All works by Tiffany Bozic. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery. Looking at San Francisco-based artist Tiffany Bozic’s work is a bit like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole: the natural world looks
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  • What's on the Radar of Young Artists?
    Study by Will Pierce, Maryland Institute, College of Art. I'm always eager to see what young artists are painting or drawing—what's capturing the attention of college art students and occupying their creativity. It is a way to discover how
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  • See & Draw in Italy This Year
    Margaret Krug is a skilled, compelling artist and instructor, and author of An Artist's Handbook: Materials and Techniques . This year she is taking a small group of students on an drawing odyssey of sorts, traveling to Spannocchia in central Italy
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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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  • Art Cheers to a New Year
    I wanted to take the opportunity to craft a New Year’s toast to acknowledge all the great art that has been created in the past and has yet to be done in the future; all the work being made across the world; and how thrilled I am to be part of the continuum. I want to hail all the ways we express
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  • American Artist Studios 2009
    50 Products Guaranteed to Improve Safety & Storage in Your Studio; 6 Historic Studios You Can Visit; Big Solutions for Small Spaces; Clever Ideas for Adapting a Bedroom, Garage, or Unused Space
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  • Party Hard—It’s Good for the Artistic Vision
    The Girl with the Wineglass by Johannes Vermeer, 1659. We are in a social time of the year. Holiday parties, galas, end-of-the-year revelries—there are celebrations galore. What’s great about such occasions for artists, in addition to seeing
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  • Be An Artist Who Cares Deeply
    During this time of the year, as acts of generosity and appreciation abound, I’m drawn to the works of the painters and draftsmen of the Ashcan School, which thrived during the early 20th century. This group of artists—among them Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, John French Sloan, and William
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  • Witness 15 Years of Painting
    I had the pleasure of meeting artist Christopher Pugliese recently, and thumbed through the catalog—hot off the presses—that will soon be out to accompany his solo museum show at the New Britain Museum of American Art . The exhibition, New/Now: Christopher Pugliese Paintings and Drawings
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  • Take Advantage of the Sights Around You
    I typically don’t carry around a sketchbook, but during this time of year I could make an exception. There is so much going on, and it seems like everywhere I look there’s a composition waiting to be found. Just yesterday I went for a walk, and the sight of a little girl tugging demandingly
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  • Artist Daily Latest eBook on Sketching Is Our Best Yet
    It’s tricky when an activity involves technique but is actually done best when you just get loose and let things happen naturally and effortlessly. Dancing is that way, and drawing is too. There are a lot of things to consider, but in the end you
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  • An Artist Tells All
    No apologies from me for that attempt at sensationalism (I would have written tabloid headlines in another life). The truth is I was lucky enough to sit down and chat with artist and instructor C.W. Mundy, who is generous with both his time and his talents. He has a new DVD— Mastering the Dramatic
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  • The Best Gift I Ever Received
    It was a collection of drawings, of course. My good friend from grad school, Amanda, made me a handmade miniature book filled with calligraphy and fun sketches of our time together in school. The cover is light blue and the pages are accordion-style, one folding over the next. The book is made from basic
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  • 5 Tips From Our Brand-New Workshop With the Masters Magazine
    If I have a single regret about attending American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters this past September, it is that I couldn’t be everywhere at once. Multiple times throughout the four days of the event, I found myself asking other participants something like, “You did what? Where
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  • Sketching My Family During the Holidays
    During family get-togethers when my younger cousins were much smaller, they would always want to draw together or for me to draw pictures for them. Oh, man, they set the bar high! Princesses in gowns, cars and trucks, monsters—my little cousin Austin once asked for a galloping horse that took an
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  • RayMar Art Competition is Here!
    The RayMar Art annual fine art competition is in its fifth year and has become a premier juried exhibition and contest in the art community. It is RayMar Art's way of simultaneously recognizing exceptional artwork and supporting working artists with substantial cash prizes.
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  • Don't Paint the Sky Blue!
    Because it’s hardly ever really blue. Think of Turner’s skies or even Monet’s—they are multifaceted and carry the hum of several colors. As many of us transition from painting outdoors to inside the studio, we can sometimes make assumptions and take certain things for granted
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  • Courtney's Favorite Resources
    As we head into the holiday season and finish up 2010, I did the math and realized I’ve been working here just a couple of months shy of a full year. It’s flown by! I’m loving my time at Artist Daily—communicating with painters and draftsmen, writing articles for our eNewsletters
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  • Who Needs a Passport When You’ve Got a Painting?
    I judge a successful cityscape painting by whether or not the architecture, the weather, and the figures—everything in the painting—combine to transport me somewhere different. If that happens and the barrier between my reality and the painted alternative gets a little blurry, letting me
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  • New Video Blog: See the Secret to Positioning Your Brush
    We’ve been cooking up the Artist Daily Video Blog for a while now, and I’m thrilled that it’s time to unveil it to all of you. The name says it all—it is a part of the Artist Daily blog that we will be creating in video form. There
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  • Free eBook—Full of Acrylic Painting Techniques for You
    Sunset in the Teton Valley by Gil Dellinger, 2008, acrylic, 16 x 20. Almost all the painting I did in college was with acrylics, and most of the students I worked in class with did the same. Painting with acrylics was our best option because the paints
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  • What If You Only Had Four Colors?
    Fred Schwartz, New York Architect by Mel Leipzig, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 52. Images courtesy Gallery Henoch, New York, New York . The idea gives me chills. For me, painting is all about color. It is the kaleidoscopic chroma that draws me in, and I usually
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  • The Wait Is Over—Cover Competition Winners Have Been Notified!
    We received hundreds of strong, compelling entries for the American Artist , Watercolor , and Drawing 2011 Cover Competitions. The American Artist editors have determined the winning pieces of art, and all finalists have been notified. The list of winners
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  • Take Sponsor Survey & You Get the Chance to Win a $100 Framing Gift Certificate
    Crescent Framing came to Artist Daily and asked us to post a link to the survey they are promoting about custom framing. I just did it and it took me about 10 minutes, but then I put in comments wherever it was an option—I can't help myself
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  • The Hand of the Artist
    Woman with Bird in Her Hair by Betye Saar, 2010, mixed media collage on paperboard,13 1/2 x 12. All works courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY. When I see an artwork behind glass or on a pedestal in the hushed atmosphere of a museum or
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  • Should You Paint Lies?
    Les reclus by Philippe Jacquet, 31 1/2 x 46 1/2. All images courtesy Axelle Fine Arts. Most painters I’ve spoken to say that it’s somewhat liberating to paint an imagined subject or a fictitious place. Working in such a way does come with
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  • Six American Artists Represent the U.S. in the 9th International Watercolor Biennial in Mexico
    Sunlight by Carol Carter, watercolor, 22 x 30. Mark Mehaffey, Nicholas Simmons, Keiko Tanabe, Carol Carter, Thomas W. Schaller, and Kathleen Alexander have formed the North American Watercolor Artists, a group of six U.S. watercolor artists, to represent
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  • Focus Your Artistic Trajectory
    Woman in Repose by Sherrie McGraw, sanguine and white conte, 10 x 15 1/2. Interacting with so many artists and writing about their work makes me think a lot about the kind of art I would personally like to make. With all the high-caliber paintings, collages
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  • She's a Powerhouse
    Story from New Smyrma Beach by Judy Pfaff, watercolor, oil stick, lace and doilies, 45 x 20, 2004. I'll admit that I have quite a few art idols. But I reserve my teen-girl Beatles shriek for a select handful, and Judy Pfaff is one of them. Her recent
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  • Artist Daily's Newest: All Media Photo Challenge
    This is the time of year when I like to take on something new. Summer is over and I want a fun goal on my horizon. Last year I trained with one of my best friends for a half-marathon. This year, it is the Artist Daily All Media Photo Challenge . We just
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  • It's Not in the Details
    Noelle with a Black Dress by Ron Hicks, 2007, oil, 20 x 16. Collection Gallery 1261, Denver, Colorado. I think photography has altered the way we judge the painted portrait. With the ability to capture a photographic likeness—from the details of
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  • A Studio Built for Two...or More
    Sharing studio space allows artists to come together for collaborations, or work side by side on personal projects. I’ve never shared a studio or work space, except for when I’ve been in the classroom. Which is weird because I’m social
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  • Respect for Your Fellow Artists in the Forums
    The forums at Artist Daily are meant to be a place for a respectful community of artists to come together. All members need to bring that mindset when coming to Artist Daily. That being said, this is a public forum, and we all need to stay aware of how
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  • December 2010
    On the Cover: Untitled (work in progress, detail, reversed) by Steven Assael. FEATURES The Interiors & Figurative Work of Ben Fenske: A Critical Look at Raw Talent by Allison Malafronte & Michael Gormley Two American Artist editors review the
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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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  • Is an Artist Born or Made?
    Jeremiah by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sistine Chapel, 1511. Rondanini Pieta by Michelangelo, 1564. I think the affinity that I have for art is definitely inborn. Art isn’t something I grew up with or was tutored in, so when I stumbled upon it on
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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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  • “I Will Astonish Paris with an Apple.”
    Still Life with Apples by Paul Cezanne, 1879. That’s a bold statement—even from Paul Cézanne—but the artist was true to his word. He set out to reinvigorate painting and he did just that. The French artist became the conduit between
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  • A Model’s Pose: It Needs to Come Naturally
    Artist Quang Ho seeks out a natural, effortless pose with his models. Photos by Manuel Rodriguez . I'm a lounger by nature. Why stand when I can sit? Why sit when I can curl up on the nearest comfy couch? This has made my posture the bane of my grandmother's
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  • What Painters Rarely Do
    The Lantern Bearers by Maxfield Parrish, 1908, oil on canvas board, 40 x 32. I have a confession to make: I've never glazed with oils. The process intimidates me a bit—creating luminosity and an inner glow on canvas is no easy feat—and
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  • Strong Concepts Lead to Lasting Artistry
    Rose Frantzen's portraits of the citizens of Maquoketa, Iowa. When an artist is primarily concerned with aesthetics his or her work can get boring for viewers pretty fast, especially in portraiture. Paintings of lovely women and blushing children
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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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  • Where Exceptional Artists Gather
    Watercolorist Stephen Scott Young getting into the details of his watercolor technique with students. All photos by Manuel Rodriguez . Artists of the past are often remembered as working solo, toiling alone in their private studios and intimate garrets
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  • Coming To You From Weekend With the Masters
    Artist and instructor Marcia Burtt painting a beach scene at Weekend With the Masters. I can honestly say I've never been to an event like American Artist's Weekend With the Masters workshop and conference, which is currently underway in Southern
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  • Don't Miss The Chance to Showcase Your Artwork on Our Magazine Covers!
    Rossina's Apple by William Rose, 2007, charcoal on museum board, 28 x 20. The American Artist , Watercolor , and Drawing magazine cover competitions offer once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to present your artwork in notable, public way. Imagine, your
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  • Counting Down to the Big Event
    Twilight by Anthony Ryder, 1998, pencil and pastel on gold paper, 25 x 19. The event I’ve been looking forward to since I came to Artist Daily is just a few days away. Weekend With the Masters 2010 is almost here. I’ve been told that the energy
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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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  • Watercolor, Fall 2010 - 25th Anniversary Issue
    On the Cover: Seaside Stroll (detail) by Alan Wylie, 1993, watercolor, 15 x 21. Private collection. FEATURES Artist to Artist: Dale Meyers Cooper With a career spanning nearly 50 years and work in the permanent collections of such institutions as the
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  • Break Through Your Creative Roadblocks
    Collage materials can be added to add visual interest and texture to a painting surface. Artwork by Misty Mawn. When I feel creatively blocked or bored, I revert back to childhood and start to play. Doodling, writing stream-of-conscious text, or painting
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  • Paint to Preserve the Scenery You Love
    As an artist who has painted the natural world for over 20 years, Adam Straus has a complicated connection to his environment. In the 1990s, he painted Oil Slicks , a series of paintings that referenced the oil spills that happened at the time, and the relevancy of these paintings has been asserted again
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  • Mary Whyte Interviewed on CBS!
    Mary Whyte was interviewed on CBS on Sunday about an inspiring portraiture project she's been work on. I got goosebumps! Go Mary! Plus! Our workshop DVD with Mary Whyte is available now!
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  • American Artist Studios 2010
    On the Cover: Nelson Shanks in the natural north light of his home and studio in Philadelphia. Photo: Nathan Kraxberger FEATURES The Proper Disposal of Supplies, Solvents, and Waste by Daniel Grant Artists savor many things, including sketches, correspondence
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  • Free Your Art From Predictability
    An artist shuts the door on inspiration and creative possibilities when he or she withdraws from exploring subject matter because there doesn’t appear to be anything new to say. Painting flowers or fruit can seem to lead down predictable paths, but there’s always another avenue to explore
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  • The Best Part of Painting?
    Clouds Moving , 1999-2009, oil on canvas, 31 1/4 x 37 1/2. All works by Bernard Chaet. Courtesy David Findlay Jr Fine Art . It’s the materiality—or, for many, that’s at least part of it. The buttery rich feel of paint moving across the
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  • Robert Kogge gallery
    In this special Artist Daily gallery, we present online reproductions of the work of Robert Kogge , who was featured in the September 2010 issue of American Artist . In the introduction to his article "The Still Lifes of Robert Kogge: More Than Meets
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  • October 2010
    On the Cover: First Light at Yellow Banks, Santa Cruz Island (detail) by David C. Gallup, 2010, oil, 8 x 10. Private collection. FEATURES Materials Roundup: Acrylic Paints & Products by Bob Bahr New acrylic paints and products have expanded the possibilities
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  • Drawing Magazine Goes to College
    Seated Muse by James Langley , a Foundation Studies professor at SCAD. The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) believes certain artistic skills and techniques are fundamental for all students, whether these students happen to be filmmakers, architects, fashion designers, animators, or fine artists
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  • What’s the Best Way to Create Your Studio Space?
    I remember the first time an artist invited me into his studio. It was truly a reflection of his personality and experiences—full of memorabilia from his travels in and around his childhood hometown in the Deep South, and neat as a pin, just like him. Organizing your studio space so that it fosters
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  • Cover Competition Deadline Fast Approaching
    Rossina's Apple by William Rose, 2007, charcoal on museum board, 28 x 20. It would be so exciting to have an Artist Daily member receive exceptional coverage from our print magazines by winning the cover competitions for American Artist , Watercolor
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  • Paint to Trick the Eye
    The best painters understand that they work to create an illusion. The sleight of hand that comes along with realist painting can be especially compelling when it hides in plain sight—when artists take on subjects that are almost diametrically opposed to the flat surface of their canvases and make
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  • Defy Expectations—See In a New Way
    No matter the venue, the accepted rule of thumb is that a painting should always be hung just above eye level. As a result, many artists create paintings with this point of view. Louisiana artist Mitchell Long seeks to subvert this expectation by manipulating vantage points in his paintings of landscapes
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  • Does Using Perspective Lead to Stronger Artwork?
    The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, c. 1435-55, tempera on wood. I'd have to answer with, "I'm not so sure." For me, studying Italian Renaissance and Baroque art meant spending a lot of time talking about how awesome linear perspective
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  • Paint for Peace
    La Danse (I) by Henri Matisse, 1909, oil on canvas,102.4 x 153.9 in. I've always believed that art speaks most profoundly when it actually has something to say. Communicating with a viewer is a powerful opportunity, and The Peace Project engages artists
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  • Drawing, Summer 2010
    On the Cover: Wet Hair (detail, reversed) by Jonathan J. Ahn, 2009, charcoal, 24 x 18. Collection the artist. FEATURES Choosing the Right Drawing Paper by Karen Meyer-Berthel The many differences between drawing papers can be so subtle that it is not
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  • Why Does This Painting Move Me?
    Kitchen Scene in the House of Mary and Martha by Diego Velázquez, c.1618. Ask yourself that question when you see an artwork you respond to and it might reveal what you strive for in your own artistic practice. In Diego Velázquez's Kitchen Scene in the House of Mary and Martha , the
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  • Make Every Brushstroke Powerful
    Have you ever approached a painting as if each stroke would be your last? Practitioners of calligraphy approach their art something like this, and the results are fresh and spontaneous, not overworked. Calligraphy has a long and rich history in Asia, and it has made a powerful impact abroad, with its
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  • Drawing with Thread, Paint, Paper & Pen
    Whiskey Creek (Spring) By Kate Ha rding, 2008, found leather garments, thread, grommets, and steel hooks, 54 x 35. One of the things I love about the artistic process is that we all share the need to put our creative energy into practice, we do it in so many different ways, and yet we usually have a
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  • Take Your Painting Skills Abroad
    Breakthroughs in our artistic practices often come with a change—of venue, of process, or even from within our own creative mindsets. Workshops offer the opportunity to step outside the studio, and suddenly we can see and evaluate from a completely different vantage point.
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  • How to Connect to the Landscape You Paint
    Spring Thunder by Mark Haworth, 2008, oil, 24 x 36. Sometimes it is difficult to put aside real-world stresses and tasks when it comes time to pursue our art. To-do lists, family matters, and social obligations crowd in, making it almost impossible to concentrate. One of the ways I clear my head is to
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  • Are You Using This Critical Painting Technique?
    The process of underpainting has such a buttoned-up reputation. If it were cast in a movie, it would be the uptight, by-the-book stickler that no one wants to hangout with. That’s because the process of underpainting is often associated with a belabored, rigid series of steps that delays us from
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  • September 2010
    Experiment with Acrylic; Learn from the Masters: Hawthorne, Hensche & Sargent show you how to become A better artist; Drawing from Life; Combine Media in Deep & Meaningful Still Lifes
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  • Draw on Tradition to Create Lasting Art
    I'm always surprised-and, okay, a little peeved-when my mention of an arts background is often met with a puzzled look followed by the somewhat skeptical question, "What do you do with that?" The truth is there's a lot to do with that, especially now-at a time when images are all around
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  • Drawing Magazine Cover Competition Winner’s Incredible Success Story
    Recently, I was forwarded a letter from William Rose, the winner of a previous Drawing magazine cover competition. The events that came out of his winning the competition and having his work on the cover of the magazine (and, therefore, on newsstands all over the country) speaks to how entering American
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  • Free eBook for Your Best Summer Outdoor Painting Experience
    With summer in full swing, I've been spending as much time as possible outdoors, going to concerts and plays, walking from place to place when I do my errands, and just finding every excuse for an outdoor excursion. Plein air painting is another perk of the season. There's something invigorating
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  • Check Out the Finalists of the Watercolor Cover Competition!
    Hundreds of artists submitted their artwork to this year’s Watercolor cover competition, and determining a winner was quite challenging. After carefully reviewing all the entries, the editors of Watercolor chose nine finalists, and we’re pleased to announce that Teri Starkweather is this
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  • Learn to Paint the Unexpected
    Artists are the sharpest of observers, attuned to a person's passing gesture or the play of light and shadow on a building façade—but not everything that catches our eye is a painting waiting to happen. For Utah watercolorist Joseph Alleman , the stories that hold his interest are reflections
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  • Create Paintings That Mean So Much More
    Figurative realism and allegory go hand in hand. Allegories—complex narratives built on layers of symbolism—are what allow works by Caravaggio, Titian, Bernini, Dürer, and Vermeer to carry resonance and remain intriguing centuries after they were created. Even though the power of storytelling
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  • Best of Watercolor, 2010
    On the Cover: Barrens in October (detail) by Paul Rickert, 2002, watercolor, 11 x 14. Collection the artist. Artists In This Issue Anne Abgott Jane Paul Angelhart Sue Archer Bo Bartlett Dan Brown Peggy Brown Carl Dalio Sondra Freckelton Laurin McCracken
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  • Break the Rules to Find Your Signature Style
    Brooklyn-based artist Allison Maletz doesn't want to use watercolor in a traditional way. Although her work is representational and often figure-based, exploring themes of human connection and the quirky, often dysfunctional, "average American family," she refuses be bound by any rules
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  • Plein Air Classes at WWM 2010
    American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference will be arriving on the sunny shores of Southern California this September 22-26, in our second-annual presentation of this four-day event. Workshops, demos, lectures, panel discussions, and evening events from more than 25 instructors
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  • Find Your Unique Approach to an Established Subject Matter
    I've grown to appreciate floral paintings. Of course, flowers are nice to look at, and I recognize the technical skill needed to paint them, but I wasn't always certain of the appeal of the subject matter. The question of how an artist approaches a bouquet of roses or a pot of fuchsias in a unique
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  • Gain Artistic Momentum by Competing and Exhibiting
    Pivotal moments in my life have often-to take a line from Ernest Hemingway-come "gradually, then suddenly." Nothing appears to be on the horizon, but then a few things fall into place, then a few more, and suddenly I'm in a whole new situation. It's often the same for artists who begin
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  • Watercolor, Summer 2010
    On the Cover: Sunflowers and Coffee (detail, reversed) by Teri Starkweather, 1999, watercolor, 40 x 30. Private collection. Mixing Careful Planning With Spontaneity FEATURES Winners of the 2010 Cover Competition Hundreds of artists submitted their artwork
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  • Paint the Human Body in Action
    Alaska-born artist Steven Huston knows that when there's no mammoth sports arena or cheering crowds, an athlete on the field of play can easily turn into an artist's ideal model. Even without motion, an athletic figure still possesses an interesting pose, physical awareness, and conceptual power
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  • July/August 2010
    How to Paint Landscapes; 10 Cover Contest Winners Offer You Their Best Advice; Combine Watermedia & Pastel for Inspired Results; Express Content with Fewer Brushstrokes
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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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  • Discover How to Use an Extensive Painting Palette
    There is nothing that defines an artist quite like his or her palette. Some consist of premixed colors and others are developed in the moment, determined by the needs of each painting. Some artists are meticulously organized, with paints arranged by color temperature, while other artists arrange colors
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  • How to Successfully Paint Color Relationships from the Start
    Painting instructors often ask students to consider two important relationships between the colors squeezed out on their palettes: value and temperature. By that they are asking them to consider whether one color mixture is lighter or darker than another, and whether the mixtures tend to have a warm
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  • Landscape Gems in Christie's Auction
    For all you landscape painters, collectors, and connoisseurs out there who happen to have a half million or more lying around, I wanted to tell you about some of the amazing landscape work for sale in the “Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures” auction opening today at Christie’s
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  • Learn How to Paint Like a Sculptor
    Weekend With the Masters instructor Jacqueline Kamin paints with a sculptural sensibility that isn’t at all foreign to her practice. Earlier in her career she spent time as a bronze bust sculptor. “Working with sculpture is a lot of fun,” Kamin says. “It is very tactile and organic
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  • Fictitious Portraits Blur Photographic Reality With Artistic Choice
    I’m from a card-playing family, so when it comes to discussions about artists using reference photographs, I always think in terms of watching for a “tell.” Like in poker—where players’ subtle mannerisms can reveal whether they are bluffing—portraits created by closely
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  • What Every Artist Can Learn From Plein Air Painting
    After several months of hiatus, the Plein Air blog is back! Our new Artist Daily editor, Courtney Jordan, and I have worked out a biweekly schedule to get the Plein Air blog back on track, and I’m excited to resume coverage of the artists, events, exhibitions, tools and tips, and conservation issues
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  • Drawing, Spring 2010
    On the Cover: Idaline (detail) by Anthony Ryder, 2007, graphite and pastel on tinted paper, 14 x 10. Collection the artist. FEATURES The Ryder Studio School: Drawing on Light & Form by Allison Malafronte Artists who want to learn Anthony Ryder’s
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  • Recouping Lost Artistic Opportunities
    It’s often the case that when you live somewhere, you don’t take full advantage of the opportunities that the place affords, and only after leaving do you realize how valuable those opportunities were. This can be true for artists, who, after moving, may regret not utilizing a strong local
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  • Adaptability and Durability are Proven Aspects of Encaustic Painting
    After spending all day sitting at my desk, click-click-clicking away on my computer, I savor getting out and being active, especially if I’m learning a new activity or skill. It’s the difference between reading through the steps of a complicated, unfamiliar process and actually seeing it
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  • Workshops Raise the Bar for Artists
    Robert Johnson strikes the perfect balance between master artist and down-to-earth mentor, supporting his students while pushing them to create the best works that they can. At a recent three-day workshop sponsored by The Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, Johnson led students through the stages
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  • American Artist Cover Contest Finalists Announced
    After receiving hundreds of submissions, the editors of American Artist have chosen the 2010 Cover Competition finalists! The winner will be contacted in the next few weeks, and his or her artwork will be featured on the cover of the July/August issue. Congratulations, finalists!
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  • June 2010
    SPECIAL REPORT Explore New Creative Ideas With Acrylics; Learn From Sorolla’s Epic Masterpiece; Increase the Drama in Pastel Paintings; How to Plan & Improve Your Watercolors
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  • New eBook Teaches Acrylic Painting in 7 Steps
    Paintings of the sheer peaks of the Alps or serpentine glimmer of the Hudson River showcase the awe-inspiring characteristics of the natural world. But there’s something equally compelling about depictions of interior spaces. Think of how bleak and bereft Edward Hopper’s bedroom scenes are
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  • Understanding Anatomy Leads to Artistic Accuracy
    When I look at Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes , I always focus on Judith’s clenched fist in the foreground; to me, it reinforces the physical violence of the scene. Viewing Auguste Rodin’s Burghers of Callais I gain a heightened awareness of my own body, as if I too
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  • Art of Fresco Relies on Drawing Ability
    “If the drawing is wrong, the fresco is wrong.” With that, master craftsman and fresco instructor Walter O’Neill began a fresco workshop that I attended a few weeks ago at the Morgan Library & Museum, in New York City. Fresco painting has become somewhat of a lost art over the centuries
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  • When Your Art Goes on the Road
    Gaining exposure and recognition for one’s work starts with putting finished pieces in the public and critical eye. This can mean participating in local community shows or full-fledged exhibitions, entering competitions, and hanging pieces in galleries. It is an exciting prospect, but it can also
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  • Still Life Painting Higlights
    25 Skilled ArtistsTeach Their Best Techniques; Step-by-Step Lessons & Lists of Materials; How to Paint Floral Still Lifes With Skill & Understanding
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  • Does Your Artwork Start Before You Make a Mark?
    In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Invitation to a Beheading , the pencil is described as the “enlightened descendant of the index finger.” That sounds about right, especially considering the pride of place that artists often afford their pens, brushes, and pencils. For many artists, however
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  • May 2010
    Special Report: "Green" Products for Artists; Use the Right Practices to Paint Better; Paint Classical Themes in a Contemporary Context; How to Judge Values Accurately.
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  • Artists are Adventurers at Heart
    A few of my artistic heroes get worse than no respect. They get anonymity. Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, Philip Gidley King, James Cook, Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres, John James Audubon—all were artistic adventurers, and most of them are virtually unknown.
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  • Helping Our Pint-Size Artists
    A couple of years ago I wrote an article about an education program that introduced modern art to children in a museum setting. After seeing the artwork, the kids then had the opportunity to make their own pieces. In the workshop, they acted like successful artists—fearless, opinionated, and not
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  • Watercolor, Spring 2010
    On the Cover: Let Me Out (detail) by Catherine P. O’Neill, 2008, watercolor, 18 x 22. Collection the artist. Stephen Scott Young: A Modern Master Explores New Subjects & Techniques Thinking More, Painting Less DEPARTMENTS Editor's Note Contributors
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  • Drawing Skills Can Bring New Life to Your Painting
    I’ve always thought of a painter’s drawings as his or her diary. A finished painting is the confident, public face shown to the world, but drawings read like journal entries, where you can see an artist’s preoccupations, struggles, moments of exploration, and sense of play.
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  • Take Advantage of Our Plein Air Expertise
    Kevin Macpherson is a renowned artist and instructor with 30 years of plein air painting experience. For newcomers, painting en plein air means literally, painting “in the open air,” and is the genre associated with painting outdoors. In 1996, Macpherson challenged himself to what I’d
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  • A New Take on Still Life Painting
    A still life changed my life?! It sounds corny, but it’s a little bit true! It was Francisco de Zurbarán’s Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose . He was a Spanish Baroque painter and I was a freshman searching for a major. Bliss and art history degrees followed.
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  • Free Tips and Techniques for Painting Oil Landscapes
    With landscape artist Chris McHenry's hard-won oil painting tips and techniques, you’ll start to understand how to create a realistic sense of contrast for objects in your paintings, establish depth and focus in a landscape painting with a balance of warm and cool colors, and more. Attending
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  • Fresh Face at Artist Daily
    Good morning, Artists! I'm so glad to be here! I've been behind the scenes for a few weeks, getting to know the ins and outs of Artist Daily and getting to know you (and your work!) through the forums and galleries. And while I may be a newcomer, I’m no fool! It didn’t take me any
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  • American Artist: Everything You Need to Know About Plein Air Painting
    On the Cover: Deb Painting Spring Creek (detail) by Edward Martinez, 2006, oil, 22 x 14. Collection the artist. Jim Wilcox: Western Landscapes Using Plein Air Sketches, Photographs, Research, & Imagination to Create Studio Paintings Plein Air Past
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  • April 2010
    How to Paint With Spontaneity & Insight; Benefit from a Beginner's; Sense of Adventure; Bring Drawings to Life In Watercolor Paintings; Professional Advice on Painting With Pastel, Oil & Watercolor and much more!
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  • Watercolor Paintings & Silverpoint Drawings by Stephen Scott Young
    Stephen Scott Young is one of the most successful, talented, and humble artists I know, and I was delighted to write about his recent work for the spring 2010 issue of Watercolor . His watercolors are currently on view at Adelson Galleries , in New York
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  • Finding Your Personal Style
    It’s often said that artists don’t find their personal style—it finds them. Although I agree with this statement, I found in my experience that individual style develops only after a number of other tasks are accomplished. All professional
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  • Drawings by Old Masters: Lasting Influences
    Two exhibitions of Old Master drawings that are currently on view in New York City— Rome After Raphael , at the Morgan Library & Museum, and The Drawings of Bronzino , at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—explore several interesting issues
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  • Oil Critique: "Hillside of Poppies"
    Hillside of Poppies 2008, oil, 24 x 30. I have a few suggestions to offer for this painting. The artist may want to consider showing some cast shadows across the path. These shadows would have the same direction as the shadows of the trees, bushes, and
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  • Taking Advantage of Free Instruction
    I recently joined a gym in my neighborhood, with the hopes of working off some of those extra holiday pounds that seem to wear out their welcome around this time every year. My schedule is pretty busy, so I try to streamline my visits, making a beeline
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  • Group Dynamics
    They always say that two heads are better than one. But as an only child, I tended to stick to myself, and I hated group projects and asking for help. Luckily, as I got older, I became more comfortable working with others and recognizing when I needed
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  • Oil Critique: "Portrait of an Old Man"
    Portrait of an Old Man by Roger Burch, 2009, oil on linen, 20 x 16. The artist of this painting may want to consider lightening the irises of the eyes—especially the man’s right eye, since it is farther away from the viewer. Some edges of
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  • Sight-Size Drawing and Painting
    I've written a number of articles on artists who use the sight-size approach to painting, but the method became clearer to me while I was writing an article on Paul DeLorenzo for the spring 2010 issue of Workshop . The procedure is to stand a measured
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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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  • Paint Landscapes From Sketches, Memory, and Photographs
    Ever since my trip to Venice, Italy, last year, I have been looking at paintings of the city by 19th-century artists such as Sargent and Whistler, as well as contemporary artists such as Steve Rogers and Leonard Mizerek . I've become more aware of
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  • Free Watercolor Painting Tips and Techniques
    It’s often said in sports circles that the best players often make the worst coaches. That’s because it is hard for naturally gifted athletes to relate to players who are not so innately talented. A perfect example of this is former Boston
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  • How To Hang Your Show Like A Pro
    When I moved to New Hampshire in the mid-1990s, I joined a local art association where the members were a mixture of "newbies" as well as seasoned professionals. In many cases the "old pros" helped us newbies learn, not only how to
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  • Looking at the Drawings of a Master
    A few days ago I was lucky enough to head uptown to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a preview of their new exhibition, “ The Drawings of Bronzino .” The show (which runs through April 28) comprises almost all of the extant drawings by Agnolo
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  • "Greening" the Studio
    In December, I had the opportunity to meet quite a few art material retailers from around the country and Canada as I mentioned in the post on Dragon Art . We had some interesting discussion about what materials artists are gravitating towards these days
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  • What makes art original?
    David Leffel and Jeremy Lipking painting the same model at the same time at 2009 Weekend with the Masters I saw a very interesting post on our site this week about what makes art original, or possibly what defines a piece as original art versus not original
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  • Reflections on a Pond Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club
    8.4.00, 7:45 p.m. by Kevin Macpherson, 2000, oil, 6 x 8. Collection the artist. Internationally celebrated landscape painter Kevin Macpherson’s Reflections on a Pond series—which debuted at the Pasadena Museum of California Art—will
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  • March 2010
    1000+ Great Workshops & Art Classes Our 47th Annual Directory; Be Guided By Your Artistic Voice; Combine & Enhance Images With Acrylic Paints & Mediums; Interpret Reality With Colored Pencils
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  • Watercolors by Architects
    Greek Steps, Sifnos by Thomas W. Schaller, 2008, watercolor, 12 x 9. I just finished writing an article on Thomas W. Schaller's watercolor paintings for the April 2010 issue of American Artist, and it occurred to me that Thomas is the third licensed
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  • Flexible New Year's Resolutions
    I rather enjoy making New Year's resolutions; however, I've come to the conclusion that artists would do better making flexible plans rather than writing goals in stone. It seems that my business plans are better off being designed around themes
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  • When the Weather Outside is Frightful
    It always surprises me how much my internal state is affected by my surroundings. I normally love wandering the streets of New York City, window shopping, taking photographs of interesting views, and maybe waiting in line for an exhibition or live performance
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  • Painting From Photographs
    I normally work from plein air sketches or my imagination, but this scene I photographed while on vacation in Costa Rica was just too beautiful to pass up. As most artists do when working from a photo, I made adjustments to the composition to better suit
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  • Finding Your Authentic Voice
    Bianca by Nancy Guzik, 1990, oil, 40 x 24. Private collection. It’s a new year and a new decade, and no doubt some of your 2010 resolutions relate to your art career. Whether you’ve promised to make more time for drawing or painting, have
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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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  • Happy Holidays from Artist Daily!
    The American Artist offices will be closed through the New Year so we wanted to take a minute to wish everyone here at Artist Daily a Happy Holidays! We'll see you all in 2010!
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  • February 2010
    On the Cover: Winter Glow (detail) by Neal Hughes, 2008, oil, 16 x 20. Collection Dr. Pat White. Blending Traditions of Still Life Painting Representation & Invention in Watercolor DEPARTMENTS Editor’s Note Letters What’s New at artistdaily
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  • The Road to Success
    Curt Walters started his demonstration painting along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon by lightly indicating the placement of shapes. By all measures, my friend Curt Walters is one of the most successful artists in the country, certainly among artists
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  • A Simple Formula for Pricing Artwork
    Pricing artwork is one of the most complex tasks that emerging artists face, especially when they first begin to work with galleries. It's easy to see by reading art business articles and books on art marketing that the opinions of the experts vary
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  • Taking a Creative Gamble
    I recently met an artist who said, completely nonchalantly, “I never sketch, I never throw out a painting, and I’m always pleased with my final work.” If only we could all be so lucky! Sometimes when I’m writing a drawing basics
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  • 24 Tips to Learn How To Paint a Plein Air Landscape
    Our newest free eBook, “24 Tips to Learn How to Paint a Plein Air Landscape,” is now available to download, and in it you’ll find tips on how to get started working en plein air and how to improve your en plein air painting technique
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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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  • Watercolor, Winter 2010
    On the Cover: Breakfast Club (detail) by Gordon France, 2004, watercolor, 20 x 28. Private collection. Artist to Artist: Dean Mitchell Modern Masters: Jan Kunz DEPARTMENTS Editor's Note Contributors Noteworthy FEATURES Weekend With the Masters Review
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  • Working With Your Instincts
    by Naomi Ekperigin When landscape painter Mikel Wintermantel agreed to an interview for Watercolor, I was both nervous and excited. Wintermantel is a Copley Master painter who works in the luminist style developed by the Hudson River School. His work
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  • The Breakfast Club
    Back in 1994, after my husband and I relocated to New Hampshire, an artist friend invited me to join a group of painters and photographers who met every Wednesday morning at a quaint café in downtown Nashua. This group of about a dozen artists
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  • Watercolor Painting as Live Performance
    The beach scene in Manuel Antonio. I normally paint with oils mixed with Galkyd fast-drying medium, so I assume I can make radical changes in the composition of shapes, values, and colors as I formulate the intended outcome of my pictures. But I had to
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  • En Plein Air: Holiday Exhibitions & Shows
    ‘Tis the time of the year when galleries across the country host their annual holiday exhibitions, giving artists, dealers, and collectors the opportunity to gather around great art and share some Christmas cheer. Whether these shows are organized
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  • January 2010
    On the Cover: Sunflowers I (detail) by Patricia Tribastone, 2007, pastel on prepared board, 24 x 18. Collection the artist. Drawing Upon Local Community & Landscape Painting My Hometown From Photographs DEPARTMENTS Editor’s Note Letters What’s
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  • American Artist’s First Annual Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference: A Historic Event!
    Several of the masters gathered together for a photo during the Saturday evening “Encouraging the Mastersof Tomorrow” silent auction and reception. From left to right: American Artist editor-in-chief M. Stephen Doherty, Joseph McGurl, Kevin
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  • How Do You Improve Your Artwork?
    New Utrecht Avenue 2008, watercolor, 25 x 35. Private collection. I need personal time in the studio to reflect, journal, and work. I experiment, draw, play, and entangle myself in the nitty-gritty of working on my own craft. It is never enough time,
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  • Oil Critique: "Welsh Landscape"
    Welsh Landscape by Patti DeWitt, 2007, oil, 16 x 20. A common challenge in painting summer landscapes is that there is usually so much green. In these cases artists can take lots of “artistic license” and have fun mixing lots of different
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  • Free Instructions for Painting With Oils
    Joe Gyurcsak explaining his palette to a workshop class. I fancy myself to be a halfway-decent cook, although undoubtedly an amateur. I often find that the best way to unwind after a long day is to put my thoughts aside and create a meal for my family
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  • Selling Without Galleries
    Over the past decade, I've worked with half a dozen commercial galleries, and although I enjoyed the prestige of being able to say that I am represented by a gallery, the truth is that I've been able to sell my artwork better on my own. Many of
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  • Important New Research on Artists and Art Materials
    It’s quite probable that you were already creating artwork by the time you were 20 years old. In fact, you were likely spending a good bit of time drawing, painting, sculpting, or crafting when you were 12. Those are two of the inferences that might
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  • Watercolor Critique: "Mountain"
    Mountain by Michele A. Congdon, 2008, watercolor, 18 x 22. Three things would help this painting. First, the artist can vary the softness and hardness of edges. Edges in the distance can be made softer, even losing some into the sky. Second, the artist
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  • What Is Your Inspiration?
    My earliest childhood memory is drawing. I was lying on the couch in the living room at age two and a half, and my mother was a glance away in the kitchen. I had a red ballpoint pen and a picture book. Gleefully, I drew a large red oval on the back cover
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  • Cover Competition Deadline Extended
    Rossina's Apple (detail) by William Rose. Winner of the 2008 Drawing Cover Competition. In our culture, as print has taken hold over the last few centuries and magazines have developed into microcultures of their own, we've grown used to watching
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  • Art Instruction in Our New Video Gallery
    Artists are continually looking for new sources of advice and inspiration, which is probably one of the main reasons you’re receiving this newsletter and visiting the Artist Daily website. A perfect example of artists’ desire to learn can
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  • Never Stop Learning
    Some of my artist friends regret that they never attended an art college or university. It might surprise some of you to know that I majored in art at a large university and have a bachelor's degree in fine-art education. Being able to share my experiences
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  • Brushing Shoulders With Celebrities
    I recently had to select five security questions in order to gain access to a website, one of which asked me to name the most famous person I’ve met. That got me thinking about the fact that artists often brush shoulders with prominent individuals
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  • En Plein Air: One of the First Filmed Plein Air Painters
    Although revered for his portrait work and known for being an artistic rival of his contemporary John Singer Sargent, Philip de László also painted landscapes, and one of the first known film documentations of an artist painting en plein air depicts him. That film clip of the artist painting
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  • Watercolor Critique: "Sofie"
    Sofie by Nora Velastegui Pettersson, 2004, watercolor, 22 x 18. The artist has created an engaging portrait of a young woman. I especially like the simplicity of the nose and the mouth. The forehead has a great sense of roundness. Parts of the hair could
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  • Free Lessons From Top Watercolor Artists
    The basic set of supplies John Hulsey uses when painting on location. The recent spat of wet weather in New York has made it difficult to get outside to paint, but that doesn’t mean we in the American Artist offices haven’t been thinking about
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  • Showcase Your State: North Carolina Finalists!
    The American Artist editors have reviewed the submissions for the Showcase Your State: North Carolina contest, and below are the four chosen finalists. Whether it was expansive views of the Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the Highlands; still, serene
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  • Lanny Rosenbaum 1944–2009
    American Artist would like to acknowledge the passing of Lanny Rosenbaum of *** Blick Holdings, who passed away on October 26 from pancreatic cancer after a two-year illness. Rosenbaum joined Blick in 1997 as the vice-president of sales and marketing
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  • Cover Contest Winners
    If you are one of Daniel James Keys’ 463 friends on Facebook, you’ve noticed that he used the cover of the July/August issue of American Artist as his avatar, the small image that appears when he posts a comment or news of his professional
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  • Pastel Critique: "Mountain Stream"
    Mountain Stream by Mary Ann Stafford, 2008, pastel, 18 x 24. The rocks and water in the foreground are very effective. I would like to have more of an impression that the water on the back waterfall is moving toward the viewer and connecting with the
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  • December 2009
    Check out what's featured in the December 2009 issue of American Artist .
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  • Building Rich and Full Layers
    By subtly layering pastel, Marlene Wiedenbaum creates a luscious and convincing sense of the world.
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