All Entries in the "Fine Art and Painting" Category
Light and Color Illusions in Art
I came upon something today that I just had to share with fellow artists. Lotto Lab has created a set of powerful color, motion and shape illusions that are quite relevant to us as artists as we strive to communicate accurate color and light in our paintings. Much of Lotto Lab’s research is centred on [...]
Will Art Magazines Move to iPad?
As I have said before, the odds are good that Apple’s iPad will breathe new life into the publishing industry. Having been involved in marketing and advertising for the past 20 years, I have seen with my own eyes what the web has done to many trade magazines. Most seem to be scrambling to come [...]
“Mining Museum” Final Oil Painting
After struggling to paint the dormant cottonwood trees that are at the location of the museum, I decided to replace them with evergreens. Unless I decide to move to the deserts of the Middle East, I need to spend some time learning to paint a variety of trees. I liked the look of the house [...]
Accurate drawing before painting
In my obsessive quest to learn as much as possible about the process of creating successful oil paintings, I am reading Richard Schmid’s highly acclaimed book, Alla Prima. My project for this weekend is to take some of the elements I have learned from my month of drawing exercises and apply them to my painting [...]
Guess the portrait, get an apron!
This will be my last graphite drawing for a while. I have decided that I need to get back to the brushes and start making some progress on my painting. I must admit though, these drawing exercises have been a good study in observation and control. They have really taught me to look for the [...]
Graphite Portrait
I figure I am kidding myself to think I can paint a portrait if I can’t draw one. So, more drawing it is. I am trying to focus on the anatomical foundation of facial features as well as the delicate values that define them. I don’t think I would ever paint to this level of [...]
Richard Schmid “The Landscapes” Book Review
The written word in Richard Schmid’s latest book, The Landscapes, is as eloquent as his paintings. “That sort of endurance and never-give-up mindset became bedrock conviction in my art…My countless early failures in painting were simply provocations to try harder,” he writes in a section entitled The Midwest and Chicago. “In order to render my [...]
There is a Santa Claus!
What to my wondering eyes should appear, but the FedEx man with a package full of Christmas cheer! So I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I have been pouring over my new Richard Schmid book, “The Landscapes.” Unfortunately the bindery on the huge hard bound book had a problem near the front. Considering [...]
Lake Garda Hotel Sketch
This is a sketch of a really sweet looking hotel we saw while visiting Lake Garda in Italy last summer. It was a beautiful clear day and the harsh light on the building caught my eye. I am trying to focus on values and edges at the moment and sketching seems like the best way [...]
English Cottage Sketch
I’ve been pouring over my new Richard Schmid book, “The Landscapes,” for the past week feeling motivated and wholly inadequate at the same time. I have to keep telling myself that this guy has a few decades of canvas on me. What was also mildly depressing was that the paintings in the book from 1967 [...]