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Published On: Oct 19, 2005 12:44 AM
Published On: Oct 19, 2005 12:44 AM
Make your own iPhoto Books
How to get great results from iPhoto books,
which make great portfolios to send to Art Directors.
Read More
Sketches From the Front: An Artist's Dispatches, Rendered in Ink and
Paint
Interesting reading here. Check out these on the
spot drawings! This is what it's all about, folks. Look at his focus, his lights
and darks. This guy is nailing it. And, too, read his words. Great stuff here
that we can all learn
from.
George
George
Read More
Thu - April 1, 2004
Why the Sky Was Red in Munch's 'The Scream'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For those who have ever
wondered why the sky was a lurid red in "The Scream" -- Edvard Munch's painting
of modern angst -- astronomers have an answer.
Posted at 02:27 PM Read More
Sun - March 28, 2004
Interesting article about Dave McKean on the Apple Computer site.
I've known Dave for many, many years and he's as
fervent an Apple user as myself. I'll bring in one of his movies for our
Sequential class to see. But the article is a good one. Check it out
here.
Posted at 11:38 AM Read More
NEW INTERVIEW UP
I have just been interviewed by "The Drunken
Prophet" on line. For anybody interested here's the link.
Posted at 11:32 AM Read More
Mon - March 1, 2004
short stories
Okay, We've whittled down the story list to these
guys, plus the time travel story by Finney, which I'll get up Wednesday night or
Thursday afternoon.
...Roald Dahl is the guy who wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and he is also the guy who coined the term "Gremlin" during WWII. He was a fighter pilot in WWII and wrote two fantastic autobiographies about his experiences, one called "Boy" the other called "Going Solo."... He also has many books of just short stories, which these stories were culled from.
Richard Matheson wrote many of the great Twilight Zone stories. He also wrote "The Incredible Shrinking Man", "I Am Legend", "Stir of Echoes", "Time After Time" all of which were made into films years ago. Again, a great short story writer.
Jack Finney is a wonderful writer who wrote mostly about time travel. His greatest novel is "Time and Again", but he also wrote "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Forgotten News". Our story, "Of Missing Persons" is from a collection of short stories called "About Time." These books are still in print and are worth the read. As I mentioned in class, if you see a time travel movie they will usually have a scientist named Finney as a tip of the hat to Jack Finney.
...Roald Dahl is the guy who wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and he is also the guy who coined the term "Gremlin" during WWII. He was a fighter pilot in WWII and wrote two fantastic autobiographies about his experiences, one called "Boy" the other called "Going Solo."... He also has many books of just short stories, which these stories were culled from.
Richard Matheson wrote many of the great Twilight Zone stories. He also wrote "The Incredible Shrinking Man", "I Am Legend", "Stir of Echoes", "Time After Time" all of which were made into films years ago. Again, a great short story writer.
Jack Finney is a wonderful writer who wrote mostly about time travel. His greatest novel is "Time and Again", but he also wrote "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Forgotten News". Our story, "Of Missing Persons" is from a collection of short stories called "About Time." These books are still in print and are worth the read. As I mentioned in class, if you see a time travel movie they will usually have a scientist named Finney as a tip of the hat to Jack Finney.
Posted at 09:26 PM Read More
Thu - February 26, 2004
Wally Wood's 22 panels that always work
This is a great little sheet put together
years ago by Wally Wood. If you don't know who Wally Wood is, then you need to
do some research into his background.
Posted at 07:22 PM Read More
Wed - February 25, 2004
Band of Brothers PDF
Take this and go to town on the sequence.
Design comic pages utilizing these shots and anything else you'd like to use to
spice up the storytelling visually.... How can comics be more effective than
film?
Posted at 09:11 PM Read More
Mon - February 23, 2004
Sun - January 4, 2004
Wed - November 26, 2003
Artists to study (new expanded list!)
But for those who did not take notes, here's some
of the names — though the list continues to grow (more to
come).
...Some of the two lists overlap as several of the artists were adept at more than one discipline.
...Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Eugéne Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Diego Velásquez, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Honoré Daumier, Francois Millet, John Constable, Camille Corot, Francisco Goya, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler, Vincent Van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Winslow Homer, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Paul Gauguin, John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Edvard Munch, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Edwin Austin Abbey, Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Lucien Freud, Odd Nerdrum, Jules Pascin, Nathan Olivera, Fritz Scholder, Richard Diebenkorn, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Maxfield Parrish, Dean Cornwell, Mead Schaefer, Odd Nerdrum, Brad Holland, Gary Kelley, Mark English, Edward Hopper, Edwin Dickinson, Fritz Scholder, Marshall Arisman, Frank Brangwyn, Russell Chatham, Frank Duveneck, Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Robert Rauschenberg, Matisse, René Magritte, Burt Silverman, David Levine, Skip Liepke, Milt Kobayashi, Robert Weaver, Emil Carlson, James Ensor, Franz Klein,, Emil Nolde, George Bellows, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, José Clemente Orozco, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Anders Zorn, Alberto Giacometti, Ernst Barlach, Lovis Corinth, Odilon Redon, John Berkey, J.C. Leyendecker, James Bama, Robert McGinnis, Alphonse Mucha, John Allen St.
Rembrandt, Francisco Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Winslow Homer, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Kathe Kollwitz, Leonard Baskin, Jeff Jones, Pierre Bonnard, Edwin Austin Abbey, Jules Pascin, Edgar Degas, Frazetta, Harvey Dunn, NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle, AB Frost, Daniel Vierge, Edvard Munch, Heinrich Kley, Lyle Justis, Bernie Krigstein, Alex Toth, Jack Davis, Joseph Clement Coll, Franklin Booth, Angelo Torres, Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, Hiroshige, Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, John R.... Frost, Eduard Thöny, Bruno Paul, Olaf Gulbransson, Otto Blix, Franz Masareel, Billy DeBeck, Rico Lebrun, Leonard Baskin, Hugo Pratt, Alberto Breccia, Dino Battaglia, Jacques Tardi, José Munoz, Nicolas DeCrecy, Bob Peak, Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles, George Herriman, Winsor McKay, Joe Kubert, Bill Mauldin, Frank Miller, Chester Brown, Will Eisner, Frank Robbins,, Lisbeth Zwerger, Harvey Kurtzman, Bruce Bairnsfather, Wallace Morgan, Kerr Eby, Moebius, C.F.
...Some of the two lists overlap as several of the artists were adept at more than one discipline.
...Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Eugéne Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Diego Velásquez, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Honoré Daumier, Francois Millet, John Constable, Camille Corot, Francisco Goya, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler, Vincent Van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Winslow Homer, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Paul Gauguin, John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Edvard Munch, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Edwin Austin Abbey, Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Lucien Freud, Odd Nerdrum, Jules Pascin, Nathan Olivera, Fritz Scholder, Richard Diebenkorn, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Maxfield Parrish, Dean Cornwell, Mead Schaefer, Odd Nerdrum, Brad Holland, Gary Kelley, Mark English, Edward Hopper, Edwin Dickinson, Fritz Scholder, Marshall Arisman, Frank Brangwyn, Russell Chatham, Frank Duveneck, Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Robert Rauschenberg, Matisse, René Magritte, Burt Silverman, David Levine, Skip Liepke, Milt Kobayashi, Robert Weaver, Emil Carlson, James Ensor, Franz Klein,, Emil Nolde, George Bellows, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, José Clemente Orozco, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Anders Zorn, Alberto Giacometti, Ernst Barlach, Lovis Corinth, Odilon Redon, John Berkey, J.C. Leyendecker, James Bama, Robert McGinnis, Alphonse Mucha, John Allen St.
Rembrandt, Francisco Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Winslow Homer, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Kathe Kollwitz, Leonard Baskin, Jeff Jones, Pierre Bonnard, Edwin Austin Abbey, Jules Pascin, Edgar Degas, Frazetta, Harvey Dunn, NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle, AB Frost, Daniel Vierge, Edvard Munch, Heinrich Kley, Lyle Justis, Bernie Krigstein, Alex Toth, Jack Davis, Joseph Clement Coll, Franklin Booth, Angelo Torres, Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, Hiroshige, Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, John R.... Frost, Eduard Thöny, Bruno Paul, Olaf Gulbransson, Otto Blix, Franz Masareel, Billy DeBeck, Rico Lebrun, Leonard Baskin, Hugo Pratt, Alberto Breccia, Dino Battaglia, Jacques Tardi, José Munoz, Nicolas DeCrecy, Bob Peak, Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles, George Herriman, Winsor McKay, Joe Kubert, Bill Mauldin, Frank Miller, Chester Brown, Will Eisner, Frank Robbins,, Lisbeth Zwerger, Harvey Kurtzman, Bruce Bairnsfather, Wallace Morgan, Kerr Eby, Moebius, C.F.
Posted at 12:33 AM Read More
Tue - November 4, 2003
Harvey Dunn — An Evening in the Classroom
This is a transcription of Harvey Dunn — An
Evening in the Classroom in PDF format.... I have separated ideas a bit, but
have left any misspellings as they were originally printed.... There is great
information in here, worth reading over and over.
Posted at 10:16 AM Read More
Sun - October 19, 2003
Critiques
...I don't know how often I've mentioned
this but the critique is the time that you really and truly do need to buckle
down and get serious in the class (not to mention when you're working in class
and doing your assignments!... By participating in the critique and putting
forth your observations about not only your own work but the work of others, you
are training yourself to discuss art in a profound way. Not only will your
observations help your peers but it will also help you to solidify in your own
mind what works and what doesn't work. When you're out of school and in the
workplace you'll be sorely tested sometimes by art directors and editors to
defend and/or explain your
work.
...Yes, art is an inward search and discovery, yet as an illustrator you are supposed to be a communicator. Your job will be to communicate other people's ideas, not only your own. You will need to communicate with a wide spectrum of people and communicate in a language they understand.
Learn to speak well about your work and the work of others. Believe me, it will be a huge benefit to you later on. If you were an art director, what would you think of someone who comes in for a job but can't put two sentences together? No one wants to put their trust into an ignorant person. By the same token, no one wants to work with someone who's difficult either. And in this day and age you need every weapon in your arsenal to get by. Be a reader, brush up on your language, your grammar, your social skills, etc. They'll all take you a long way.
I know it sounds like I'm some old school marm, some old cranky fuddy-duddy going on about "kids today", but I'm constantly amazed at how insular, how myopic so many of my peers can be.... They have no interests outside of their work, or their genre, and it shows in myriad ways, least of which is in their own work.... They may be geniuses with their pencils, but there's more to life and art than just that. Look around and bring some true observation about the world around you, your experiences, and put them into the work.
...You'll find that some people, even those not necessarily wanting to do what you yourself want to do in art, are stumbling onto and discovering ways of working that will be incredibly beneficial to you, your art and working habits.
...Yes, art is an inward search and discovery, yet as an illustrator you are supposed to be a communicator. Your job will be to communicate other people's ideas, not only your own. You will need to communicate with a wide spectrum of people and communicate in a language they understand.
Learn to speak well about your work and the work of others. Believe me, it will be a huge benefit to you later on. If you were an art director, what would you think of someone who comes in for a job but can't put two sentences together? No one wants to put their trust into an ignorant person. By the same token, no one wants to work with someone who's difficult either. And in this day and age you need every weapon in your arsenal to get by. Be a reader, brush up on your language, your grammar, your social skills, etc. They'll all take you a long way.
I know it sounds like I'm some old school marm, some old cranky fuddy-duddy going on about "kids today", but I'm constantly amazed at how insular, how myopic so many of my peers can be.... They have no interests outside of their work, or their genre, and it shows in myriad ways, least of which is in their own work.... They may be geniuses with their pencils, but there's more to life and art than just that. Look around and bring some true observation about the world around you, your experiences, and put them into the work.
...You'll find that some people, even those not necessarily wanting to do what you yourself want to do in art, are stumbling onto and discovering ways of working that will be incredibly beneficial to you, your art and working habits.
Posted at 11:27 PM Read More
OIL PAINTING NOTES
OIL PAINTS (whatever brand you prefer, student
grade is fine.)
...I love their consistency and their pigment-to-oil ratio especially.... Holbein paint is fairly stiff, but has good coverage. Rembrandt tends to be fairly oily and buttery, great for more translucent painting effects.
You can tell how much pigment a tube of paint has by the weight.... One will have more oil or binder, the other will have more pigment..that's the heavy one.
...This is a list of colors I use (You don't have to use these, but it might make it easier to manage if you do.)
...Black: I mix my black using Prussian Blue (French Ultramarine Blue can work in place of Prussian), Alizarin Red and Indian Yellow in equal amounts. If I want the resultant mixture to be warm I push it with more Aliz, if I want it cool, I push the Prussian.
The benefit of mixing my black is two-fold: It's a mixture of colors, not just a dead, flat black. If other colors hit the black the resultant grey is a colorful grey, a beautiful addition, not an eyesore — no mud results from the accidental intermixing.
MY "NICE TO HAVE AROUND" COLORS (These are ones I like but don't necessarily "need."
...BLOXX There's a whole pile of greens and earth colors that Bloxx makes that I can't rattle off the top of my head right now.
...I like the smell, I like how it reduces the paint.... Some use hardware turpentine (which is cheap, but is especially pungent.), others use Permtine, Turpenoid, and various of the other "Odorless" turps. I do not like the odorless stuff because it doesn't seem to reduce the oil but rather break it up into granules.
...I use mostly flats and filberts, with the rounds being for finer detail work.
I would prefer you stay away from stiff bristle brushes as you'll be fighting with the brush as it pulls up what you've already put down.
...I have used Liquin, Venice Turpentine, Linseed Oil, etc. They all have their advantages and their drawbacks.
...For my larger works I prefer to stretch my own canvases.... I like making the various choices as to stretchers and linens, etc. I prefer linen over cotton duck because of the imperfections in the linen, they make for a more enjoyable painting experience for me.
...To stretch a canvas: I fit the stretchers together then lay the frame over my unrolled canvas. I cut the canvas to fit the four sides of the stretchers, roughly three- to-four inches beyond the strips. Using a staple gun I'll place one staple through the linen into the center along one side of a strip. I'll repeat this on the other side, pulling the canvas with canvas pliers.
...What you should see is a diamond formed by the stress pulls in the center of the canvas.
...Stapling one or two staples on either side of the last set of staples work your way on first one side, then the opposite, until the canvas has been stretched. In each instance, pull the linen taut with the canvas pliers, then staple.
When I'm done I like to staple the extra linen to the back of the stretchers, and fold my corners and staple those as well.
...A rainy day is especially good for stretching canvases as the linen has a higher moisture content and as the rain stops, the linen becomes even tighter.
...So I prepare a pile of canvases as once and put them out in the sun to dry.
...I enjoy this stuff because it allows me to "surface" the linen adding texture.... I also love the way the paint slips and slides on the surface of the Underpainting White.
...I love their consistency and their pigment-to-oil ratio especially.... Holbein paint is fairly stiff, but has good coverage. Rembrandt tends to be fairly oily and buttery, great for more translucent painting effects.
You can tell how much pigment a tube of paint has by the weight.... One will have more oil or binder, the other will have more pigment..that's the heavy one.
...This is a list of colors I use (You don't have to use these, but it might make it easier to manage if you do.)
...Black: I mix my black using Prussian Blue (French Ultramarine Blue can work in place of Prussian), Alizarin Red and Indian Yellow in equal amounts. If I want the resultant mixture to be warm I push it with more Aliz, if I want it cool, I push the Prussian.
The benefit of mixing my black is two-fold: It's a mixture of colors, not just a dead, flat black. If other colors hit the black the resultant grey is a colorful grey, a beautiful addition, not an eyesore — no mud results from the accidental intermixing.
MY "NICE TO HAVE AROUND" COLORS (These are ones I like but don't necessarily "need."
...BLOXX There's a whole pile of greens and earth colors that Bloxx makes that I can't rattle off the top of my head right now.
...I like the smell, I like how it reduces the paint.... Some use hardware turpentine (which is cheap, but is especially pungent.), others use Permtine, Turpenoid, and various of the other "Odorless" turps. I do not like the odorless stuff because it doesn't seem to reduce the oil but rather break it up into granules.
...I use mostly flats and filberts, with the rounds being for finer detail work.
I would prefer you stay away from stiff bristle brushes as you'll be fighting with the brush as it pulls up what you've already put down.
...I have used Liquin, Venice Turpentine, Linseed Oil, etc. They all have their advantages and their drawbacks.
...For my larger works I prefer to stretch my own canvases.... I like making the various choices as to stretchers and linens, etc. I prefer linen over cotton duck because of the imperfections in the linen, they make for a more enjoyable painting experience for me.
...To stretch a canvas: I fit the stretchers together then lay the frame over my unrolled canvas. I cut the canvas to fit the four sides of the stretchers, roughly three- to-four inches beyond the strips. Using a staple gun I'll place one staple through the linen into the center along one side of a strip. I'll repeat this on the other side, pulling the canvas with canvas pliers.
...What you should see is a diamond formed by the stress pulls in the center of the canvas.
...Stapling one or two staples on either side of the last set of staples work your way on first one side, then the opposite, until the canvas has been stretched. In each instance, pull the linen taut with the canvas pliers, then staple.
When I'm done I like to staple the extra linen to the back of the stretchers, and fold my corners and staple those as well.
...A rainy day is especially good for stretching canvases as the linen has a higher moisture content and as the rain stops, the linen becomes even tighter.
...So I prepare a pile of canvases as once and put them out in the sun to dry.
...I enjoy this stuff because it allows me to "surface" the linen adding texture.... I also love the way the paint slips and slides on the surface of the Underpainting White.
Posted at 06:52 PM Read More
Wed - October 15, 2003
Fri - September 26, 2003
Routes to Brandywine River Museum and Delaware Art Museum
How to get to them!
Posted at 12:39 PM Read More
NOTES ON ART
No matter how hard you try to put a message
into your work it will be misconstrued by the person viewing it. No two people
will arrive at the same conclusion, thus your statement or intent is lost. If
you really want to say something do it with words, and, even at their best,
words are easily
misconstrued.
The most that Art can hope to do, maybe what it does best, is to raise more questions than it answers. The work can convey many things, emotion prime among them, but for a piece to be successful it must evoke something from the viewer. However, the viewer must bring something to it as well. No one comes empty handed and each viewer brings his/her own baggage along with which to try to understand this picture.... This is not to say that someone who, for the shock value inherent in the subject, paints dead babies in a jar is successful because it evoked rage from the viewer or whatever. The test would be if, after the shock value wears off, does the piece still demand a response from the viewer, then we will know if it does indeed succeed. But if a painting or a drawing just lays there and pulls nothing from us, then it has failed miserably.
The finest paintings, the ones held in the highest esteem by our society, are constantly revealing new secrets, new facets of their construction to us. We find something new in their textures and surfaces, even the subjects and the moods each time we view certain pieces and these stand alone as exemplary. And each person walks away with something entirely unique to their eyes alone. Everybody interprets the piece in a way that they understand and can perceive.... Maybe they have more questions, maybe they have more answers, maybe they only walk away with a sense of well being. Whatever they walk away with, the painting has succeeded to communicate, to move them.
...I would stand in front of his paintings and wonder why people thought he was so great.
...Then, one day, I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was wandering through their Impressionist wing. I had spent considerable time in front of the “Joan of Arc” by Bastien LePage, the Pissaro’s, and had worked my way to the Monet’s, when I was riveted to the floor. I found myself standing in front of one Vincent’s oils, a landscape of several trees and a swirling luminescent sky.... I was totally overcome, so consumed with sadness and sympathy that I couldn’t stop my eyes from welling over with tears.
The saddest realization for me is that there are so many people, artists, who have never been moved by art like that. They have never had an emotional epiphany with a piece of art, a communion of sorts, a bringing together of two wills, two hearts.... It’s not that I don’t respect them for wanting to be artists, for taking that first step into a world that demands so much communication with the individuals emotion and demands the exhibition of their personal inner views.... If you answer no to all of these and yes to the last then maybe you are in the wrong place, maybe art is not for you.
Art isn’t something that you dabble in, though many do and that’s fine, but serious artists do not dabble.... You must constantly wrest emotions from deep within yourself and pour it all out on the empty canvas or paper or bronze before you.... They pull various bits and pieces of their emotional past and present out of themselves and set it up for display, in the hopes that we will suspend our disbelief, drop our guards so that we, too, can feel the pain, the rage, the sadness, the happiness. They, as does Art, teach us how to feel, to see. They show us that it is okay to show our feelings, that it is okay to feel sad, to cry even. As much as they reveal themselves, artists and their art reveal much about ourselves as well.
The most that Art can hope to do, maybe what it does best, is to raise more questions than it answers. The work can convey many things, emotion prime among them, but for a piece to be successful it must evoke something from the viewer. However, the viewer must bring something to it as well. No one comes empty handed and each viewer brings his/her own baggage along with which to try to understand this picture.... This is not to say that someone who, for the shock value inherent in the subject, paints dead babies in a jar is successful because it evoked rage from the viewer or whatever. The test would be if, after the shock value wears off, does the piece still demand a response from the viewer, then we will know if it does indeed succeed. But if a painting or a drawing just lays there and pulls nothing from us, then it has failed miserably.
The finest paintings, the ones held in the highest esteem by our society, are constantly revealing new secrets, new facets of their construction to us. We find something new in their textures and surfaces, even the subjects and the moods each time we view certain pieces and these stand alone as exemplary. And each person walks away with something entirely unique to their eyes alone. Everybody interprets the piece in a way that they understand and can perceive.... Maybe they have more questions, maybe they have more answers, maybe they only walk away with a sense of well being. Whatever they walk away with, the painting has succeeded to communicate, to move them.
...I would stand in front of his paintings and wonder why people thought he was so great.
...Then, one day, I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was wandering through their Impressionist wing. I had spent considerable time in front of the “Joan of Arc” by Bastien LePage, the Pissaro’s, and had worked my way to the Monet’s, when I was riveted to the floor. I found myself standing in front of one Vincent’s oils, a landscape of several trees and a swirling luminescent sky.... I was totally overcome, so consumed with sadness and sympathy that I couldn’t stop my eyes from welling over with tears.
The saddest realization for me is that there are so many people, artists, who have never been moved by art like that. They have never had an emotional epiphany with a piece of art, a communion of sorts, a bringing together of two wills, two hearts.... It’s not that I don’t respect them for wanting to be artists, for taking that first step into a world that demands so much communication with the individuals emotion and demands the exhibition of their personal inner views.... If you answer no to all of these and yes to the last then maybe you are in the wrong place, maybe art is not for you.
Art isn’t something that you dabble in, though many do and that’s fine, but serious artists do not dabble.... You must constantly wrest emotions from deep within yourself and pour it all out on the empty canvas or paper or bronze before you.... They pull various bits and pieces of their emotional past and present out of themselves and set it up for display, in the hopes that we will suspend our disbelief, drop our guards so that we, too, can feel the pain, the rage, the sadness, the happiness. They, as does Art, teach us how to feel, to see. They show us that it is okay to show our feelings, that it is okay to feel sad, to cry even. As much as they reveal themselves, artists and their art reveal much about ourselves as well.
Posted at 12:37 PM Read More
LETTER TO AN ART STUDENT
This is a letter I wrote in response to an
art student's questions. Thought it might be useful.
Posted at 12:34 PM Read More
JOHN SINGER SARGENT'S PAINTING NOTES
Painting is an interpretation of
tone.
...Keep the planes free and simple, drawing a full brush down the whole contour of a cheek.
...Always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch.
...The thicker your paint—the more your color flows.
...Simplify, omit all but the most essential elements—values, especially the values. You must clarify the values.
...The secret of painting is in the half tone of each plane, in economizing the accents and in the handling of the lights.
...You begin with the middle tones and work up from it .... so that you deal last with your lightest lights and darkest darks, you avoid false accents.
...Paint in all the half tones and the generalized passages quite thick.
...It is impossible for a painter to try to repaint a head where the understructure was wrong.
Naples Yellow Yellow Ochre Ochre dew (English Red) Red Ochre, Vermillion Ivory or Coal Black Prussian Blue.
...Keep the planes free and simple, drawing a full brush down the whole contour of a cheek.
...Always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch.
...The thicker your paint—the more your color flows.
...Simplify, omit all but the most essential elements—values, especially the values. You must clarify the values.
...The secret of painting is in the half tone of each plane, in economizing the accents and in the handling of the lights.
...You begin with the middle tones and work up from it .... so that you deal last with your lightest lights and darkest darks, you avoid false accents.
...Paint in all the half tones and the generalized passages quite thick.
...It is impossible for a painter to try to repaint a head where the understructure was wrong.
Naples Yellow Yellow Ochre Ochre dew (English Red) Red Ochre, Vermillion Ivory or Coal Black Prussian Blue.
Posted at 12:24 PM Read More
ON WRITING
Here are some books that I think are
excellent resources on the art of writing. Worth reading for
sure.
*This list will also be updated shortly.
*This list will also be updated shortly.
Posted at 12:07 PM Read More