My Amusement Park Series absorbs most of my time. The series contains a lot of large watercolors that I will share soon. But of course, the lion’s share of time is spent with the oils. Most of the works in the series are oils. Here are two oils in the series. The topmost painting, The…
A reader asked if I use a drawing tablet. Before I answer that question, let’s talk about what a drawing table is for those who might not be familiar with the technology. There are three types of technology collectively referred to as drawing tablets. For each type, the artist uses the supplied pen to create…
Everyone knows how to start a painting, right? You take up your brush and begin–what’s the problem? Joking aside, if you want to create a sketch or study, that IS exactly how you start. That approach is fine until you want to create something more ambitious. If you intend to create a piece that’s large,…
Artists spend a lot of time thinking about their palettes; how many colors, which colors, how big, and so forth. My palette is too large to hold in my hand so I keep it on a cart next to the easel. The palette has to be big enough to contain my color assortment and premixed…
Cedar Point is known as the “Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” It is one of the oldest and largest amusement parks in the United States. In addition to the roller coasters, the park has beautifully landscaped areas and stunning white beaches on Lake Erie. I regularly visit Cedar Point with my Nikon z7. This…
Friday afternoon I grabbed my camera and headed to Cedar Point. The summer has been unusually rainy here and this was a rare chance to visit the amusement park during strong sunlight. I normally carry my camera gear in a backpack but Friday was sunny and HOT. So I limited my gear to three lenses…
When I hear someone say, “I appreciate art,” I cringe. The speaker means, “I understand that this boring subject is somehow important to you,” or, “I see how much effort you put into this pointless activity.” If you say, “But that’s not me! I really do appreciate art; I visit museums,” I still quarrel with…
There is a lot of information about painting mediums on my site but if you’re new to painting, an abundance of information is the same as no information. Where to start? The good news is that you can easily have a medium that supports ambitious work and serves as a baseline for exploring other mediums…
Realism is becoming popular once again in painting studios. This development is welcome but it’s also sobering. Looking at the growing number of realists demonstrates how much has been lost. Much of it is Impressionism-adjacent which is not a good path. And for many new realists, Sargent has an oversize influence, which is also a…
Many oil painters keep their brushes upside down in turpentine or thinner. This practice is horrible; it’s the worst thing you can do to your brushes. In defense of painters who do this, I used to do the same thing because it’s what I was taught. I was taught that concern for my kit was…
Rublev’s new version of sun-thickened oil is much improved from its earlier offering and is good oil. This is far different from my conclusion of their first attempt at this product. Sun-thickened oil’s consistency should be similar to that of stand oil. Rublev’s first attempt produced an oil little different from regular linseed oil. With…
The hand clamps I use for carpentry are versatile. Here, I’ve used one to attach a palette to my easel. My big palette, the one that spills over my paint cabinet, is movable but when I work on a big canvas, like this one, it can be a tight fit. My big palette has space…
Dorothy Johnson has written several books related to David and the Neoclassicists. David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology is probably her best work. I think about this little book a lot. Even though the Neoclassicists are best known for their Classically-inspired history paintings, Johnson reminds us that it was under their brush that…
For the past week or so, I’ve worked exclusively on drawings. More precisely, designs for paintings, as the one illustrated below. These design-focused drawings will be covered by paint. The one illustrated here is the smallest painting of the current crop. The others are 40″ x 54″ and bigger. This means that I can spend…
I bought a brush set from Fuumuui: 8-piece kolinsky sable watercolor brushes. This is a tremendous bargain at $21.99 on Amazon. I used the brushes on one of my oil paintings and they performed passably much to my surprise. I expect they’ll fall apart quickly under the abuse of oil painting with its strong solvents.…