Stand by your drawing
Whenever someone asks me what is the most important thing about art, my answer is unequivocal: DRAWING! Many artists don’t like this answer. It’s easy to attack straw men when…
Study: finishing The Call
The 36″ x 48″ oil titled The Call is finished. This is the seventh and final post in the series about making this painting. Here are the links to the…
Glop, goo, and jelly
I’ve never understood the fascination with thick, viscous oil painting mediums. Used for special effects, such mediums are perfectly fine, but for everyday work they are completely useless. I scratch my…
Rant
I was taught nothing of practical use about painting when I was a student. Worse than the daily dose of esoteric BS was the relentless, sneering attack on the subjects…
Complementary neutral tones
The eye loves complementary neutrals. The eye will accept the ‘truth’ of a well placed neutral faster than it will a piece of carefully crafted modeling. Nature abounds with complementary…
No black paint one my palette
Someone asked if I inadvertently omitted straight-from-the-tube black from my palette. The omission wasn’t inadvertent. I don’t use ivory black (or any other black) ‘as is.’ Ivory black is too…
Palettes
Here is my general. all-purpose palette. It has a good assortment of every color group and the core neutrals I always mix. You can do just fine with fewer colors–three…
Prevent oil paint from drying with oil of cloves
Artists usually doctor their oil paint to make them dry faster. By decreasing drying times, paintings can be reworked sooner and completed faster. Siccative agents, such as lead, also enhance…