Tag: ART

From Susan Tschantz To paint a yellowish sky at the horizon with a bluer sky above without getting a green color from mixing the yellow and blue, I first underpaint the sky using yellow ocher, then I let this dry before adding any blue. I start from the top, and using wide horizontal strokes the full […]

From Carson C.T.Collins If you’re interested in exhibiting your artwork in commercial galleries, here’s some stuff I have learned over the past 30 years, for whatever it’s worth. Most galleries have a web site. Go there first. This will tell you what their submissions policies are (which, in this era of rapidly changing technology, varies greatly […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Most of the safety issues with art materials and in your art studio ought to be common sense, but of course what is sensible to one person is over cautious or careless to another. For me, safety and art materials comes down to one rule: “Art materials weren’t made for eating.” Here are […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Note: This is an opinion piece, a strongly expressed opinion on the topic of photorealism. In a nutshell: I don’t see the point of photorealism where what’s painted is exactly the same as what you’d see in a photo, where the artist hasn’t done anything to the composition. Too frequently it’s merely a […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Not all shadows are equal. There are in fact two very different kinds that occur in any subject — cast and form shadows. Identifying these and approaching them differently, rather than just painting a generic ‘shadow’, will enhance any painting. So what is the difference? What is a Cast Shadow? This is what […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Part of being an artist is having an identifiable style, that special ‘something’ that enables someone to look at a painting and know that it’s by you, regardless of what the subject of the painting is. A particular painting style is something a gallery will want to see in your work. So how do you […]

From Brian Simons This list of commonly made mistakes in paintings comes from Canadian artist Brian Simons, who works in acrylics. Brian says: “I first began to paint approximately 20 years ago, when we moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island. Prior to that I focused mostly on drawing and sketching. Being a self-taught artist, I have derived […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Canvas is perceived by many people to be the best support for painting, but hardboard (wood) should not be shunned and in fact some would argue that it’s a superior support as it’s rigid, not flexible like canvas. Many of the paintings that have survived the best from previous centuries are painted on […]

From Martha Marshall If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist […]

By Marion Boddy-Evans Not every painting is destined to be a masterpiece, but some paintings are doomed to failure right from the start because of one relatively simple mistake. Here’s a list of five easy ways to ruin a painting… 1. Fried Egg Composition It can be done successfully, but only rarely. When it’s done badly, […]