Hi Everyone! It’s hot as blazes here in Texas so it’s hard to imagine that fall is on the way, but it is. Autumn is my favorite season, and although it comes toward the end of the calendar year, it always seems like a new beginning to me. As the green facade in the woods […]
Why Draw?
Why Draw? Often landscape painters don’t think drawing is important. I am always amazed in my workshops and classes at the number of students who do not regularly use a sketchbook or include drawing as part of their art making process. I was fortunate that the first artist I seriously studied with- Ned Jacob- […]
Where To Look for Shifts in Color Temperature
So, now we know that color temperature is an important attribute of color, and that seeing and painting those shifts will add quality to our paintings. But, where do we look for them?Over the many years that I studied with Ned Jacob, he rarely answered my questions directly. Usually, he would say enigmatic things like […]
Let it Snow!
Many of us are facing bitter winter weather just now. So, it seemed an appropriate time to talk about…painting snow! Two of the main concepts to keep in mind when painting snow are value and color temperature. When painting a light, highly reflective surface like snow we are hampered by the value limitations of our […]
Anatomy of an Indirect Painting
In previous posts, I described the history of indirect painting and also some of the techniques. In this post, I plan to show you how an indirectly painted landscape can mimic the light effects in nature and create both an interesting and varied surface quality and multiple optical effects. Indirect painting using the Venetian tradition […]
Why "Paint What You See" Is Not Good Advice
“In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.” Goethe “Paint what you see.” Has anyone ever told you that? The other day I was reading something online and ran across a discussion where several artists were offering advice to another artist about how to […]