Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2018/ No.121 i International Artist

Z.S. Liang is one of the best contemporary Western artists working today. His oil paintings that tell the story of the Old West in minute detail have seen record prices at places like the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, the Scottsdale Art Auction and the Prix de West show and sale at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Additionally, he is the subject of many sold out shows at Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona. When Z.S. had an idea for a new grand painting, one that he hopes will end up in a museum someday, he turned to International Artist as well as our sister publication Western Art Collector to document this historic moment. Our writer, Dan Corazzi, is the director of the Prix de West Committee…

Maryland, USA, Tea Setting, oil, 18 x 12" (46 x 30 cm) Third Prize is a one-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine My Inspiration When planning the composition and idea for this piece, I wanted to relay my enjoyable memories of tea and crumpets at the Dunes Manor in Ocean City, Maryland. To follow the Victorian theme I remembered from the hotel, I borrowed a lot of the props for this piece from some friends I knew at church. They showed me many different tea sets and I took a liking to this one as it represented the classic Victorian look I was going for. That was where the frilly and intricate lace came into play, which was the main character of interest, along with the style teacup and…

ENTER OUR NEW ART COMPETITION CHALLENGE No. 107 Wildlife See your work published in International Artist magazine and also receive a 4-page Editorial Feature in American Art Collector, the prestigious magazine read by collectors and galleries looking for new art work in the world’s biggest art market. Winners and Finalists in our competitions don’t just win awards to hang on their walls. The real value of entering and being one of the winners is that your work will not only be seen by hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide but also by leading galleries and collectors in America, the biggest art market of all. Our Grand Prize Winners receive a 2-page spread in International Artist magazine and a 4-page Editorial Feature in American Art Collector. Publicity at this level is…

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Since 2014, the Portrait Society has honored a select number of artists with the unique designation of Signature Status. This honor is achieved through a demonstration of exceptional work and dedication to both the aesthetic and educational mission of the Society. This year’s recipients are: Anna Rose Bain, Stephanie Deshpande, Jeffrey Hein, Olga Krimon, Gregory Mortenson, Paul Newton, Evert Ploeg, Alicia Ponzio, William Suys, Hsin-Yao Tseng, Patricia Watwood, John Seibels Walker, Thomas Wharton and Stephen Zhang. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with this year’s honorees about their artistic goals and experiences and the message that they hope to communicate through their art. EGNOSKI: Education, workshops and books all guide an artist in developing their talent and skills. What has personally assisted you in your artistic career? BAIN: I…

Use the right surface. This might seem obvious, but it’s really important. Due to the detailed and highly controlled nature of miniature works, some materials that are great for large scale works don’t work nearly as well for miniature paintings. For example, canvas and highly textured watercolor paper are much harder to control on a miniature scale then smoother surfaces. I would recommend Mylar or copper if you’re using oil, smooth Bristol board of you’re using watercolor or gouache. Use the right brushes. If painting in oil, it’s alright to start with larger, coarser brushes for the first few layers, but make sure you have good brushes for the detail work. My favorites are the Princeton miniature monogram and round brushes, 0/20 and 12/20, they last a long time and…

PART 10 En Plein Air There is a vast difference painting between in the studio and painting outside (en plein air). In a studio you can take your time, plan your painting and be better organised. You also do not have to cope with heat or cold, windy weather, rain, pesky flies or finding shade and a seat. Painting en plein air requires a great deal more preparation and inconvenience. When I take international overseas painting holidays I need to be totally prepared. (Please see my suggestions in this article for what is needed to paint en plein air especially when travelling overseas). An en plein air painting looks different from a studio painting, and it is not difficult to tell the difference between them. A studio painting is tighter,…

Point Lobos What makes a place beautiful and paint-worthy? Classical painters will tell you it’s the subject and the narrative. Impressionists will tell you it’s the light. Post-modernists will tell you it’s the artist. To me, it’s a mixture of all these things and more. It’s the elements in the scene, the light that reveals it and the atmosphere that I see it through. Above all, it’s how a place makes me feel. When I first visited Point Lobos on the windswept Californian coast, my heart leaped in my chest. I was somewhere very special, a sacred place. It felt like walking into a picture book story—the great empty stage of a thousand epic tales of land and sea. A painter’s dream. I was lucky enough to paint there amongst…

Visit www.internationalartist.com and click on the Virtual Art Academy® button to access instant downloads needed to master the art of painting. The Virtual Art Academy® Apprentice Program A structured four-year program of 192 lessons that will help you systematically build up your foundational skills from the ground up to help you master painting. A key element of this program is series of 350+ assignments specially structured to help you build your skills, and an Online Campus where you can meet other students from all over the world to share your artistic journey, and support you along the way. Each lesson includes an overview of the principle or technique, one or more short videos to demonstrate the skill you are learning, many examples of how to do it, and one or…

Pennsylvania, USA, Ascension, oil, 14 x 8 ½" (36 x 22cm) Finalist My Inspiration Grapes have always been an inspiration to me artistically. Their translucency, naturally rhythmic movement and wide spectrum of subtle color variations provide nearly limitless possibilities. This is echoed in the work of the masters, both classical and contemporary, and has always captured my interest as an artist. To develop my own narrative and interpretation of the traditional subject of hanging grapes was really what drove the development of Ascension. My Design Strategy To capture the subtle gesture of the grapes was the primary challenge. Achieving this would allow for the gentle, cascading movement that I wanted throughout the vertical aspect of the composition. The concentrated light and the color of the orange acts as the anchor point…

Finalist My Inspiration I have a passion for painting still lifes, as evidenced by my extensive collection of objects, each with a special meaning that I often incorporate in my still life setups. While I was working on some still life arrangements for various paintings, I placed a glass bowl with grapes in the direct path of light that was coming through a window. I was fascinated by the effects of the sunlight on the fruit and glass; the grapes looked very colorful and were translucent while the cast shadows created interesting patterns. My Design Strategy To capture what I was seeing and feeling, I decided to make the glass bowl with grapes my main area of interest, adding additional objects as enhancements. For example, I chose the silver creamer…

Choosing the direction of the light source is one of the most important decisions you make when you’re painting a portrait or illustrating a character. It has a big effect on how your viewer will feel about the person in your painting. In this article, I’ll share a few of the major lighting strategies. Some of the terminology comes from photographers, who have developed a language and a technique of portrait lighting that every painter should know as well. THREE-QUARTER BROAD Most portraits have light coming from in front of the model, and a little off to the side. The main or “key” light strikes three-quarters of the visible form, leaving one-fourth of the form on the far side of the face in shadow. Typically, the key light is elevated…

My preference is always to work from life—I find it a much richer experience. There are subtle nuances of emotion, energy and thought that are simply not present in the studio when painting from photograph. Because portraiture often requires working from a photograph, I find it imperative to schedule a weekly model in the studio to keep my eye fresh. Whenever I paint, I invite three of my favorite guests: Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach—the muses dance together. Mine is a direct painting style, laying wet into wet. Sometimes I like to do a highly finished painting and sometimes I enjoy painting alla prima, depending on the subject matter. This alla prima work was done entirely from life in three consecutive days of four-hour sittings.…

In this 10-part series artist Colley Whisson shares his key steps to paint like an impressionist. 1 Composition2 Editing3 Shapes4 Edges5 Use of colour (colour temperature)6 Brushwork7 Simplification8 Stepping away from work9 Education10 Hard work PART 1 COMPOSITIONAL DEVICES Before I start a painting, the composition needs to be working. I like the saying, if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage. Doing a series of small thumbnail sketches can be extremely helpful to sort out the subject’s weaknesses and strengths. I like to use the Golden Mean Ratio as my overall guide to the basic structure of each painting or drawing. I interpret this time-honored approach as breaking my board into one-third and two-thirds. As you may see in my demonstration painting, I’ve placed the cow’s…

I have been painting miniatures for the past 18 years. My love affair with tiny paintings began my first semester of university while experimenting with oil paint for the first time. My professor brought in his own hand-ground oil paint, and encouraged us to make some thumbnail sketches in oil, before beginning the larger painting. My thumbnail sketch organically transformed into a finished painting, I found no need to make it bigger, since everything I wanted to happen could fit in a 2-by-2-inch format. Both the oil paint and the tiny format felt incredibly right—I knew immediately that this was my medium, this is what I want to learn and this is what I want to do every day for the rest of my life, if possible. I took several…

To start, I have a confession to make. I am not consistent in the genre that I paint. I can easily switch from a portrait of someone I encounter to fantasy art, as well as from landscape to still life. This is despite my knowing that it would probably be better for building my portfolio to present myself as a painter of a specific genre. Well, this is who I am, and it is too late to change myself, so I am trying to make the best of it. Now, to my story—for me, the starting point, the initial push for a new painting, obviously, is getting an idea, and I am fortunate enough to have new ideas popping up all the time. They usually come by themselves and from…

PHOTO REFERENCE I work from life and photo references. I like posing my own models, not only because it gives greater connection with the creative process, it also lets me take accurate color and value notes. I want the background abstracted with a possible color change in my model’s dress, so I use photo-editing software to make these suggestions. STAGE 1 GUIDELINES I have chosen a 12-by-9-inch Ampersand Hardbord to work on, covered with Sennelier’s Acrylique Gesso in white. I begin by creating a very loose drawing of the subject using paint. These guidelines are used to continue refining the drawing throughout the painting process. STAGE 2 BEGINNING TO MODEL In this stage, I pay close attention to what I am seeing and lay down a few strokes that begin…

I love the richness of detail and the depth and diversity of colour that a flower offers when studied up close, and I like my paintings to be botanically accurate in order to reflect the beauty and intricacy of nature. I put a lot of time into planning and preparation. I visit many gardens until I find my next subject and then spend some time sketching, getting to know the structure of the plant and its characteristics. When I have settled on a composition, I will colour match with my paints so it is accurate to the actual flower and then I take plenty of photos. I will refer to the photographs at a later stage for the detail, but I like to work as much as possible from the…

One of the great pleasures of traveling is documenting the things we encounter. Not only do we accumulate a collection of paintings and sketches that become lasting memories of where we have been and what we have seen, but we also tend to observe much more by stopping and painting. I’m a big fan of keeping things simple and traveling light. Remember, it’s not the equipment you cart around that determines the quality of what you produce, it’s what you do with that equipment. Over the years, I have pared down my traveling kit to just a few things, and by trial and error, learned some tips and shortcuts along the way. I love traveling and exploring new locations. Painting along the way is a lot of fun. You get…

Early in my career, I remember once in a while having a sinking feeling. Yet, always in my mind, I kept steady strokes while looking to the shore. The idea was to continue paddling, stay afloat with an agile will. My continual foundation to this day: “doing…learning.” Anxiety would happen and my art was momentarily put aside. Thankfully, eventually I started to understand my creative needs and the courage and strength of moving ahead. Stroke by stroke. Time and experience are such great teachers. We survive in the art world by finally knowing ourselves and our strengths. As I’ve said many times, keep steady with eyes on the shore. In the art world, steady gives strength. Such a Thing as Perfection? There are people, moments and things in life that…

FULL COLOR DIGITAL PRINT-OUTS Use the Official Entry Form over the page ONLINE Visit our website to upload digital files of the images you want to enter and pay for them using our secure server. www.internationalartist.com To upload your entries you need to prepare your image files to be at least 400 pixels at the shortest edge. Once you are in the Official Online Entry page simply select which challenge you wish to enter then follow the prompts and finally pay the entry fee via our secure server. There you can also see other entries received along with past winners of our competitions. Enter our Art Competitions from anywhere in the world HINTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR ARTWORK Set your camera to the highest quality available. Shoot your paintings dead square…

A common mistake artists make is thinking people only have to see a work to buy, but someone actually has to sell those works. Hindsight is marvelous, but you might learn something just like I did from one exhibition. Asa result of a failed racing exhibition, I was approached by an owner to paint his horse. Idid this and they were happy. The son of the owner of the most celebrated horse where I live also met me. Hisfather was turning 70, and the son wanted to give him a painting of the famous horse. Iaccepted this commission on the basis of my previous experience. I went to the stable, saw the horse, sketched and took photos. Fromthese I developed the painting and my commissioner loved it and payment was…

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Z.S. Liang to talk about his latest historical painting. The subject of which is Sitting Bull, the renowned Chief of the Lakota Sioux Indians. Sitting Bull, of course, is best known by most for “Custer’s Last Stand” and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. That battle, which pitted the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians against the U.S. Cavalry, resulted in the death of Gen. George Custer and most of the men in the 7th Cavalry. Because of this Sitting Bull is often depicted, in portraits, as a strong warrior—wearing a large headdress or a single feather at the back of his head. So, when I initially saw this new painting, I was naturally intrigued by the way in which Z.S.…

STAGE 1 PHOTO REFERENCES Once I find the view I want to paint, I start taking multiple shots using my phone camera, which I have found much more convenient lately versus carrying a bulky camera with me on my trips. I don’t mind to coming back to the scene I am fascinated with and doing photo sessions over and over again. The more the better. STAGE 2 COMPOSITION I spend a lot of time on my computer using photo-editing software as my major sketch tool. I do an endless amount of preliminary sketches, coming up with different compositions and colors, trying to find the focal points that could enhance my initial idea. After finally choosing the right print size, I move to the sketch stage, transferring it from a black-and-white…

Watercolour paintings can be as objectively realistic as Western oil paintings, and they can express the same emotions as abstract traditional Chinese paintings. Watercolours fascinate me. When I drew, I would forget to eat and sleep. I’ve enjoyed drawing since I was young. In my teens I attended art school and began to receive orthodox painting training. During this period, I did pencil sketches, oil painting, gouache paintings and Chinese traditional paintings. During my time at school, I painted oil landscapes almost every day. Training and practice gave me a solid art foundation. Later, I entered the China Academy of Art studies under some famous painters like Zhisheng He and Ziliang Cheng. The rigorous pedagogy and exquisite techniques of those senior artists have led me to improve my painting techniques.…

My experimental way of painting with watercolor pigments has been called risky. The effect is unpredictable, but the outcome is a growth I never would have attained otherwise. Creating figurative works of art in an impressionistic style is a passion. My desire to form a likeness expanded into an intrigue of human character and life situations, and my style changed with me. Fearful of being predictable I challenge myself to think nontraditionally. I’ll ignore rules and major elements found in my reference photos and instead invent for the sake of the story and composition. I’m inspired by body language, facial expressions and a sense of time and place. I imagine real life nuances in the hesitation of a voice, the rhythm of a stride and the stillness of fear. This…

Part 10-Common Pastel Pitfalls In my work teaching and tutoring workshops, I see a lot of recurring problems or pitfalls. These are common habits or mistakes a lot of people make, not just beginners. I see this at all levels of ability. In this article, I will identify eight problems I frequently see, and give you some tips on how to avoid them. 1. Pastel strokes that all run in the one direction This most commonly happens when all the stroke direction is horizontal. It looks monotonous, and it tends to lead the viewer’s eye right out of the picture. SOLUTION: Vary your stroke direction. Put them in every which way. Often, if you make your strokes go against the form rather than with it, you’ll find your subject will…