Innholdsfortegnelse for December-January 2022/ No. 142 i International Artist

Welcome to the 142nd issue of International Artist magazine. We are in our 23rd year of publishing, and we have won many awards throughout the years for being the best magazine for artists. We will continue to be the light for artists globally as they rise in their success and creativity. We know from hearing from you (our artist subscribers) that every year an artist will evolve in style, influence and depth. This is our creative world; you are not alone in this and International Artist is here for you. Our goal in our artists’ demonstration is to provide insight and panache to support your next artistic evolution. We are most proud of our own International Art Competition. We know as you ascend to greatness your path will lead you…

Like a glissando in music, a gradient is where one color note smoothly transitions into another. The shift can occur in hue, value, chroma or all three at once. Gradients don’t just happen. They take planning. Anyone can paint a flat patch of color. But if you want to make your colors shift, you’ll need to reach deeper into your bag of tricks. The term “gradients” is familiar to digital artists. Traditional artists might know them as gradations. In watercolor, they have also been called a graded wash or a graduated wash. There are a lot of methods for achieving gradients. With oils you typically need to pre-mix representative batches of the colors, apply them in a sequence of steps, and then blend the transitions. With water media, you have…

Eric Johnson The Artists’ Daughter, oil, 20 x 16" (50 x 40 cm) INSPIRATION This painting is of my 2-year-old daughter Beatrice. I have always been inspired by the Dutch Golden Age portraits and have studied 17th century materials and working methods extensively. I went so far as to make all of my own pigments in the past before becoming an ambassador for Rublev Colours. My daughter always had a deep soul-piercing gaze, as if you can see the adult in her in a baby body; I was compelled to capture this. ARTISTIC PATH I desperately wanted to study art as an adolescent but unfortunately did not come from a well-cultured background. I felt the desire to express something greater than myself but did not have the skills. I searched…

At an exhibit of Van Gogh’s paintings, I discovered that the texture of the originals had a powerful impact. Intrigued with the effect, I began experimenting to get a similar emotional power in my work. Although I experimented with various paint additives to thicken the texture, I ultimately decided to keep my mixtures as simple as possible. I now use cremnitz white primarily as a thickener in the lights. In the darks, I generally use high-quality, thickbodied paint straight from the tube. When painting on a panel, I often add cold wax to get a thicker paint application. I use cold wax medium on larger panels to scale up a small sketch’s bold texture. While I love impasto, a painting will lose energy if every passage is painted with the…

STAGE 1 ROUGHING IN SHAPES Using burnt umber, thinned with white spirit, and a round synthetic size 1 brush, I roughly mark the main shapes on the canvas. STAGE 2 DETAILED SKETCH When satisfied with the composition, using the same brush and color, I create a more detailed sketch. STAGE 3 MAIN VALUES With a flat synthetic brush size 12 and burnt umber, using white spirit for thinning the paint, I mark the main value shapes in the painting. Using more paint for darker shapes, I create the value map/underpainting, also making sure the composition works out this way. STAGE 4 COLOR WORK Starting with the largest and the darkest area of the painting, I begin blocking in the background. I’m making it almost entirely monotonous, only adding a few…

Conducting workshops is a lot of fun. As well as adding a social side to what is a solitary pursuit, it always amazes me the numerous solutions, tips and ideas that are offered up by many of the participants. In this article we will examine a number of these interesting solutions to sometimes difficult problems. Tube Lids A lady attending a workshop had half a dozen paint tube lids of various sizes in her box of watercolors. When I asked her where all the lids came from, she said they were spares. She often lost lids or they would get old and split, forcing her to empty out the contents of the tube onto her palette. Now, before she disposes of an empty tube she washes out the lid and…

This work is of a lady who sat for both Harley and me. I had seen her years before and the image of her never left me. The colors and motions surrounding her here had been coming into my thoughts for years, and she was perfect in combining my imagination with the real. As with many of the ladies whom I’ve portrayed, she was magnificently memorable. Including her reactions when she would take glances at the work itself. In the end, we parted with me hoping we’d meet again. I will tell you this: that blue necklace itself has great personal importance, and I’ll leave you with that.…

If you haven’t heard, International Artist Publishing launched The American Art Collective podcast earlier this year. It’s your way to listen to stories from other artists like yourself, gallery owners, historians and scholars, as they share their techniques on the representational art market. We’ve had some big-name guests so far including our columnist Harley Brown, whose episode is the most listened to episode to date! Follow our show today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon to hear about Harley’s journey and those of our other guests. It’s your all-access pass to the world of art. In the last issue of International Artist, I teased our newest column—Art Industry Insider—written by Vanessa Rothe, who is an artist, gallery owner, curator, editor and more. This issue I’m excited to have the very…

My Inspiration My work stems from a deep appreciation and need for adventure, experimentation and process. I have been influenced and educated by travel and consider myself a student of experience. I have worked in travel, education and youth programming. The experiences I have collected in my career are the motivating energy behind my art and art-making work. My Design Strategy My biggest influence is always the child’s perspective. Like a child’s process, I move freely and quickly when creating. I am often attempting to see my process-driven work through the excitement and vitality of young eyes. I work intuitively. I am intrigued by mark-making and fluid applications of color and shape. I let my instinct during application unearth the design. My Working Process I allow my mediums to speak…

My Inspiration This painting was inspired by music and wanting to try something new. Initially, the pulsing music playing had me dancing in the studio, then dancing with a brush to canvas like a lover’s smooth glide across the floor—with passion and rhythm. While laying color on canvas, I switched to painting knives. The composition developed while working. The result reflected my sense of evolving as an artist while embracing a new dancing partner. My Design Strategy The design is vertical, and the size of the piece allowed for broad strokes and lush color. Last year’s lockdown had me feeling caged, and like other pieces painted during this time, I wanted a composition that accentuated calmness, beauty in color and open spaces. The paint applied by my palette knife floats…

Bonjour and welcome to Art Industry Insider. I’m Vanessa Rothe and in this new column I’ll be sharing my knowledge acquired by working in the art world as a curator, art dealer, editor and fine artist. From the creation of the work to the business of selling your art, my hope is to give you some useful behind the scenes information. This month I will be writing about how to create your art portfolio for school or gallery submissions. Artwork Content The first step is to create a body of work that is both your best work and consistent in style. Meaning that your work should look like it was created by the same hand and with the same taste. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it all must be one…

The inspiration for this drawing is Juan Manuel, the greatest muse who I met from my Mexico City workshop in June 2021. Juan—who at 82 years young, has a great face with a soulful expression, framed by his extraordinary mane of white hair and big white beard—is the motivation of this drawing. STAGE 1: I use a pastel pencil to block in the shapes and plane changes of the head. Keep the line quality extremely light. Pay attention to the proportions of different shapes, re-define the height, width and length of shapes and re-examine the symmetry and relationships. The gesture of the head can establish the attitude of an entire figure and hint at the person’s emotion. I recommend students spend at least 40 to 60 minutes on this stage.…

I once had an art teacher describe the job of an artist as being the same as that of a magician; both are masters of deception. The painter who practices realism deceives the viewer by making a two-dimensional surface appear threedimensional, using little more than paint and a brush. My grandfather was an amateur magician, so I appreciate the comparison. To enhance my abilities of “deception,” I attended the Atelier School of Classical Realism in Oakland, California, taught by David Hardy, and I will continue my studies at the Grand Central Atelier in New York City. To study art at an atelier means to learn the classical way of painting and drawing through direct observation. Painting from life allows you to see changes in colors and tonal value that can…

Watercolor is a charming way of blending colors to create undeniably romantic paintings. Each stroke of paint is delicately brushed to create textures and layers that bring a painting to life. I’m constantly finding myself enchanted by the swirling colors, opaque pigments, transparent layers and true magic of every stroke. I work primarily with two mediums—watercolor and oils. With both mediums I have found a passion in creating hyperrealistic art. I love focusing on the tiniest of details as I bring something to life. Whenever I have time to go out in nature I’m constantly looking for new references for future paintings. The subject can be anything from grand and majestic flowers to the smallest forest berries. However, I find it even more interesting to paint something small and then…

I use my work to explore my relationship with the landscape and the feelings of peaceful solitude and contemplative awe. I carry these emotions when I am surrounded by beautiful scenery. It’s what I seek to express in my paintings. Watercolor lends itself perfectly to this task due to its ethereal and delicate nature. My approach to the painting process is meditative. I let my artworks unfold slowly, waiting a few days between washes and working on multiple paintings at once for that reason. For some paintings, I let my imagination unfurl while others are inspired by landscapes I photographed myself. I start every new work with the sky. Occasionally, when I have an idea of the core elements of the painting, I draw a faint outline with a graphite…

Soft pastel is a special medium for me. It gives me freedom, control and the possibility to express myself on paper in a variety of ways. I use different types of paper for different effects. If I want a lot of layers, and a mix of stumping and strokes, I use sanded paper. If I want softness or sketch-like techniques, I use normal pastel paper. For the first layers I always use extra soft pastels to cover the entire surface and stump my colors into a watercolor-like cloud. For the next layers I use soft pastel and hard pastel sticks to specify the details. For some works I use a limited color palette, and for others a wide scale. My most frequent subject is landscapes, because I really love nature…

Composition » In charcoal, I don’t pay much attention to composition. I have a general sense of where I want the subject matter to be placed and will commit to that area. Composition goes back to rigidity and structure and my aim is to deconstruct those elements. Focal Point » Having a focal point, an area where the viewer’s eye is weighted and then moves outward, is my mentality going in. Where do I want to begin the story of the portrait? In the eyes, mouth, hair? Do I want a singular focus or do I want the piece to travel for the viewer? Lighting » Where is the light source? Keeping this in mind is paramount to successfully rendering anything, regardless of the localized area lighting. The lighting must…

FINALISTS Each receives an Award Certificate and a one-year subscription to International Artist magazine PLUS having their work seen worldwide by international galleries looking for new talent. My Inspiration I paint abstracts because of the mystery they hold. I have a vision, an image in mind, but the viewer brings their own ideas and experiences, often seeing things I didn’t plan and don’t see. I dream in colors. Closing my eyes and listening to a symphony I see only colors. One Saturday morning I was feeling euphoric, free to express myself in color, shape and design. I began to paint and created Saturday’s Colors. My Design Strategy Color holds the most importance in my work, however other design elements are essential, especially in an abstract work. The eye should travel…

My Inspiration I believe that, as an artist, it is my task and my privilege to search for beauty and to celebrate and share it with others. All of my artworks are inspired and enabled by music. One day while working in my studio, I found myself whistling along to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and envisioned paintings with a sense of excitement, hope and joy. I hope that my paintings achieve that. My Design Strategy My abstract paintings are really all about improvisation. They are not paintings of a subject—they are the subject. I use line, form, value, texture and, of course, color, along with a lot of meditation. I try to create something exciting and fresh. I want to make every inch of the painting interesting. It should be…

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. HINTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR ARTWORK Set your camera to the highest quality available. Shoot your paintings dead square on and fill the frame as much as possible.…

SCOTTSDALE ARTISTS’ SCHOOL: Tell us about some of the phases you have gone through as an artist and how that has influenced what you paint? RON HICKS: I was once of the mindset that if you can draw anything exactly as it appeared then you were therefore an amazing artist! However, as time progressed, the whole idea of being an “artist” has taken on a completely different meaning. Let’s say for example, the idea of seeing a [visual] artist in the same light as a music composer. Both are artists. A music composer pieces together various and multiple elements—instruments, melodies, harmonies, notes and keys, rhythms and dynamics, etc.—to comprise a complete and original work. He likely approaches the masterpiece with no inhibitions and perhaps even without structure or direction. The…

Louis Carr is an artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who is well-known for his intimate and delicately rendered portrait and landscape paintings. “At a very early age I wanted to become an artist,” Carr explains. “My parents were significant appreciators of the arts, and because I was home schooled, I had the capacity to practice.” Carr’s parents were close family friends with noted portrait painter Marshall Bouldin, who happened to live in their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Marshall, and his son, Jason Boudin, became role models for a young Carr and inspired him to pursue a career in portrait painting. At the early age of 13, Carr started taking portrait commissions in charcoal. He continued to work on portraits through high school and into college, where he received a…

As a watercolor artist, I can’t work a painting over time the way an oil painter can. In the moment, as washes dry and wet-into-wet opportunities literally evaporate, watercolors propel you towards the end of the painting. No reworking, scraping paint down to the canvas, or wholesale painting over something. Instead, we have to “think backwards but act forwards.” That means planning. But, as I’m sure many artists have learned with experience, there’s only so much planning one can do. Eventually, you have to get down to the act of painting. We really learn through exploration and experience. And that’s where iteration comes into play. When I’m learning a new technique or working on a new subject, I often work iteratively. Working iteratively allows a number of key benefits as…

For this painting I constantly stepped away from my easel to look back and forth at my still life and painting from my “view spot.” In other words, I never look at my still life from where I’m painting at my easel. If I want to compare the still life to my painting, then I step a few feet away to my view spot. Observing from this spot helps me to better gauge what needs readjusting since I’m able to see both my painting and still life from a distance. When working from direct observation, one must become acutely aware of the subtle shifts in value, at every stage, comparing the lights and shadows in one section with the rest of the painting. For the underpainting I stained my canvas…

Food painting is my comfort zone. Living in Italy, where life revolves around meals and ingredients for those meals, where things you put on your table change as the seasons change, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the idea that even a simple fruit or vegetable can tell a story. In my paintings, I try to create dynamic and fun still lifes, full of color and expression. I’m a “disciple” of the daily painting philosophy, popularized by Carol Marine, and my paintings are relatively small, painted with oils in the alla prima technique (wet-on-wet) in one sitting. I teach oil painting to beginners online. I normally do not premix the colors for a painting, but I do mark the values in the painting before working with colors. So,…

Reference Photo Mostly working from my own photo references, I carefully pick the subject for a painting. I try to catch the perfect lighting, not in too bright sunlight and not too dark in the shadows. I always take photos with the light source coming from the left side. STAGE 1 SKETCH I begin by drawing a sketch on thin paper, making corrections as needed. I apply graphite to the other side of the paper with a graphite stick, place my sketch on a painting paper and trace outlines of the subject. STAGE 2 MIXING COLORS Next, I mix red violet pigment with alizarin crimson. I apply water to one petal and a watery layer of color mix to the petal, painting one petal at a time. STAGE 3 APPLYING…

I mainly paint marine and oceanic themes with acrylics and have been doing so for several years now. I studied at an art school for seven years in my hometown in Ukraine. I learned the basics of painting, which in the future became very useful to me. I remember falling in love with these waves. I was on vacation in the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea coast. My friend and I went to the Aivazovsky Museum, and I saw something divine and exciting at the same time. I remember an almost dark room and huge canvases backlit with dim light. These waves were like an emerald that shimmered through the rays of the sun. I thought that I could never draw these waves. More than 10 years have passed,…

I only draw or paint what I see—nothing added and, usually, nothing taken away. Being an artist who focuses pretty much only on the natural world means I’m never going to be stuck for inspiration in terms of color, texture and shapes. Every drawing presents its own set of challenges and the inspiration for it can come from just about anywhere and anytime. I have focused on birds and wildlife for many years now, after trying to do looser work and using other techniques. I soon realized that I much preferred to produce accurate, detailed drawings of subjects. Initially, I produced work using only graphite. My ability with color and paintbrushes was virtually nonexistent. I had tried to teach myself how to use watercolor, but this proved to be a…

Charcoal sketching is like yoga for the artist, relaxing the mind and exploring the freedom of movement and expression in the arms. In the following pages, you’ll see the stages I go through in creating a charcoal piece. I’m captivated by the motion and stillness of light and dark. That’s the genesis of choosing a good subject to render. The subjects are friends who have graciously either posed or provided intriguing reference photos. There was a time I’d work with a live model but as I’m legally blind and my vision deteriorates with time, I tend to work from photos nowadays. However, my plein air work (watercolor or oil), is an important exercise for all artists. There is no replacing the exploration of the landscape and breathing in an ever-changing…

This is a portrait of my friend, John A. Carrasco. The steps outlined in the demonstration are not rules, but rather, one of many ways that I create. Everyone finds their own way to develop their art. STAGE 1 LOOSE MARKS I start by keeping the marks loose and simplified by laying in darker forms as a guide, without measuring. At this early stage, I’ll use a dark pan pastel with a blending stump to get an overall feel for the form and imagine what I’d like to represent. STAGE 2 BLOCKING IN LARGER SHAPES I expand to block in bigger areas, like the eye sockets, and work with negative shapes to define other areas. Still using the stump, I carve away at the facial structure without committing to details.…

VISIT INTERNATIONALARTIST.COM/ISSUES/PAST-ISSUES Create a library of art instruction in your home by purchasing past issues of International Artist magazine. Enjoy timeless demonstrations, refine your skills and explore new techniques. Artists of all levels rely on International Artist magazine to stay informed and up to date on the latest techniques from the world’s top artists. Stay informed on the latest techniques subscribe today online at WWW.INTERNATIONALARTIST.COM STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: INTERNATIONAL ARTIST. 2. Publication No. 1440-1320. 3. Filing Date: 9/30/2021. 4. Issue Frequency: Bi Monthly. No. Issues Published Annually: 6. Annual subscription price: $38.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 7530 E. Main Street, Suite 105, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 USA. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 7530…

About Your Tutor Richard Robinson is one of New Zealand’s premier outdoor painters. You can view his extensive online lessons at www.mypaintingclub.com. What’s the big idea? Every good painting begins with a strong visual concept, a big idea. This is something that beginners usually miss completely because they are so concerned with trying to capture the likeness of their subject. When I first clapped eyes upon this stunning scene in the Rees Valley of New Zealand I was struck by the strong color contrast of yellow/orange and blue. Since that was the first thing that I loved, that’s what I concentrated on. In fact I went further and exaggerated the color differences, making the blues bluer and the yellows more orange. Spending the time to initially figure out what it…

Art can keep us joyfully settled within ourselves, content each day even with real challenges. Challenges are motivating; they keep the brain cells charged and blood circulating. I got into art because from the start it was and is and will be life. What is life? I continue to find that out every day Once I put the first few strokes onto paper, my inner feeling blossoms, and it stays even if I walk away from the easel after five minutes. Those strokes are reminders of an obsession, keeping our hearts and minds alive in the best ways. Age means nothing to me; my mind is half my age. (Knock on wood.) Visions are continuations that feed into the brain. I might be observing passengers’ expressions on an airplane or…