Innholdsfortegnelse for February-March 2022/ No. 143 i International Artist

Happy New Year! This is the first issue of 2022 and the 143rd issue of International Artist magazine. International Artist is the flagship magazine that started all of this. Fast forward 23 years and International Artist Publishing, LLC has grown to five titles, a massive social media following (over 1,000,000+ followers across all titles), and a top podcast channel, The American Art Collective. Our commitment to your artist journey continues in 2022. We realize that, as artists, you may be interested in our other titles that focus on collectors. We would like to give you a gift of $10 off any of our genre collector titles. This includes American Art Collector, contemporary American realism; Western Art Collector, contemporary, traditional and historic Western art; American Fine Art Magazine, historic American art;…

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. NEW 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…

Knowing how and where to place your values is best learned by looking intently at your subject and, of course, by practicing. Art teachers can tell you how general light theory works and they can tell you how to mix your value scale, but as an artist you must become very good at looking and perceiving exactly where the lights and darks are and them mixing or creating the appropriate values in the appropriate shapes. As we showed in the basic charcoal drawing of the girl, you can create a beautiful work of art just using 2 values, whereas many subtle and small value changes next to one another can add to a sense of refined realism. Using a broad range of values from 1 to 10 can create high…

Demo The artist demonstrates how to make a picture. A demo can be pure showmanship or it can be all about teaching. It can be long or short, it can have a voiceover or not, but it doesn’t have to present all the materials and steps, because it’s not intended for people to actually follow along. Tutorial The artist offers a recipe for how to do something, guiding the student to emulate their procedure. A tutorial must contain all the tools, materials and steps that make it achievable for someone else. Include explanations in the form of captions or voiceover. Q & A If you’re answering questions in a live-streaming format, you have to deal with them live as they come or have a moderator sift through them in advance.…

In the past, over 800 artists from across the country gather at our annual The Art of the Portrait Conference every spring for an unforgettable four-day experience of learning from our renowned faculty of over 30 artists. We’re excited to hold our conference in person again, April 21 to 24, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, with a weekend of demonstrations, lectures, workshops, portfolio reviews and so much more! Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with six of our 2022 faculty artists—Suchitra Bhosle, Louis Carr, Michelle Dunaway, Pramod Kurlekar, Paul Newton and Elizabeth Zanzinger—who shared a few words of wisdom about their artistic journeys as well as the future of portraiture. AZZARITO: For much of modern history, artists began their careers as apprentices, learning from a master craftsman before venturing out…

My inspiration comes from naturethemed scenes—landscape, skyscape, animals, forests and flowers. I choose oils for their versatility and their potential to capture the light on a landscape. They are easy to blend, apply evenly on the surface and can be wiped out completely if needed. I will take many photographs of the subject and make a small field painting if I can. My goal during outdoor sessions is only to paint an impression of the scene, rather than a complete rendition. At the studio, I will use these color studies, and I will modify the composition if needed. A careful study of the scene allows me to make a unique plan, and I get immersed in the scene as if I were there. Previous studies serve to decipher which colors…

The painting Country Kitchen is a tour-de-force of textures and surfaces. For a painting like this, I generally work on one element at a time, bringing it to a high level of finish before moving on. I work from the back of the painting to the front, left to right, masking off surrounding elements as needed. Once everything is painted in, I step back and start making overall adjustments, mostly deepening values as needed. STAGE 1 PENCIL ON PAPER My drawing is done on 300 pound Fabriano paper with a 4H pencil. I plan everything out at this stage and spend a lot of time capturing all the details. A good drawing is the basis of a great painting. When painting realism with watercolor, you’ll never get great results from…

Have you ever come across a really interesting subject that sits in the back of your head for ages? Ideas are churned over, colors considered, composition explored, but you always seem to put off getting started. This interesting building on a windy, United Kingdom coastal waterfront is one of those subjects. I have sketched it and thought about it for three or four years. Finally, I decided to make a start. I did a few rough sketches to shuffle around composition and colors. My plan wasn’t to select one of the sketches and reproduce it, but rather to explore different options with the sketches, then allow the painting to meander between them depending on how things emerge. I started with my usual handful of colors: » French ultramarine blue »…

I’ve experimented with both watercolor and acrylic painting, but my preferred and only medium now is acrylic. I’ve always had an eye for photography and editing photos so coming up with my own still life set-up comes naturally to me. I feel this is an essential part and a great starting point for an interesting composition. My architectural background comes in handy for working out perspective and sketching out my drawings. I always start my process the same, researching and planning my still life reference before I sketch out my drawing. Then I paint my whole canvas in one vibrant color like medium magenta, cadmium red or phthalo yellow green. Once my canvas is dry I can sketch out my composition with a light pencil. Then I select the colors…

There’s a special bond between pets and humans. As an artist, I enjoy exploring that bond through pet portraits. Trading in my keyboard for a paintbrush, one of my earliest pieces was an oil portrait of my own dog, Katana. I dabbled in human portraiture as well and with relative success. I even took a stab at still life, but nothing gave me quite as much joy or satisfaction as painting my sweet puppy. About the time I started turning my attention more towards pets, I ran across a few really interesting videos on colored pencil. I had tried the medium before, found it frustrating and promptly retreated back to oil painting. Intrigued by the techniques, materials and use of solvent being demonstrated in these particular tutorials I decided to…

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. Moving Mountains It’s all too easy to be trapped into feeling that you shouldn’t change your subject at all when painting the outdoors. It’s nature! Who are you to mess with it? Frankly, nature doesn’t care if you shift her around on the canvas to show her best side, and neither does anyone else. Go nuts! In this painting I put all my favorite parts of this grand panorama into one coherent composition. My one caveat is that the more you change, the easier it is to get something wrong that breaks the illusion of the reality of the scene. It’s a classic case of learning the rules…

It’s a new year, and to celebrate many of us make resolutions on what we’d like to achieve. I’d like to ask you to think about your art and what you’re hoping to do in the next year. How would you like to challenge yourself? What are your art goals? Let this be your guide for now and into the future as you continue to push your artwork to new levels. Over the years our International Art Competitions have been a great way for artists to try out their skills and enter works they’ve created recently that are then thoroughly reviewed and judged. We have challenges in eight different subjects—Favorite Subjects, Still Life, People & Figures, Wildlife, Landscapes, Florals & Gardens, Abstract/Experimental Art and Seascapes, Rivers & Lakes—which allow artists…

ENTER OUR NEW ART COMPETITION CHALLENGE No. 129 Still Life 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…

Showing Light Source and Basics Drawing is the first part of creating a realistic subject, and this means simply creating the right shapes in the right place. In making a line drawing more real, we can use different values (or tones) of gray shading to help suggest volume. Here, I remind you of how the basic drawing elements work on a still life as shown on the apple illustration below. You can see where the light source is coming from and how I’ve shaded in basic lights and darks according to the rules, so that the apple reads as a real object. This is an important aspect to understand before mixing your paint. TIP: Some works just use a few basic values and others have more refined use of values. Both…

Where were you 24 years ago? What twists and turns have you faced on your road to becoming an artist? Almost a quarter of a century ago, the most prominent portrait artists at the time came together in a synergy of commitment and action and founded the Portrait Society of America. Today, the Portrait Society is a vibrant and active non-profit organization with a broad base of support and a focus on elevating portraiture and keeping the rich tradition alive and well. How do you accomplish such a high ideal? The Portrait Society has established over 20 programs and publications (including our 10 pages here in International Artist) that further the traditions of fine art portraiture and figurative work. We reach over 60,000 artists in each issue—artists located all over…

Jared Brady Winter Self-Portrait, oil, 14 x 11" (35 x 27 cm) INSPIRATION I completed this piece during a 30-day painting challenge. In order to grow as an artist, I’m always trying to think of ways to challenge myself, and what better way than to paint an outdoor self-portrait. I carried my studio mirror outside and leaned it up against a tree. Thankfully, the conditions were ideal for the painting—overcast but not too cold. It was a perfect winter day to paint outside with my pups by my side. PROCESS To start this piece, I first applied a wash of oil paint thinned with some Gamsol to get rid of the white of the linen. Next, I established a few general drawing lines to get basic proportions and placement correct.…

The light that surrounds us defines our reality, and it’s a part of everything we see, do, experience, and understand. Some of the most beautiful moments last only an instant. To catch the light and capture this moment in time is my goal, my passion, my inspiration. The painting process for me is always a push and pull between light and dark, warm and cool tones, detail and abstraction, a real and imaginary world. I use color contrast to convey the differences in light in the morning, evening and at night to show movement and life in my work. I am inspired by the first rays of the sun that bring a new day. I love the shine of the water at noon. I admire the wave transparency through which…

I work with different mediums, including watercolor, acrylics, charcoal and others—but watercolor has always been my favorite. If one knows the right techniques, then there is no better medium that can create more magical expression than watercolor. Because of its transparent nature, it is considered the most difficult among all the existing painting mediums. But, trust me, acknowledging proper strategies can make you completely fall in love with this medium. Over the years of practicing watercolor, I understood that it is all about the planning one should make before even putting the first brushstroke on paper. Since the medium is transparent and it is very unforgiving in nature, we will not get many chances to correct the mistakes. In this article, I will share some of my thoughts as to…

To create art is not to copy reality slavishly. For me, a good painting is not only loosely based on representation, it is also a metaphor of energy and the constant flux of spatial relationships. Beyond the world of appearance, I sense a vibrational force that can only be described as the “vital impetus” or “energy of life.” As an artist, I choose to explore this phenomenon through my paintings. Artists are on a journey of selfdiscovery through art; we are aware of the sights and sounds and sensory data of the world, and are able to almost intuitively perceive the profound significance of form, color and line. The creative process starts with being a witness of reality and then evolves into being an active participant of the creative force…

Portraiture and realistic painting in gouache is an often difficult task for painters starting with the medium because of its unique properties. Gouache does not tend to layer very well, making painting with it a challenge at first. The challenges I most often hear about when it comes to gouache painting are that the colors in the painting tend to get muddy fairly easily, and getting a smooth consistency is difficult. There are many techniques one can use to achieve a successful gouache painting, the specific techniques I use are “color blocking” and having a bright underpainting to allow for the colors in a painting to be more harmonious. In my experience, gouache paintings have been best achieved using a maximum of two layers. I typically block in the main…

STAGE 1 GETTING STARTED Using white artist tape, I secure my astelmat to a piece of Masonite board, transfer my sketch, and apply masking fluid around the inside edges of my subject. STAGE 2 LAYING IN THE BACKGROUND I use PanPastels and a wedge sponge to create a soft gradient background. Moving from light to dark, I work outward from the edges of the subject and peel up the masking upon completion. STAGE 3 EYES, NOSE AND MUZZLE I work in some of the detail in these areas even at this early stage. They’re the cornerstones, so to speak. If accurate, the rest will fall into place as the piece progresses. Techniques and Tactics » PanPastels for the Background: Most of my portraits have simple backgrounds. PanPastels work wonderfully for…

A composer creating a memorable melody, not just music razzledazzle. A writer developing a dynamic plot, not just a parade of characters. An artist painting an inspiringly designed work, not just well-drawn. A work of art can go “flat” without a good design, no matter how well painted. It doesn’t have to be a flamboyant composition. Take the simplicity of Girl with a Pearl Earring, or more complex like The Lady of Shalott. I discovered this basic principle by studying works of art over the centuries, from my mentors and from my own years of developing. This is the importance of design. The Moment When painting or drawing, I’ve never thought of the image created on canvas or paper as a “freeze frame.” To me, it is a moment of…

In the age of social media, we’re all filmmakers. We create our own documentaries. We tell our own stories, and we assemble our own band of followers. A hired video crew could never capture our process as well as we can by ourselves. The tools at our fingertips are better and cheaper than the top professional gear from just five or ten years ago. But tools don’t make films. So how do we make an art video that reaches a wide audience and earns widespread approval? I’ve made a list of a few of my favorite practices (and also a few pitfalls) that have worked for me, based on my own experience and on comments that I solicited from my YouTube community. You can read their comments (some 225 of…

Need to work on your drawing skills? How about learning how to successfully paint the expressive portrait, discover the unity of color harmony and form, achieve a likeness, or present your work in the digital age? Or how about watching Michelle Dunaway and Michael Shane Neal demonstrate together on stage? This is just a small taste of our program being off ered on April 21 to 24, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, providing the largest event in America today featured solely on portraiture and figurative work. Whether you’re a full-time professional artist or looking to take your art to the next level, we have a program to benefit you. Thirty-one faculty artists who will be demonstrating and teaching include: Leslie Adams, Anna Rose Bain,…

I wanted to portray the cold glare of a hunter ready to pounce. Photo reference permission from Michelle Cobble. The video of this piece can be found here: My goal as an artist is to create work that inspires people. Pieces that can stop a viewer in their tracks and imbue them with a sense of awe and emotion. Whether I have achieved this is of course subjective, and I am my own worst critic, but this is the constant driving force behind what I do. I work primarily in charcoal, pushing the medium to find a balance between abstract and realism. My subjects are usually wildlife, with my career as a biology teacher and interest in our natural world heavily influencing the work I create. I hope that through…

In this demonstration I show how to capture the play of artificial light and shadow to convey the magic evening mood of this European street. The reference photo was taken near the popular Bar 1401 Praha in Prague, Czech Republic. It’s a wonderful place with beautiful lighting, great atmosphere and live music. STAGE 1 TONING THE CANVAS This stage is quick. I tone the canvas with a wash of Indian red to give this painting a warm undertone. I wipe the surface with a paper towel to remove the excess paint. STAGE 2 DEFINING THE LIGHT AREAS I remove the orange tone with the tip of my index finger covered by the towel. It will be the lightest lights of my painting. STAGE 3 BUILDING COMPOSITION Using a soft large…

One of the joys of still life painting for me is the ability to completely control the composition before my pencil touches the paper. If I were to paint a landscape, I could move things around in my head or draw things differently to make a better composition. But I couldn’t rotate a building 30 degrees and see how the light and environment changes. When I set up a still life, I have full control. A glass bottle can be moved or rotated to see how the light passes through, and how the colors change on nearby objects. This freedom to play with the arrangement is a fun part of the process. It can take days for me to develop a concept and compile all the elements I want to…

I always have my phone/camera handy when I walk in the woods near my house, just in case there is something that catches my eye. Afterward I eagerly sort through all the possibilities and choose a photo that inspires me to create my next painting. This inspiration is usually based on an underlying abstract composition that I discover in the image. With this particular photo I realized that the composition worked better as a square rather than as a rectangle, so I cropped the photo and printed out a square version to attach to my easel for reference. STAGE 1 THUMBNAILS Thumbnail 1 (above) is my first attempt at analysing the composition. I drew a rough 5-by-5-inch square with black marker and divided it into halves both vertically and horizontally.…

STAGE 1 THIN LAYER OF WATER I begin the painting by adding a thin layer of water to a thick watercolor paper. I then apply a thin yet vibrant layer of Ken Oliver Color Burst watercolors, which are a type of powdered watercolor that has an extremely vibrant color and does not lift once dry. STAGE 2 SKETCHING THE SUBJECT The subject is then sketched onto the paper after the underpainting dries. I apply the darkest areas of the image in black gouache, then block in the main tones in the skin. For the darkest shadows in the face I apply several different shades of purple to convey the depth. In addition to the purple, green and orange are mixed together and applied to other shadowed areas. The green will…

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