Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Artists Magazine

the representation of a nighttime scene, traditionally referred to as a nocturne, presents a fascinating and exciting challenge when the chosen medium is watercolor. This medium, which is all about light and transparency, would seem to be counter to the demands of representing a scene layered with dark tones and only glimmers of light, whether from the moon or the artificial illumination of lamps or candles. The term “nocturne” seems to have originated with the efforts of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) in painting fireworks and scenes at dusk along the River Thames in the 1870s (see Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge, opposite). The results hardly met with universal acclaim, and the great art critic John Ruskin was so condemning that Whistler sued him in court—and won!…

“An array of publications and other exposure vehicles for visual artists were around 30 years ago, and one’s efforts didn’t have to compete with the internet. Now, with the sheer amount of imagery that’s sailing on the waves of the web each day, it seems to be a far more significant challenge for artists to stand out and be noticed.” ANTHONY WAICHULIS ARITST, INSTRUCTOR, ANI ART ACADEMIES “The digital phenomenon has become a real force in art. It has become another tool, like anything else, but as our world becomes more and more moderated by technology, it will become even more important. One has only to observe how international exhibitions have grown in number and importance. The artist today is performing on a global stage.” ANTONIO MASI ARTIST AND PRESIDENT,…

After working on a painting for some time, seeing what you’re doing can become difficult. For a fresh look, try the following: • Turn the painting upside down or view it in a mirror. Try a dusty mirror to reduce detail. • Relocate the work. Hang it where you’ll catch glimpses of it when walking by. • Put the work away and start another. Later, return to the “problem” painting. • Photograph your painting. Look at it in various ways—small, black-and-white, out of focus (to see large shapes and composition). You can also print a photo and apply pastel or paint to try changes. Or try changes directly on your painting: • Make bigger shapes out of smaller ones for more impact. • Reduce the value range. Three to five…

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) is, without question, one of the most universally revered artists. The luxurious color that inhabits his work speaks to us of the sensuous pleasures of nature, the promise of escape and the delightful transformative properties of light. Given his broad and direct appeal, it’s difficult to imagine just how radical his work was when he first began—and to understand the ferocious and derisive criticism it received. Far from gaining quick acceptance, Monet struggled financially for many years, yet the artist never wavered, never considered taking up an alternative occupation; instead, he pursued his ideas through painting, embracing their consequences as he forged entirely new notions of what a painting might do and what a work of art might be. This fall, an exhibition at the Denver…

“I started out doing some very academic portraits, but then I thought, ‘That’s just boring,’›” says Corbel of his first attempts at painting the faces from the places he’d visited. “So, I started using unexpected colors, like painting a pink African woman instead of brown. I try to keep the work light, elegant and sometimes surprising.”…

Whether working in oil or pastel, Mertz’s process is the same. First she draws a charcoal tick-mark map on her painting surface to establish the composition (upper left). She then sets the darks, washing them in with denatured alcohol for pastel (upper middle) or scrubbing them in with turpentine for oil. From that point, she develops the mid-tones and lights, as seen in the remaining progressive images of Come From Away (pastel on mounted board, 24½ x28½ ).…

POUR AND PRINT In The Art of Paint Pouring (Walter Foster) artist Amanda VanEver starts with the basics and proceeds to demonstrate 11 acrylic pouring techniques, yielding striking visual textures and abstract patterns. The Printmaking Ideas Book (Ilex), by Frances Stanfield and Lucy McGeown, explores printmaking techniques of artists around the globe. Included are examples of etching, engraving, monoprinting, woodcut, lithography, collography, linocut, aquatint, screenprinting and more. Drawn to Nature In the book Look Closer, Draw Better: Expert Techniques for Realistic Drawing (Rockport), Kateri Ewing encourages artists to truly see their subjects—not just in terms of form, but also as an evocative presence. The capturing of both qualities sets a drawing apart. With her lyrical artwork of natural subjects, Ewing presents lessons in graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, and…

“When I was growing up in Cincinnati, I had the privilege of seeing work by Frank Duveneck [American, 1848–1919] at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Duveneck, who studied painting in Munich with German artist Wilhelm Leibl [1844–1900], was born in Covington, Ky., just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, and even taught for a time at the Cincinnati Art Academy. His strong, painterly, chiaroscuro style—with bold brushwork and thick applications—is very much in evidence in this 1871 portrait. The artist, through his painting and teaching, influenced many renowned American artists including my own mentor, John Johansen [1876–1964]; my teacher, Robert Brackman [1898–1980]; and Brackman’s teacher Robert Henri [1865–1929].”DANIEL E. GREENEArtist, Author, Instructor…

everybody’s tolerance for clutter in the studio is different. You may be someone who embraces a bit of mess (“It’s not mess; it’s creativity!”), or you may be the type who finds comfort in a tidy, orderly space. Regardless of the mind-set, there are some challenges—such as storage—that are common complaints, and some simple strategies and ways of working that can be useful. We asked top art professionals: “What has worked best for you?” Read on to hear about space-saving tactics, as well as helpful habits and other best practices for making your studio a motivating space. THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT “Forty-five years ago, when I first began my professional art career,” says Ken Goldman, “if I needed a particular photo reference from which to make sketches, I’d trek…

“Younger generations don’t want to acquire things. Older generations want to downsize. It’s a recipe for not making sales. Artwork has to be good enough to overcome a phenomenon of ‘getting rid of’ instead of collecting.” —JOY COLANGELO “Most people are perfectly happy with prints, meaning today’s artists compete with every artist who ever lived, due to print-on-demand services. Plus, as the middle class declines, fewer people are able to afford original art. Buyers want Walmart prices.” —BRETT PIGON “I’m distracted by my phone! Notifications urge me to check it constantly. How does someone stay creative through all of those distractions?” —LIZ BOSTON LIKE US ON FACEBOOK @ARTISTSNETWORK TO ANSWER EACH MONTH’S QUESTION IN “THE ASK.” RESPONSES MAY BE EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY.…

Adhesive tape was invented in 1845 by surgeon Horace Day, who coated fabric strips with rubber adhesive. Since then, tape has become an indispensible household item. As an artist, I can’t imagine my studio without all kinds of tape, which I store in a plastic container to keep away dust. Each tape has a specific use—from aiding the process of drawing and painting to marking placements for models and still life setups to tidying edges of stretched canvases or panels. Artists have probably found specialized uses for every kind of tape—and there are many. These four are among my favorites: Medical paper tape, available at pharmacies, is structurally nonwoven and multi-directional, so it can be pulled to create gentle curves. This tape is easy to tear and peel, and it…

1. Turn the photo or sketch and look at it from different angles. One image or subject can have more than one pareidolia image. 2. Zoom in and out and turn the image if it’s in a digital format. If it’s a physical photo, look at it from both far away and up close. 3. Keep in mind that the image can look however you want—in any style. It can be amorphous, or maybe you just like a certain shape that you want to emphasize. It can be a weird fantasy creature or an everyday object. It just has to make sense to you. 4. Try using different media to translate the image you see. 5. Ask a friend what they see in the image. It can start a fun…

Stephanie Law’s work inhabits two worlds. The first is fantastical—rich with fictional characters, unique, but derived from medieval, classical and contemporary sources. The second is the natural world with botanicals and bugs from the environment around her but presented with an ethereal quality often found in fantasy art. Blending the real, the magical and the traditional results in works that stand out in both the fantasy-art community and the art community as a whole. TWO ROADS CONVERGE Law studied art in college but as an interest secondary to her major. “I had picked my university primarily for the computer science program,” she says, “but I decided that I needed to do art even if I wasn’t planning to make a career out of it. The art program was very much…

Materials (for all drawings) MEDIA • graphite pencil • ink • colored pencil • fine-point marker (optional) SURFACES • translucent marker paper • tracing paper EXTRA ITEMS • photo/photocopy of subject • low-tack tape • pencil sharpener The primacy of line in the drawing process can hardly be overstated. The word “draw,” from Old English dragan (to drag), in itself evokes the path made by a stick of charcoal, an ink pen or the tip of a sharp pencil. Virtually every book or course on drawing begins with the act of drawing a line. But what does the line represent? For the beginning artist, it’s a contour line—a long, thin mark that divides an object from the empty space surrounding it or that separates one form overlapping another form. As…

If you have a smart phone, android or tablet, you can geek out with myriad apps (some free and some for purchase) made especially for artists and designers. Check these out: ● Color identifiers let you determine an item’s real-life color by pointing your device at it; however, every color-identification app is limited by the library of colors it contains, and they all tend to identify colors in general terms or by brand names. Three popular color-identification apps are Swatches, Color Grab and Color Capture. ● Use photo-to-paint simulators to see what a photo would look like as a painting. Prisma is a leading app that popularized this trend—but some users find it defaults heavily to mid-tones, which flattens images. BeCasso, Brushstroke and Portrait Painter are other popular choices, the…

Throughout his career, Alain Corbel has told numerous stories by means of his sequential art—namely via comic books—but it’s the stories he has collected for bookmaking projects and nonprofit efforts in Africa that have had the most impact on him. STUDYING THE ART OF STORYTELLING “I never thought I’d go to Africa, ever,” says Corbel, who was born in Brittany, France, and currently lives in Baltimore where he teaches sequential art, illustration and visual journalism courses at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). It was a long and winding road to Africa. At the start of his career, he attended a fine arts school in his hometown, but just for one year. “It didn’t go very well; I was too obsessed with sequential art,” Corbel says. He moved to…

Pennsylvania SOULS GROWN DEEP: ARTISTS OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART PHILADELPHIA, PA. • PHILAMUSEUM.ORG THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2 “Souls Grown Deep: Artists of the African American South” presents paintings and sculptures from 1985 to 2004 and quilts made from the 1920s to the early 2000s to depict the artistic traditions of the African-American community in the Southeast. Some of the featured artists are Thornton Dial whose work includes large-scale sculptures and reliefs; Lonnie Holley; Ronald Lockett; and Bessie Harvey. Themes respond to current and past issues such as poverty, oppression, violence, marginalization and racial conflict. In one of Dial’s works, the artist uses metal, goat hides, barbed wire and other gathered materials to depict a slave ship in high relief and in grand scale. The 15 quilts…