"We need a voice that looks broadly," said Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, a national lobbying group. He is advocating a senior position, not necessarily a Cabinet post. "We are calling for a person at the executive office level who understands there is a National Endowment for the Arts, but also understands the arts portfolio in the Education Department, the State Department—and in addition to the nonprofits arts, is looking at cultural tourism, broadband access and trade through records, movies and videos."

The easiest way to make gray with an opaque medium is to mix black and white. The richest grays, however, are made by mixing complementary colors.

Wyeth gave America a prim and flinty view of Puritan rectitude, starchily sentimental, through parched gray and brown pictures of spooky frame houses, desiccated fields, deserted beaches, circling buzzards and craggy-faced New Englanders. A virtual Rorschach test for American culture during the better part of the last century, Wyeth split public opinion as vigorously as, and probably even more so than, any other American painter including the other modern Andy, Warhol, whose milieu was as urban as Wyeth’s was rural.

Act like a professional. "I don't have to be businesslike; I'm an artist." If you've said this before, you're fooling yourself, and you'll probably be taken advantage of. Successful artists place a premium on professionalism and good business practices.

Hal is living a perfect life. Everyone adores him and everything always seems to fall right into his hands. He's got the looks, he's got the charm and he's got Dali, his new girlfriend. Little does Hal know...his whole world is built around him.

Using the data, they painted what people want. It turned out to be a landscape, with a mountain and a lake, and deer, and a family, and George Washington.

Draw something white. Find a white object, or paint any object pure white, and then, with a strong light source from one direction, draw the shapes and values in charcoal with as much detail as possible. This is a great exercise in studying values, and you might try it as a painting exercise, too.

A sturdy, lightweight drawing board can be made from two pieces of corrugated cardboard. Glue them together with the ridges running in opposite directions. Trim the board to a size that's 1/2 inch larger than the paper you're using, and then bind the edges with packing tape. Secure your paper to the board with four strong paper clamps.

• January: An investigation of airport art sales
• February: My box-making demo video
• March: Maureen on Poussin's intense classicism
• April: My guide to Portland's Alberta Arts District
• May: The orphan works controversy
• June: Guide to using photo site Flickr
• July: Art from junk mail
• August: Children create art for Olympics
• September: Objects made of other objects
• October: Why do we associate genius with youth?
• November: How to get your press release noticed
• December: My art-filled Christmas

The perceived sense of entitlement and Nicole's self-appointed role as family spokesperson prompted Buffett to tell Peter that he'd renounce her. A month later, the mega-billionaire mailed Nicole a letter in which he cautioned her about the pitfalls of the Buffett name: "People will react to you based on that 'fact' rather than who you are or what you have accomplished." He punctuated the letter by declaring, "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin." Nicole was devastated. "He signed the letter 'Warren,'" she says. "I have a card from him just a year earlier that's signed 'Grandpa.'"