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 Tuesday, October 27, 2009
What's new in art education
You know me as Jen from Jen's Picks, and as the new Online Education Manager here at Artists Network, my main goal is to give you what you need to grow artistically. Here's what's new in my world! 
Our Artist's Network Online Seminars are a great way to learn about art from the comfort of your own home. Each seminar is presented by an expert in the field who guides you through an hour-long discussion of your favorite art topics. In our next seminar Nov. 3, The Artists Magazine's Maureen Bloomfield pairs up with Watercolor Artist's Kelly Kane to help you make a strong, positive impression on judges when entering art competitions. Learn more about Entering Art Competitions here.
 ArtistsNetwork.TV's streaming, downloadable and DVD art classes are like having a one-on-one in-studio session with a professional artist. This month we filmed Sterling Edwards, and I am amazed at how just by watching him paint, right there in front of me, I now find luminous watercolors actually doable and fun. And, I've got to get my hands on some encaustic materials—once you watch our latest production, Encaustic Techniques with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch, you'll be itching to melt wax, too.
—Jen Lepore
Online education manager
News | North Light Books
10/27/2009 2:21:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Hot new book on New Mexico artists
Cover art: At the Loneliest Moment of an Afternoon by Pauline Ziegen (oil, 60x48)The first snow of the season dusted the yards and downtown streets of Boulder this week. And while the air outside my office has taken on a definite winter chill, inside Art Journey New Mexico has also arrived and warmed my desk with the fiery orange landscape on its cover. The 224-page coffee table book features works by 104 of the state's top artists, brought together by the editors of The Collectors Guide, a sister publication to Southwest Art and The Artist's Magazine. Flipping through the pages serves as a reminder of the rich, multicultural influences and imaginations that thrive and drive the state’s reputation as a fertile nesting ground for artists. And interspersed with these treats are works by artists originally from New Mexico and a cadre who've come from other places seeking a creative place to call home. As a group, the artists vary widely in style from the chiaroscuro realism of the old masters to colorful abstraction. But the traditional mixes with the edgy to offer readers a delicious slice of the New Mexico art scene. And for readers hungry to experience a sense of place there are adobe churches, pueblos, burrito stands, sizzling sunsets and nature's famous color palette that brushes the small towns and cities. Expect to see brilliant yellow aspen trees, purple streaked skies and the wild red poppies that pepper the state's roadsides. Residents may grow weary of hearing their state dubbed The Land of Enchantment, but when it comes to art, this southwestern oasis really is quite enchanting. —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | News
10/26/2009 9:10:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 23, 2009
What drawings can do that paintings can't
Last week, instead of spending time on my own drawing, I got to see the work of several talented artists while in Scottsdale, AZ. Among other things, I was there to attend the Scottsdale Gallery Association's monthly Art Walk. Art walks are a great way for the arts community and art lovers to come together by opening gallery doors for an evening, and I saw some amazing art. One of the highlights of my trip was the 1st Annual Scottsdale Drawing Event. So many collectors focus on paintings that drawings are often an overlooked art form. Many of the drawings were completed in conjunction with oil paintings. It was astounding to see the same image, one in black and white, the other in full color; each a complete work on its own with a different intensity. I found it fun to find the slight variations between the works as the composition was altered to best suit the artists' intention and medium. All the work was great, but sometimes I actually liked the drawings better. Drawing has a direct connection to the subject that's not always present in paintings. I think it's the mark-making that only dry media create—each line, hash-mark or smudge echoing the movement of the hand across the paper. You be the judge: Check out this gallery of drawings from the show. Improve your own drawing skills with these books:
By Jamie Markle | North Light Books | Random Thoughts
10/23/2009 10:52:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tip file: Don't clean those dirty palettes
 Photo by Oliver Beattie
From Earl Lewis, in the February 1993 issue of The Artist's Magazine: I rarely, if ever, clean my watercolor palettes. I simply purchase new ones. I discovered that a dirty palette is a virtual treasure trove of fascinating colors. So many colors are already mixed that I often find just the color I'm looking for in the edge of a well on one of my palettes.
Learn more:
Advice | By Grace Dobush | Tips
10/22/2009 9:13:13 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Art news bits and bobs
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
10/21/2009 2:33:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sketching children from life
Capturing the personality and inner life of a child in a portrait can be challenging, and sometimes reference photos just won't cut it. Read on for award-winning artist and author Victoria Lisi's tips for sketching from life: 
If you have an opportunity to sketch the child, you can record details, impressions and characteristics that a camera would miss. There is a big difference between a photo and a living, breathing child! What sort of personality does she have? Shy? Bold? Impish? Artistic? These qualities will be more obvious as you sketch and interact and will add to your work.
One of my students brought his baby to class one day, and I took the opportunity to demonstrate drawing from life to my students. The baby hadn’t learned to crawl yet and was quite content to sit on a blanket gazing about, talking baby talk. I tried to capture his easy-going, happy personality in these quick sketches. A photograph could not have conveyed his disposition as well as these sketches based on life observation.
To learn more about drawing and painting children, check out Victoria's book Vibrant Children's Portraits: Painting Beautiful Hair and Skin Tones With Oils, available in January 2010. —Mary Bostic Associate editor, North Light Books
Advice | North Light Books
10/20/2009 1:55:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 19, 2009
Get a sneak peek at our Annual Art Competition winners!
In this latest edition of Artists Network News, you can see the first-place winners of The Artist's Magazine's Annual Art Competition. All the winners and runners-up will be revealed in the December issue, on sale Nov. 10!
By Grace Dobush | News | Videos
10/19/2009 10:25:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Southwest Art announces 21 Over 31 winners
Liza 1 (oil, 34x60) by Francois Chartier Monkeys, buddhas, potatoes and tanker trucks. Welcome to the November issue of Southwest Art, which hits newsstands across the country soon and features the winners of our 21 Over 31 competition. Here's a sneak preview and a little backstory.  The editors awarded first prize to North Carolinian Joshua Flint for Edge of Forever, a moody, slice-of-life depiction of Grand Central Station. While we were producing the issue, Josh's father passed away. Sadly, he never got the chance to tell his dad the piece also made it onto the cover. A few weeks ago, Josh told us that when he was growing up his father subscribed to Southwest Art and it was always on the family's coffee table. He recalled how his dad loved the West and romanticized the cowboy way of life. "Your publication being in our household and his tremendous support are certainly a few of the reasons why I am an artist today," Josh says. "The seed was planted long ago, whether I realized it or not. I know he would have been ecstatic seeing my work on the cover and it would have made him very proud. Even though he is not here, I imagine he is somewhere boasting about me."  A Song for Solanum (pastel, 18x24) by Brian BurtCanadian Francois Chartier took home second prize for Liza 1 (top), a glistening portrayal of a swimmer torpedoing through a pool. And then there's the one that always makes me smile— A Song for Solanum (above) by Ohio artist Brian Burt (who's also garnered some notice from The Artist's Magazine and The Pastel Journal). In this still life, Mr. Potato Head eyes another potato while wielding a peeler. There's a recipe for mashed potatoes looming ominously in the background. —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | News | Notable Artists
10/19/2009 9:10:21 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Integrate your figures in simple compositions
Drawing figures is a lot of fun because the human body can has an infinite number of poses. Even better is taking an ordinary pose and placing it on an interesting surface. This type of drawing forces my brain to find visual solutions while creating interesting compositions. The ground automatically energizes the drawing because the space has been broken up for me. What a great shortcut!  I created this surface using a 9x12 sheet of red drawing paper and a piece of paper from an old book. The printed paper has a lot of cotton in it, so it’s very soft and takes adhesives well. When placing the collage together, I made sure the proportions were irregular—this is key to making the composition work. If the composition is broken into perfect halves or thirds, the space will be divided too evenly. Sometimes symmetry is great, but I find irregularity much more interesting. When placing the figure, I anticipated how it would impact the overall composition. I was careful to place the figure so the proportions interacted with the collage at irregular intervals. This composition has only four values, and three of them are in large masses, which gives the composition a more graphic feeling. The large blocks or red, taupe and off-white divide the space and create the setting for the figure. The black adds the detail needed to balance out the large masses of value and defines the figure and the space. There’s a lot of contrast in this drawing, and the drawing is well executed and works as a focal point. In this case the figure almost becomes secondary to the composition, but I think that’s OK, because the rest of the composition holds the viewer’s attention. I also like the contrast between the rectilinear shapes of the collage and the windows balancing the softer lines of the figure. Learn more:
Advice | By Jamie Markle
10/15/2009 5:12:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tip file: Lots of pockets
From Kiel Stuart in the March 1986 issue of The Artist's Magazine: The outdoor sketcher's best friend just might be a fisherman's vest. This multi-pocketed garment will hold pens, pencils, brushes, a small box of watercolors, oils, acrylics or pastels and even a small canteen. The fancier models boast a zip-on pouch that will hold an 8x10-inch pad. Best of all, a vest will leave your hands free; you literally wear your sketching gear.
Learn more:
By Grace Dobush | Tips
10/14/2009 12:21:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Forget Bed, Bath and Beyond: Register for Art
 Why register for toasters, towels and Tupperware when you can celebrate your wedding with an original piece of art? The nAscent gallery of New York has just created a registry service that allows couples to register for works of art showcased by the company. Friends and family of the lucky couple can either purchase the work outright or may make a contribution toward the purchase of the work, such as the above piece, Sugarcane Fields by artist Fernando Ferreira de Araujo. If you’re more of a bookworm, Splash 10 or Strokes of Genius 2 are coffee table books filled with art that’s sure to impress your soon-to-be in-laws with your excellent taste. —Kelly Messerly
Editor, North Light Books
Cool Web sites | North Light Books
10/13/2009 1:49:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 12, 2009
Art show asks you to Think Before You Pink
It's October and that time of year when an onslaught of pink ribbons pop up here, there, and everywhere, from candy bars to shiny new cars. Now a San Francisco gallery, ArtHaus, has teamed up with Breast Cancer Action (BCA), a national watchdog organization, to present a show that invites viewers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.  Think Before You Pink (also the name of a BCA campaign) features 14 artists, including at least one breast cancer survivor, Torrie Groening. "I was fed up and saddened by the fact that I couldn't even buy my family groceries without being bombarded with reminders of cancer in the shape of pink ribbons," Groening says. Her photograph, This Elixir, It Won't Fix Her (right), features a volcano of consumer good erupting out of a tin can—teddy bears, lemon squeezers, and sunglasses. "When researching for this piece I only had to Google 'pink ribbon store' to discover this was a huge industry. Hundreds of online stores sell thousands of manufactured and pink ribbon objects—enough to fill many landfills." Groening says she is sick of pink and she's participating in the show, in part, because BCA holds companies accountable, including ones that manufacture carcinogenic products and then urge the public to buy its products to support cancer research. Among other things, BCA also encourages consumers to read the fine print—how much of the money really goes toward breast cancer? According to BCA, for example, Lean Cuisine once displayed pink ribbons on its boxes, but the purchase of the frozen delights did not result in any money going toward breast cancer research. Instead, the consumer was directed to a website to buy a pink Lean Cuisine lunch tote. Groening says everyone copes differently, but she prefers not to concentrate on cancer and keep a sense of humor and focus on her family and artwork. Think Before You Pink runs at ArtHaus through Oct. 31. —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | News | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
10/12/2009 9:27:36 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 09, 2009
Warm and cool: Simple color mixing
I like to play with color in my drawings. There are a lot of great artists who capture realistic skin tone to create amazingly accurate drawings. This takes a lot skill and practice, which is certainly worth striving for. However, I prefer to be more experimental with my figure drawing and choose a subjective color palette. This gives me the latitude to select the hues and values I want to convey the mood I'm looking for.  When drawing the figure, I like to start with the basic shapes, defining the outline of the model. I make corrections as I go along until I get the shapes just right. I want to capture the posture of the pose, so that the mood and gesture of the model is reflected in my drawing. To me, that's more important than capturing the proportions perfectly. Once I've achieved the shapes I want, I add color. The lines of the drawing capture the figure and mood of the pose while setting the groundwork for the entire composition. Blue becomes a natural shadow color; the value is darker, which adds depth and rounds out the form. Using the light yellow-green adds warmth to the skin, while providing contrast to the blue. Contrast is a great way to add interest to any drawing or painting, so I always try to add some strong contrast my work. The red hair provides a great final pop to top off the image. One other thing to notice is how the same colors are used in different places throughout the figure. This helps move the eye around the drawing and keeps any one color from garnering too much attention. The red behind the arm balances with the red in the hair; the blue in the hair, neck and arm brings the eye from top to bottom, then back up. The one thing I'd like to fix is the balance between the eyes; one is darker than the other. Next time I'll need to be more precise in my line making. Learn more:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | North Light Books
10/9/2009 10:14:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 08, 2009
Tip file: Warm and cool colors
From James Torlakson with Judith Gordon, in the April 1989 issue of The Artist's Magazine: The idea the warm colors advance and cool colors recede is central to creating believable space. To use this principle effectively, I choose a warm and cool variation of each color on my oil palette. Instead of mixing, you can use ivory black for a warm dark and Payne's gray for a cool one.
MORE RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS
By Grace Dobush | Tips
10/8/2009 9:54:02 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009 Monday, October 05, 2009
Simply divine in Denver
 Windows to the Divine, the intriguing title given to the biennial art show held this year at the Madden Museum of Art near Denver, is noteworthy for at least one reason. It’s hard to recall another show that brings together top artists and asks them to create works that interpret spirituality without confining their visual riffs to sacred or religious subjects. Thus, the show that opened Saturday night featured angels, virgins, ballerinas, Native American deities, peonies, yoga poses, quiet Rocky Mountain streams, San Francisco cable cars and western sunsets. The overtly religious paintings hung side-by-side with the secular ones like Lu Cong’s The Canary Bride (right, oil, 80x48), a stark minimalist portrait of a young woman with pearls. Granted an observer might argue that Cong’s bride looks a bit virginal. In September 2005, the editors of Southwest Art chose Cong as an emerging artist in our annual 21 Under 31 themed issue. On Saturday night, the editors at Southwest Art also awarded Cong an award of excellence—it was a tough call with more than 120 wonderful paintings on view. But there was the sense with this award we were bringing our 2005 discovery and introduction of Cong full cycle. Ben McPherson and Dan McCaw received Southwest Art’s two other awards of excellence. The show is on view through Oct. 23. —Bonnie Gangelhoff MORE RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS
Dispatches from the West | Shows and Events
10/5/2009 1:48:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Get your art critiqued by experts!
Like any other discipline, art has its own language. In order to speak intelligently about art and in order to evaluate your own and other artists' works, you need to know specific terms and their applications. This seminar will reveal how artists, instructors, and critics discuss art while critiquing a wide variety of work from both amateur and professional artists. Join us tomorrow for Improve Your Work Through Expert Advice: Learning the Language of Art with Jamie Markle and Maureen Bloomfield. The online seminar is at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Click here to learn more and register!
Advice | By Grace Dobush | News
10/5/2009 10:57:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 02, 2009
Capture the Figure in a Single Line
Whenever I'm having a difficult time embracing the drawing mode, it's a good idea for me to go back to basics. Using a simple contour line to draw the figure is one of best exercises to snap the brain from the left side to the right. I can always count on this technique to make me stop and look. If I'm not drawing the way I want, I’m not seeing, and sometimes I just need to slow down and really look at what is in front of me. Since seeing is the key to drawing, this simple change of course improves my results.  When using contour line I always start with the most complicated part of the subject, in this case the face. Then I slowly work my way to the outer edges of the figure, looking for the basic lines that make up the composition. Once I get into this mode of drawing, I become more relaxed and am able to focus on the simple shapes, the twisting of the form and the direction of the limbs. I allow my lines to overlap, tracing the shapes until I get them just right. Aside from opening up my eyes, the thing I like most about contour drawing is the challenge it brings. Creating art is a lot like solving a puzzle. You have to figure out how to arrange the line, shape, form and values. How do you place the figure on page? How dark or how light, how thick or how thin to make the lines? Where is the focal point? And how do you fit it all in without removing the charcoal from the paper? It's a balancing act, that's for sure. We had a great model this session, and her amazing poses created some very interesting compositions. She also had this great, curly hair that bounced around her head. By keeping the face simple, I was able to balance the active lines of her hair and create the focal point for the drawing. The face almost always becomes the focal point anyway, so it's a good idea to plan your drawing with that in mind. The proportions are fairly accurate, which is just fine with me. The drawing is large (24x18), which let me to capture the smaller features like the hands more easily. After I completed the contour line, I punctuated the drawing with some strong darks. This really increased the contrast and gives the drawing some extra punch. Learn more:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | Random Thoughts
10/2/2009 9:19:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 01, 2009
Tip file: Spring for great art papers
From Cathy Johnson, in the January 1992 issue of The Artist's Magazine: The best papers are 100-percent rag, meaning they're made from cotton or linen rather than wood. They last indefinitely without becoming brittle the way wood-pulp papers do.
Learn more:
By Grace Dobush | Tips
10/1/2009 9:38:32 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Keep up with all of us on Twitter
By Grace Dobush | News
9/30/2009 9:53:58 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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