10 Tips to Beat a Creative Slump
Ten Ways I Recharge My Creative Batteries By PAT FIORELLO If you’ve been painting for any length of time, you know it’s natural to go through periods of great energy and inspiration and other times where [...]
Painting Portraits Without Judgment
The Dutch artist Annemarie Busschers (b. 1970) is a master at painting portraits and depicting ordinary people by capturing their marks of life — by “recording their layers of skin,” as she describes her method. Trained in [...]
Color and How to Mix It
Landscape artist John Hughes shares a simple way of getting the right colors without memorizing elaborate theories. By John Hughes Mixing Color Intuitively Using Triads During instructor demonstrations, a typical question that is often asked by [...]
Ready for the Eclipse?
Figurative realists Sara and Shane Scribner share their inspiration: Sara, for her “Nightfall” series of paintings of women who have found a place of calm and introspection within the looming nightfall; and Shane, for his [...]
Painting with Fire
By Allison Malafronte There is a lot of superb contemporary realism and figurative art being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual. The Dutch artist Nick Willems (b. [...]
Painting “The Face You Have Made”
Collection of Women Realists, San Antonio By Allison Malafronte There are a lot of superb contemporary realism portraits being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted, insightful and compassionate [...]
Getting Over the Finish Line
In this excerpt from “Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air,” Michael Chesley Johnson explains how to finish a painting, and three tricks to help you decide if it’s complete. Refining and Finishing a Landscape Painting by [...]
Making a Painting vs. a Picture
By Guest Contributor Richard McKinley Reprising an article that first appeared in Outdoor Painter, landsape artist Richard McKinley gives us 7 tips for ways to express ourselves more creatively. They are practical and doable. Seven [...]
What Makes a Landscape Painting Work?
The appeal of some paintings is undeniable. But how do we explain the attraction? Today Bob Bahr examines the work of Jennifer McChristian to help unravel why such paintings immediately grab our attention and keep us captivated. [...]
Can Anyone Learn to Draw?
Lots of people who wish they could paint say things like, "I can't even draw a straight line." The irony is, in painting you don’t even have to – you just have to be willing [...]