Category Archives: Weekly Art Lessons 31-40

This emergency kit has been known to cure the following symptoms:

• uncontrollable urge to “do something” with your hands
• boredom
• extreme restlessness
• loneliness
  
• need to be alone
• odd desire to “become one with nature”
• “I’ve Got to paint NOW or else…”
  

BE PREPARED: Always keep a kit nearby. Art supplies can be applied in most situations for immediate health benefits.

To put together your emergency kit, study the options shown in these lessons:

• How to Set Up Your Cotman Kit with Gouache for Plein Air Painting

• Plein Air Travel Kit in a Baggie

• How to Fold a Sketchbook from a Single Sheet of Paper .

Gesture drawing is the best way that I know of to become confident with the human figure.

Gesture drawings are quick studies in which you draw what you feel is the essential ACTION and life expression within the momentary pose of your subject. Aim to draw what the model is DOING; the bending and twisting, the tension or relaxation of the muscles. … Read the rest

Once upon a time, so I’ve been told, a certain British landscape painter made field studies on his actual thumbnail (hence, the term).  Has anyone else heard this?

It’s an intriguing idea and I suggest looking at your thumbnail right now and thinking about how you could break the space into a few major areas to express  a  composition in a simplified manner.… Read the rest

Our ideas about a color differ from what the eye really sees, and we’re generally convinced that these preconceptions are accurate.  Use the following technique to isolate and evaluate color.

We humans are pretty smart.  We know that the tree in front of us is the same color as the tree of the same species on the distant mountain. Knowing this makes survival easier. … Read the rest