Leverage Social Media to Maximize Your Art Selling

Today’s online art business has been spiraling up year over year. An artist no longer needs a shop in order to sell creations. This is why the art business done online has grown huge and better. For instance, in joining Art Classes La Jolla, you will soon be selling your artworks on websites like Artfinder […]

Sketching light when travelling

An unexpected excursion forced me to travel light, so in impromptu fashion I grabbed a Kuretake Waterbrush, 2B pencil, Pentel brush pen, a Faber-castell 0.5 ink pen and W&N watercolour pan, the hardened type you have to scrub at to release the pigment. I also took an inexpensive leather bound sketchbook, hand-made somewhere in the […]

Thomas Eakins Alla Prima Oil Painting Portrait Study

Thomas Eakins (1844 – 1916) is ordinarily known for his realistic portraits. He studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, and spent a brief spell with Léon Bonnat. Portrait after Thomas Eakins, 30cm by 40cm. In 1891 Eakins painted a portrait of his father-in-law, William H. Macdowell, an engraver […]

Sketches of Paris

On those busy days where commitments distract you from your passion, I always like to find time for at least one small sketch. Urban sketches never used to appeal to myself, but then I had a disdain of cities before Paris changed my persuasion. Part of the appeal of sketching the city is that rather […]

Diego Velazquez – Portrait of a Man

Between the rack and the Judas chair (not one to look up if you’re at all squeamish), the Spanish Inquisition were people you didn’t want to mess with. Diego Velázquez was either fearless or felt protected when he set about painting from live nude models. Only his ‘Rokeby Venus’ survives today. Velázquez (or Velasquez as […]

John Singer Sargent – Ink Wash Study Demo

Yesterday, I decided to do another of my thumbnail sketches, but planned to make it a little larger and add more mid-tones using ink washes with a brush. I took a few photographs at different stages in case it didn’t completely belly flop, and ended up creating a small tutorial for anyone interested: Ink Study […]

Love Locks on the Paris Pont des Arts, The ‘I did it’ experience

I remember tranquil evenings sat on Paris’ Pont des Arts bridge, outside the Louvre, with picnic laid out and wine to hand. I had no family commitments then, and sat amongst numerous Parisians and tourists watching the sun set over the Seine, as the surrounding limestone architecture turned golden. It saddens me to think that […]

John Singer Sargent Book – Technique, Life, Letters and Paintings

ArtGraphica has just released another art book, this time a chronology of American artist John Singer Sargent, following his life, paintings and personal correspondences with such friends as Claude Monet. Amongst the anecdotes is a retelling of an incident that occured in England, when John Sargent innocently rode his horse through a wheat field to […]

Paris Watercolor and Gouache sketch on Strathmore Bristol vellum

I purchased some Strathmore Bristol (vellum surface) 400 series, for the first time, which is not quite so readily available in Europe. It does state it is not suitable for watercolours, but I thought I’d try it with just a few washes. This 18cm by 10cm sketch is from a section of a Luigi Loir […]

Drawing Portraits, after Anders Zorn

Following the previous Anders Zorn sketch, another small study was undertaken using Strathmore 500 charcoal paper, panpastel and charcoal to try and get a painterly effect. It was drawn yesterday afternoon, with photographs taken during the progress so that I could share the techniques in a tutorial. The original painting – A Toast in the […]