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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Charcoal Portrait Sketch after Anders Zorn

A portrait sketch made this morning in vine charcoal, after an oil painting by Anders Zorn. It’s essentially just two tones. A mid-tone was laid in, breaking light and shadow, and then a darker shadow tone. This was blended to some degree with a tissue, but it’s still quite rough and granular. To compensate for […]

Luigi Loir and Paris Sketching

When asked which artists you admire, Luigi Loir isn’t a name that’s instantly recognisable, yet back in his day he was known as the painter of Paris. The sentimentality of Edouard Léon Cortès, Antoine Blanchard and Eugène Galien-Laloue are probably better known (and evidentally influenced by him), but with their garish colours and inferior handling […]

Water soluble pencil sketching after Wilhelm Busch

Wilhelm Martin Busch was probably one of the most brilliant sketchers and draftsman I’ve come across, with a wonderful imagination and command of line, able to draw almost anything that came into his imagination. Before Busch passed away in 1987, he had illustrated some 300 books. To properly appreciate Wilhelm Busch’s abilities and wonderful treatment […]

Learn how to draw trees effectively

Undoubtedly trees can be tricky to draw. Their organic, seemingly haphazard forms demand attention and perhaps more crucial still is incorporating these organic masses into a well-balanced, compositional drawing. Even the best drawn trees will suffer if the overall design of the drawing is not well considered; sometimes that means playing with references (whether from […]

Drawing Pine Trees in Charcoal

ArtGraphica has been a champion of charcoal in its use for drawing for many years. Its speed, tone, and malleability are hard to rival. Even the hardest up of artists (and as we all know artists are generally pretty skint!) can usually afford to purchase a few sticks, or failing that you can always go […]

The Practice of Oil Painting Book Online, Solomon Joseph Solomon

Have you ever wanted to find that one golden art book, that passes on seemingly lost knowledge of how the Old Maasters went about creating enviable drawings and oil paintings. Whilst there are no real shortcuts to fine art, other than extreme hard work and thorough dedication, knowing which steps to take and having a […]