Category Creativity Inspiration

No Drawing or Painting … Right NowTake a break, and don’t draw or paint. OK, I was kind of thinking the world would end if I said it, but the apocalypse has not yet arrived, so let me explain.Right now, I’m tired. I’ve just finished a bunch of summer traveling, did tons of family activities and events that were fun, but after all of it, I’m a little worn out.

Who Is Getting Noticed in the World of Acrylic Painting?The pace of the art world is fast and operates in so many different ecosystems. We are inundated by imagery, events, exhibitions, new techniques, old techniques, new artists, old artists, gossip, drama, and an energy that pulses nonstop, day in and day out.

A Still Life from Alma-TademaLawrence Alma-Tadema’s paintings are, to me, a bit of a guilty pleasure. Something frivolous and overblown about them turns some people off, but I’ve always loved them for the sheer vitality of the vision he presents.I just recently stumbled on an Alma-Tadema still life I had never seen before.

Blue Bird by Tonja Sell.Artist of the Month: Tonja SellA member of Artist Daily, Tonja Sell is the kind of artist whose creativity has so many places it wants to go that nothing is off limits, especially when it comes to the materials she uses. For years, Sell has been perfecting her art and exploring many visual mediums, including fused glass, metal-glass-oil painted sculpture, felting, printmaking, photography, pottery and ceramic sculpture, watercolor, acrylic painting, mixed-media, sewing, charcoal, pastels, and oils, with a few other odds and ends thrown in.

The discovery of a metal gifted the art world with a new set of blue colors. Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist and mineralogist, isolated a new metal: cobalt. This discovery contributed to a chain of events that changed the art world forever and gave us the vast blue color palette that artists know and love today.

Fight Feeling Blah with This Painting ToolI hit a wall trying to write today. I wanted to write about the importance of expressing strong feelings in your work, but I couldn’t figure out how to tie it all together. It was frustrating. But I knew I could get through it because I’d experienced it before, as a writer and as an artist.

Inspiration Advice from Mary WhyteI went through a phase when I thought I could control everything–where my career was headed, how my relationships were going to turn out, and what kind of life I was going to have. The best you can do is meet what appears on your path head-on.Open to InspirationThat goes especially for being open to inspiration for artwork.

A guest blog post from cartoonist, illustrator and author Steve BarrI’m a professional cartoonist. I’ve been one for pretty much my entire life. I started drawing my own comic books and selling them to my classmates for their lunch money when I was in fifth grade. By the time I reached seventh grade, I had already begun making sales to newspapers and magazines.

My dad is a little manic about asking our family to get our holiday wish lists to him waaaaaaay before he has to fight the crowds and wait in long lines. As usual, I’m procrastinating, but if I were to give him my art wish list, I could have it ready and waiting for him at a moment’s notice.The Red Bow by Charles Webster Hawthorne,circa 1902, oil on canvas.

Hearing Your Inner Voice: Words in ArtSometimes, all it takes is a single word, like “determination,” to spark our creative fire. Other times, motivational quotes, such as the one above, seem to ignite an unceasing flame in us to achieve our goals.We all have them: words, phrases and sayings that inspire, motivate and drive us to be better people and artists.

How to Spot a Painting ArtistPainters, no matter what they paint, are united in a love for creating. Painting makes our days better and gives us an incredible outlet for capturing the way we see the world.There are definitely tell-tale signs that mark us as painters, too. Here are 10 ways to tell if you are a painter.

By Beth Samek, Online Education Manager at Artist’s Network UniversityEach week at Artist’s Network University, we have new classes starting. These classes range from beginner to advanced and reach across media and subject. One thing that is common amongst many of them is the need for solid drawing skills.

Sadie Valeri’s Virtuosic Detailed PaintingsNot too many years ago, San Francisco based artist Sadie Valeri was an aspiring figure painter stuck in a still life studio. She had a good deal of time on her hands to hone her painting and drawing skills, but her workspace was less than 100 square feet.

Woman in Repose by Sherrie McGraw,sanguine and white conte, 10 x 15 1/2.Interacting with so many artists and writing about their work makes me think a lot about the kind of art I would personally like to make. Sometimes it’s abstract collages or pen-and-ink portraits.Right now, though, I really just want to concentrate on sketching well.

Stephen Scott Young is one of the most successful, talented, and humble artists I know, and I was delighted to write about his recent work for the spring 2010 issue of Watercolor. His watercolors are currently on view at Adelson Galleries, in New York City, where they are priced at $250,000; in 2007, one of his signature watercolor paintings of a young Bahamian girl sold at Sothebys for $348,000.

Who remembers making shadow art with their hands as a kid? You shine a flashlight at the wall, twist your hands and suddenly there’s a monster on the wall. Street artist Damon Belanger has taken this idea to the sidewalks of California.Noticing the Small Things Thanks to a Street ArtistPartnering with the Redwood City Improvement Association, Parks and Arts Foundation and ARTS RWC, Damon traveled to Redwood City to spread this fun shadow art.

Last night I caught the tail end of the “David/Death of Marat” episode of Simon Schama’s Power of Art, the eight-part series that first aired here in the States on PBS in 2007, and I was reminded what a fantastic series this is. Local listings say the rest of the series will air this month, the J.M.W.

Why not Bluetify Your Next Artwork?In celebration of the most popular color in the world — at least to me — and now with Crayola’s latest release of “bluetiful,” we’ve put together a list of common art subjects, all of which bluetifully (pun always intended) encapsulate the color blue.And, if you love a quick history lesson as much as I do, read about the accidental birth of Prussian Blue (the inspiration behind Bluetiful) here.

25 Artists of Tomorrow18 Casey Baugh20 Aleah Chapin22 Sean Cheetham24 Kim Cogan26 Kerry Dunn28 Ben Fenske30 Jeremy Geddes32 Adrian Gottlieb33 Amaya Gurpide34 David Jon Kassan36 Michael Klein38 Kurt Knobelsdorf39 Maria Kreyn40 Brad Kunkle41 Jeremy Lipking42 Jeremy Mann43 Danny McCaw44 Adam Miller45 Greg Mortenson46 Eric Pederson47 Julio Reyes48 Travis Schlaht49 Richard T.

Ink Drawing Artists of NoteDrawing with ink takes the precision of a master draftsman and the skill of a watercolorist handling a fluid medium. When I was in school I was completely captivated by the silky dark lines of one of the most famous pen and ink artists, Aubrey Beardsley, but there are several artists working today whose pen and ink drawing work deserves some attention, too.