Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
Clouds are objects with volume, obeying the rules of perspective. Whiteface makes its own weather, by Carol L. Douglas Clouds are not flat. The same perspective rules that apply to objects on the ground also apply to objects in the air. We are sometimes misled about that because clouds that appear to be almost overhead …
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The South sure loves its Greek Revival pillars, doors and windows. Here’s a little trick to draw them evenly. My painting of Siloam Baptist Church from last week. The South also observes Blue Laws. That meant I wasn’t able to get a replacement sketchbook at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I drew these on tissue paper; the …
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This exercise is like learning perspective. You’ll never draw this way in the real world, but practicing it will improve your harborside skills. Cadet, by Carol L. Douglas I tell my students that it’s best to paint a boat from the deck of another boat or a floating dock. If you can’t, then keep your …
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Mature painters can apply for a residency at one of these great Maine art centers. Courtesy Hog Island This time of year, I can see the water of Rockport harbor from my bedroom window. I’ve been around the world, and I’m lucky to have landed in one of earth’s great beauty spots. For those of …
Learn how to draw a pie plate, dish, cup, or vase. I’m throwing in my secret pie crust recipe, so you can learn that too. When drawing round objects, we have to look for the ellipses, which are just elongated circles. Ellipses have a horizontal and a vertical axis, and they’re always symmetrical (the same …
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None of us see the same way. It’s more important to achieve the right state of mind than to find the perfect angle. Dyce Head in the early morning light, 12X9, oil on canvas board, Carol L. Douglas. I’m drawn to lighthouses, even though I know they’re a trope and a trap. One of the …
The greatest landscape artist of the 19th century wasn’t a Frenchman. He was Hiroshige, or so his western contemporaries thought. Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge At Atake, 1856, Hiroshige. As I was walking to the post office yesterday, a miniscule rain shower spattered in the woods next to me. It lasted no more than a …
When video games include entire fantasy worlds, trompe-l’Å“il painting is obsolete. But it has delighted viewers from prehistory to now. Andrea Pozzo’s painted ceiling in the Church of St. Ignazio, 1690. Note how the figures blur the line between the walls and the ceiling. All good things must come to an end, and the rise …
What does one artist teach another, in person, that cannot be learned off the internet? Sometimes it’s about accountability. Dish of butter, by Carol L. Douglas Yesterday an alert reader sent me a blog post purporting to show how to draw “the top of the flower pot, the lid on a jar, the base of …
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (detail), 1445 to 1450, Rogier van der Weyden. Recently one of my kids asked me why I had her baptized as an infant. I answered her from an Anglo-Catholic perspective, citing the practice among early Christians and references in Acts 16 and 1 Corinthians. I added the medieval argument that, while babies …
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