Sketchbooklive

Hello everybody.

I want to direct your interest to something I've found quite interesting.

David Kassan, a contemporary artist living in New York, has started a video live- stream where he now and then interviews artist he both knows and admires. And if you don't have time to watch the live- stream, you can always drop by his page and view it when its updated.

This gives you a personal and unique view into the ordinary life of an artist. You'll get to know how they work, what they do when they struggle and even what kind of beer they drink, if that's more your cup of tea. In other words; its casual and interesting at the same time.

Check it out.

http://sketchbooklive.davidkassan.com/

And a link to his page.

http://davidkassan.com/

M.

Forum

Hi, there.

Just a quick post today and a quick- tip. Visit the Conceptart forums. 

The Conceptartforums is a great place to interact with people with the same creative interest. There you can post your own stuff and get critiqued or just watch what others are doing and get inspiration. And there's great variety too - with forums for fineart, photography, modelling and even art for videogames etc.

Take a look and see what you think.

www.conceptart.org 

Fineart forums:

http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7

"Don't buy the plastic ones"

Today I'm going to talk a bit about a tool I feel has rather been forgotten or neglected in recent years by the modern classical artist. The art knife. There are two types of knifes used in art. The palette knife and the painting knife. They both, however, consist of a wooden handle with a long metal blade sticking out and with a round pointy end (they can be found in all sizes and shapes, but the round/pointy one is the most common.) The latter just has a lowering towards the end making it a bit more versatile in its use. The palette knife, as you probably can imagine, is normally only used on the palette mixing larger quantities of paint, and the painting knife applies the paint to the canvas.

What makes this experience out of the ordinary, other than the fact that is fun to use, is the edges and textures you can create. I even dare state that there is no other way of creating such unique edge as when using a painting knife.

With it, the paint can be laid in thick bravura strokes (what its most frequently used for - using white alone for example when you want to paint the lightest value) or with gentle, subtle strokes – such as the classical Russian artists used them for. You can even scrape off the paint from your canvas if you’re not entirely happy with its outcome and want start over. The possibilities are endless and did I mention its fun to use?

Just remember; when buying palette knives or painting knives, follow the golden rule of art and buy the most expensive tools you can afford. The quality may vary, but the most important thing is that they have a sharp springy blade with a pointy end. And for Gods sake – Don't buy the plastic ones.

M.

  

"From start to finish"

For me, the best thing about being an artist is the beginning of a new piece of work. You have the blank canvas staring you in the face just screaming for your full attention. Your brushes are cleaned and you have a fresh supply of paint on your palette. The smell of turpentine and glue from the canvas begins to fill the room and you are ready to begin. Your mind is fresh and your spirit is high. What a wonderful feeling that is.

This little 10 min sketch is full of mistakes and the proportions are all wrong. And I intend to keep it that way. Why? Because it is a great representation of how I generally start my drawings and sketches. Here I'm just beyond the starting point and have blocked in the biggest shapes with an even light tone. The value is about a number four from white to black on a ten step valuescale. The proportions are indicated and I am ready for the finishing stages of cleaning up my drawing and fixing mistakes.

Sketchbook and "workout"

Hello, everybody.

As most of you can imagine, being a top athlete takes a lot of work and a lot of time. You have to stay in shape, both mentally and physically, eat right and sleep tight (haha!).

We artist have it much the same way. We must eat healthy and get a sufficient amount of sleep. But we also have to stay in shape. But instead of running and training with weights, we train our minds through a constant workflow to maintain, and develop, speed and skill. If we neglect this it can, and will, lead to a bunch of bad stuff.
We may lose faith in ourself and think we're not good enough.
Believing that we one day will make it basically is all we have as artists at the end of the day. Its the engine that keeps us going when things get hard. Its like that carrot we never can quite seem to catch, even though we move forward one step at the time.
So; to sum things up: Work hard, try to keep a constant pace at what your doing and believe in yourself when the going gets tough. It probably will.

Finally -  what I like to do to keep myself in shape is to do these little sketches. They are quite easy to do, doesn't take up a lot of my time, and are quite valuable in many ways ( I will get back to that in a later post).

Have a great day, folks.

Talk with you soon.

Mads.

 

Let me hear what you guys think in the comments section, and lets have a debate.
And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me at mads.lohre@gmail.com.

Moving

Hi.

Its been a while since I've updated my blog now, and since I'm in the middle of moving, I'm posting this very interesting blogpost on studio lighting from a fellow artist Aaron Westerberg to keep you guys busy for the weeks to come. Happy reading!

http://www.westerberg-fineart.com/2011/05/studio-lighting/

They're ba-ack!

What's back? What am I talking about?

Well, after what has been too long the Andrew Loomis books gets back into reproduction and gets to see the light of day once more. These long sought- after books got taken off the bookshelf a long time ago. With an ever increasing popularity, the price skyrocketed and you would be in great luck to find a copy, even a torn and old one, under the price of a used car.

Although he will probably be best remembered as a teacher and an author of the famous Loomis art books, he was also a wonderful artist, painter and draftsman.
Living and prospering in the US back in the 40's, Loomis made his living as an artist aiming first and foremost to the realm of advertising. He made bravura paintings and drawings picturing everything from family life, the grace and beauty of the human form to the classical advertisement with the product as his main subject.

 





His realistic depiction of the human form and his ability to give away artistic wisdom combined with a firm belief that everyone could learn to draw made people pick up his books and make art of their own with beauty in mind.
But once lost - to many the idea of ever touching the pages of his books again grew pale.
The rescue for many, was that some clever heads put the books online, despite lawyers miss-content, and the thriving artist could again, as a next best thing, read his memorable words of admiration on the subject matter.

So finally after a lot of time and increasing demand, his books will be out for sale again for people, new and old, to enjoy once more.

The first two books, Figure drawing for all its worth and Drawing the head and hands will be on sale on the end of May and beginning of October at the pricetag of $39, 95. If pre- ordered the price sinks to $23, 72 for the Figure drawing for all its worth and $26, 37 for the other. Not a bad price for two bibles on creating art.

Click on one of the books in the "books" section to the right to purchase from Amazon or follow the links below.

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Drawing the Head and Hands

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth