Monday, September 20, 2021
Harvesting Coal
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Artists Painting Airplanes
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Skybax Academy
Skybax Academy, oil, 4 x 8 inches.
Friday, September 17, 2021
Do Some People Have Bigger Visual Brains?
"Region V1, the primary visual region, can be twice as big in some people as in others. V1 is the same thickness for everyone, but the area, and hence the number of [cortical] columns can vary. A person with a relatively small V1 and a person with a relatively large V1 both have normal vision and neither person is aware of the difference. There is a difference, however; a person with a large V1 has higher acuity, meaning they can see smaller things. This might be useful if you were a watchmaker, for example. If we generalize from this, then increasing the size of some regions of the neocortex can make a modest difference, but it doesn't give you a superpower."
From: A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
Image from Wikipedia
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Nikolai Astrup at the Clark
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Statue of Ogthar
'Then they saw it: dazzling and glowing, the fruit of a thousand royal workshops, a small sea of riches adorning the feet of a gigantic statue of Ogthar.'
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From Dinotopia: The World Beneath.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Ferns in Overcast Light
1. Variations in the angle of the surface in relation to the sky
2. The degree to which they were overshadowed or occluded by fronds above them.
If you want to try this exercise, head outside on an overcast day and look for a similar grouping of leaves, ferns, or something else, such as laundry on the line. Analyze what causes the changes in tone, and paint the gradients with whatever technique you want to explore—such as in-brush, stipple, or transparent watercolor gradients.
I used watercolor and gouache (Lemon yellow, Sap green, Titanium white, Cobalt blue, Light red, Quinacridone violet, Permanent green pale over a variegated priming in casein), but you could do this exercise in acrylic, Acryla Gouache, casein, or oil.
Monday, September 13, 2021
Using Depth of Field in Painting
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Square A and Square B are the Same Paint Color
Looking at an illusion is one thing, but painting one is another. As Charley Parker said in his review of my new Gradients video: "The concepts behind making gradations of color in visual art can seem as though they should be simple, until you find yourself trying to paint something like different bands of color on a coffee mug as they round the form into shadow, and you suddenly realize you’re in uncharted territory."
You can watch this study being painted in the new Gradients video. You can download or stream the entire Gradients video at Gumroad. It's also available as a DVD.
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Painting an Alleyway in Gouache
This YouTube video is a sample of my new Gumroad tutorial "Gradients."