Drive Towards the Light, Not the Thing
Newberry, Neutra House, 2010, pastel on red paper, 18×24″
Write Up In Idyllwild’s Town Crier
My Sketch of Rembrandt’s Portrait of His Son Titus
A little sketch of Rembrandt’s portrait of his son at the Norton Simon museum. I drew it standing in a throng of people with sketchbook in my left hand and pen in my right. I think the wobbliness is cool!
Mark Making Movement in Pastel
Lights and Darks in 3’s
Newberry Art Tutorials
One big problem that artists face when developing light and shadow in a work is that they tend to have the exact same darks and lights scattered around the surface. The result is that it kills the life out of the drawing!
A great way to solve that problem is to celebrate a hierarchy of lights and darks. The simplest way to do that is to focus on three different tones of lights and darks.
Here I will take you through what I mean.
Dreams of Round Things, 2006, charcoal on Rives BFK, 26 x 19 inches.
Ellipses: Don’t Start a Still-life Without ‘Em
Newberry Art Tutorials
Ellipses make or break any drawn plate, glass, or bottle. When beautifully done they transport the viewer to experience serene harmony. It’s rare not to have a man-made cylindrical object in a still life.
It should not be surprising that da Vinci painted/drew beautiful ellipses. This detail is a from The Last Supper–it is the plate in front of Christ.
Feeling the Form
Newberry Art Tutorials
If the artist is going to convey reality, getting the forms right are absolutely essential. The realist artist is also at a disadvantage, in that if they present real objects, these objects have to have believable forms. As simple as forms look in art, they are one of the most difficult things to accomplish.
For example, no spectator is going to believe that the woman’s breasts were concaved, or that the sphere was flat.
