Collage Terms and Techniques by Denise Enseln
Collage is a twentieth century form of art. From the French term for ‘to glue’, it is art created from a variety of more or less flat materials and objects pasted over a surface. Often the objects are painted or drawing upon to bring the work together in a [...]

QUICK SKETCH PASTEL PORTRAIT by Katherine Courtney
Sheralyn McNamee, a senior at the University of Central Florida was my subject. She loves live concerts and often streaks and colors her hair. The portrait was painted on grey velour paper 16″ X 20″, using Conte, Nupastels, and Rembrandt pastels. From a live sitting a portrait this size [...]

How the Head Changes with Age by Katherine Courtney
There are many measurements to be considered when drawing or painting a portrait. Before you start you will need to learn how to construct the heads and establish the proportions within the heads of children, adults and senior citizens. The head changes very quickly as a child [...]

Cutting Freehand Silhouettes by Katherine Courtney
A silhouette is a picture of an object or person showing the outline only, filled with solid shadow or to appear in profile. Here is a short demonstration of how to cut a freehand silhouette. Most people actually “see” in silhouettes or block shapes, and this demo can help refine [...]

Branding : The Importance of Name Recognition
by Jennifer walling
The business of art is still a business. You are selling yourself, the artist, as much as you are promoting your artwork. As with any business name recognition and branding is a must to help insure your foothold in the industry. Linking your name, or your art [...]

A traditional oil painting is created in layers from the raw canvas to the final highlights. While newer materials (including acrylic gesso) have shortened the steps for many artists, some still prefer the time honored way of creating an oil painting that will survive the centuries.

1. The canvas, stretched over wooden supports, is traditionally a [...]

Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Art as Allegory by Sharon Himes
Giuseppe Arcimboldo of Milan (1527-93) created still life paintings that were also portraits. The composition of fruit or tables was arranged into human forms. The cycle of Four Seasons paintings he repeated many times with each season depicted as a person.
These paintings were called ‘fantasy’ or ‘invention’ paintings [...]

Variations on a Theme:Edgar Degas experiments with Monoprints
by Sharon Himes
Edgar Degas was always interested in the ways that shapes and lines could be organized on paper to indicate figures in movement. Beginning in the 1860s he admired and collected Japanese ukiyo-e prints (Japanese woodblock prints) which were beginning to be popular in Europe. Eastern art [...]

Defining the Monotype by Jennifer Walling
Monoprints or Monotypes are original artworks created through a printmaking process but cannot be exactly duplicated, thus each print is a one of a kind. Monotypes are often referred to as the more painterly of the printmaking processes. Basically a smooth non-absorbent plate is directly painted upon with a media [...]

Elizabethan Dogs By Stella Violano
Every once in a while I paint just for fun. These two paintings were a light hearted set created to benefit Dachshund Rescue of North America. The dogs painted are two senior dachshunds in need of a home, the costume is a replica of an authentic Elizabethan Costume. From start to [...]