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Oil Painting

Dare to Paint Square by Mark Daly OPA

Mark Daly · Nov 14, 2024 · Leave a Comment

Square is Rare. Reviewing paintings that were exhibited in the 2024 OPA National, Eastern, Western, and National Salon shows reveals that not many were in a square format (13.5 % or 80 squares out of 592 total paintings). If you are a representational painter and have little experience with a square format, I encourage you to read on. Being an unfamiliar format, it may require rethinking and adjusting your design ideas, especially center-of-interest (COI), balance, and placement of primary, secondary, and tertiary shapes within your composition. Other painting tools such as values, drawing, color, edgework, paint-application, harmony, and the like apply as they do in rectangle format paintings.

Three Benefits of Daring to Paint Square.

1. Experimentation can lead to new learning and growth. Why venture into a new format that you may have little or no experience with? For me, experimenting is an important way to grow as an artist. When I intentionally try new methods, I may initially fail but stretching my abilities helps me become a better painter. I am a novice in painting square. However, recent attempts of daring to paint square have helped me strengthen my design choices in all my paintings, whether they are horizontal, vertical, or square.

The square format challenges me to think how to best arrange and prioritize shapes throughout the canvas to convincingly tell the visual story I want to convey. Since there is no favored side (all four outer edges are equal), there is no natural area-skew that rectangular canvases offer. I pay more attention to balance, COI, and shape placements. I identify upfront tradeoffs as to where I want the viewer’s eye to move and where is the best location and way to present the COI. These are things I do with rectangular paintings. However, the square format is new and different. It reminds me of the importance of these design choices.

2. Another reason to consider experimenting with squares is that it can help set you apart from the pack. Based on the 2024 OPA shows, over 85% of exhibited paintings were horizontal or vertical rectangles.

3. A final, albeit less important reason to consider a square format is that social media platforms, such as Instagram, are shown primarily in a square format. If you paint square, your social media image is purely presented (not cropped).

In this article, I will discuss square canvases painted by Piet Mondrian, two personal paintings of mine, and one painted by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. I will analyze the paintings by Mondrian and Sorolla and explain compositional choices I made to enhance and draw you into the squareness of my paintings. I will conclude with five specific tips.

Piet Mondrian Went Square Early On.

Let’s look at an abstract square painting that was created by Piet Mondrian in 1929 titled, Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black.

Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black by Piet Mondrian, 1929, 19 ¾” x 19 ¾” – Oil (sold at a Christie’s auction in 2015 for over $50 million)

In my opinion, design is one of the most important skills in our painting toolkit. Mondrian’s Composition No. III design has unequal and therefore unbalanced shape choices, yet, when placed together there is dynamic and varied interest, balance, and symmetry. Specifically, the intersecting narrow black horizontal and vertical shapes that go from edge to edge are off center and meet to the left and below the center of the square (creating unequal quadrants and tension). The smaller yellow, black, and blue rectangular color shapes on the lower right side of the painting help counterbalance the larger red shape in the upper left.

These fundamental design choices of Piet Mondrian’s abstract square painting format work in an elemental way. They provided me with clues on how to think about painting in a square format for my representational/impressionistic paintings. Let’s discuss the first example.

Haymakers by Mark Daly (oil, 20” x 20”, 2024). I recently painted this in a square format because it was going to be used as the cover of a new song that I wrote called Time To Make Hay (more information on my music website: www.MandoMusic.com). The rural scene was based on plein air painting trips to Shipshewana, Indiana, and supports the song’s lyrics. A square painting naturally fit the square format needed for the song’s packaging. What I did not realize is that I was going to embark on a journey of painting design growth.

Haymakers (Time to Make Hay) by Mark Daly OPA, 2024, 20″ x 20″ – Oil

Time To Make Hay Song by Mark Daly, 2024

The round wheels and gently sloping hillside in Haymakers soften the tension of the square format. As you can see, the horses and figure (the haymakers) are the COI. In front of the horses, there’s a soft-edged path that leads from middle-right to the upper-left. The addition of the small white building (secondary shape) above the haymaker’s head at the end of the trail was an addition I made to take advantage of the square format. It helps move the eye through the composition. The flatter, light-value sky shape was chosen as a rest area and because it reinforced the lyrics, “Going where the sun is going to shine…dark clouds have left and moved away”. By design, the sky is lighter and warmer on the upper right corner. This helps counterbalance the figure’s light valued shirt located toward the opposite corner. Each shape choice works within the square format and plays a prioritized role that supports the painting’s idea.

Rain Along The Avenue by Mark Daly (oil, 30” x 30”, 2024). After painting Haymakers, I wanted to try more squares. Rain Along The Avenue’s square format is a made-up scene of New York City. Having painted many city scenes with flags and figures, this was an opportunity to experiment with an unincumbered design within a square format. There were no photo references, only the memory and experience of many previous attempts of painting similar motifs, all in a rectangular format.

Rain Along The Avenue by Mark Daly OPA, 2024, 30″ x 30″ – Oil

I sketched, prioritized, and chose various design choices and elements before applying paint. For example, the V shape formed by the receding thirteen flags along both sides of the street and the reflected narrowing angular shaped light from the sky help add perspective and create downward movement towards the COI (figures). Like the Mondrian abstract painting’s black intersecting lines, the flags and bright sky are intentionally placed off center. The yellow cab on the lower left and the small flag above it (blowing in a different direction from the other flags) provide counterbalancing visual interest to the large flags on the right side and the figures below them.

Other less obvious design choices that break up the equilibrium of the square canvas are the use of round shapes and lost edges (umbrellas, curved figures, and broken edges from the clouds in the sky and the upper areas of the distant buildings). I chose rectangular windows (intentionally not square) to add visual interest and variety to the square format. There are prioritized primary, secondary, and tertiary shapes placed throughout the composition. Judgmentally, these specific square format design choices made the painting’s story more convincing and engaging.

One way to check the power of a good square painting design is to rotate it 90 degrees, view it on each of its four sides and see how the visual elements hold up (or not).

Strolling Along The Seashore by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (oil, 205cm x 200cm, 1909, Sorolla Museum, Madrid). While not a perfect square, it is very close. Sorolla took full advantage of prioritizing and placing appropriate shapes on a square format in this painting. I don’t think it would be as engaging or interesting if he painted it in a typical rectangular format.

Strolling Along The Seashore by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, 1909, 205cm x 200cm – Oil
(Sorolla Museum, Madrid).

Strolling Along The Seashore is a good example of how to leverage a square format to make a better painting. Compositionally, Sorolla uses the two figures (his wife Clotilde and daughter Maria) in a counter balancing way. The figures dominate the painting. They lean forward (toward the right side of the canvas). This creates diagonals and adds movement and life to the composition. The large parasol held in Clotilde’s left hand counterbalances Maria’s hat held in her right hand. Maria’s directly viewed face counterbalances Clotilde’s veiled face.

Sorolla effectively used round shapes that offset the square format. For example, the curved transition from the large ochre colored sand shape in the painting into the water above it breaks up the equidistance of the four outer edges of the canvas. The curved parasol on the lower left side of Clotilde provides a point of entry. Its angular parasol shaft points to Clotilde’s hand. The round shaped hats (one worn, the other held) add beauty, bring visual variety, and help communicate Sorolla’s story of two elegant women walking on the beach.

The Dare to Paint Square Challenge: Five Suggested Steps to Becoming a Better Square Painter. The main idea of this article is not to have you become a square painter, rather it’s to challenge you to continue to experiment with your design choices and to seek new ways to paint so that you can improve your painting abilities in whatever format you choose.

When considering a canvas choice, the outer four edges make up an important design decision. A square format, while not traditional, does provide certain advantages. But the design choices must work within those advantages (and disadvantages). The square format has natural tension. It is less familiar. That does not mean it should be ignored.

In conclusion, here are five suggestions to help you paint in a square format:

  1. Find examples of square paintings that inspire you. Study them. Learn what makes them tick. Borrow ideas that you can incorporate into your own visual stories in a square format.
  2. For your paintings, choose designs that will leverage all areas of the canvas. Still life paintings are naturals for a square format (you can easily choose and set up the composition to leverage the square shape). Prioritize your shape sizes and placements to convincingly tell your story. Choose your COI carefully and consider balance and counterbalance within a square format. Map out eye movement throughout the square.
  3. Draw your design options in a sketchbook or pad before painting. See how the different, prioritized shapes enhance a square format, interrelate with each other, and support the overall purpose and story of the painting you want to share with others.
  4. Try at least five squares before you give up.
  5. Write down what you learn with each attempt. Apply learnings to future paintings (square and rectangular).

The Deadline Is Coming. Are You Ready?

James Bruce Jr. OPAM · Oct 22, 2024 · 1 Comment

This article was written by long-serving Board member and Master Signature artist James Bruce Jr., (January 1938 – December 2020). It is reprinted from our archives and outlines the methods and criteria the OPA jury uses to select paintings for the National Juried Exhibition. We hope it helps you select your best work to enter into this year’s show. See you in Bradenton! 

The deadline I’m referring to is the last date to enter OPA’s competition, 34th National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils to be hosted by The Art Center Manatee County in Bradenton, Florida. The focus in the jurying process will be to select paintings which show the highest quality in draftsmanship, color and composition, emphasizing a diversity in representational style and subject matter. Entries must be received no later than Saturday, March 1, 2025.

Each year OPA receives approximately 1,900 entries and jurors must carefully choose approximately 200 paintings to be included in the exhibition. As always, the goal is to assemble the finest display of representational oil paintings.

This annual national competition is one of the most important endeavors of the OPA mission to promote representational painting. Awards for this annual competition total approximately $100,000, including a $25,000 Best in Show, so there is good reason to enter. That said, every artist entering should understand the jurying process and what criteria is used to determine the paintings that are included in the competition.

OPA selects a jurying committee comprised of 5 OPA members. Three are Signature members of OPA and two are Master Signature members. The make-up of the committee is different for each exhibition and jurors do not know who else is jurying with them. The Jurying Chair always attempts to get jurors that represent a variety of painting styles and that are located in different parts of the country. Jurors are asked to use the criteria below in making their selections.

  • Is there a dominant value?
  • Is there a dominant harmony?
  • Is there a clear center of interest?
  • Is there balance?
  • Do the shapes and lines lead the eyes to focal points within the picture plane?
  • Is the drawing accurate?
  • Are the value relationships convincing?
  • Are the color temperature relationships consistent and believable?
  • Is there an appropriate variety of hard and soft edges?
  • Is the paint application varied and interesting?

III. Expression/Idea:
Does the painting’s intent or execution demonstrate a unique, compelling or worthwhile idea?

There are two rounds of jurying. For the first round, jurors are asked to evaluate each painting and assign it a “yes” or “no” vote. Yes means that the juror believes that the painting meets some or all of the criteria and warrants a second, more critical evaluation.

The second round is usually comprised of approximately 600 – 700 paintings. In this round, jurors are asked to vote using a scale of 1 to 7. It is important that jurors are consistent and use the following scoring system when making their selections.

  • One represents a painting that is weak in all or almost all of the above.
  • Two represents a painting that is weak in most areas.
  • Three represents a painting that may be competent in a few areas but, overall, is aweak painting.
  • Four represents a painting that displays knowledge of the fundamentals but overallis mediocre.
  • Five represents a painting that is competently handled in most areas.
  • Six represents a painting that is skillfully executed in almost all areas.
  • Seven represents a painting that is outstanding and is skillfully executed in virtually every area. These are the top 1-3% of entries for this show.

 Summary:

  • Very Weak
  • Weak
  • Some Competence
  • Average
  • Competent (top 15 – 25% of entries)
  • Excellent (top 10% of entries)
  • Outstanding (top 1– 3% of entries)

After the jurors have completed voting, the scores are tabulated and artists receiving the most points will be accepted into the exhibition. Only one (1) painting may be accepted.

Again, the last date for you to enter is Saturday, March 1, 2025. I hope that you will enter the annual competition. Your painting cannot be selected if you don’t enter, so do so starting November 1, 2024, and use the criteria that the jurors will use to select your entry. Present your very best painting. Follow the entry rules and use the criteria the jurors will be using to judge your painting against the best paintings entered into the competition. And best wishes to each member of OPA. The competition is stiff but it is worth the effort to participate by submitting your entries before the deadline!

Respectfully,

James Bruce Jr. OPAM

In Memoriam
(January 17, 1938 – December 25, 2020)

James W Bruce Jr. began pursuing art at age 14. He was a Master Signature member of Oil Painters of America and believed that art competitions organized by OPA provide wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. In September 2016, Bruce and Scott Christensen had a two-person exhibition in the Patrons’ Gallery at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. In addition to his love of painting, Bruce pursued a significant career in banking. After retiring from Banks of Mid-America, the largest banking company in Oklahoma, he acquired controlling interest in American Bank Systems. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of American Bank and Trust Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma and InvesTrust of Oklahoma City. He served on boards of the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University, Canterbury Voices, and Oklahoma Arts Institute. In 2006, Governor Brad Henry awarded him one of the prestigious Governor’s Arts Award. A retrospective of 25 of his paintings was held in the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol in recognition of this award. James tirelessly gave his time and expertise to Oil Painters of America, serving on the Board for over ten years.

Mixing Skin Tones – Simplified by Susan Patton

Susan Patton · Sep 6, 2024 · 6 Comments

Painting portraits can be complicated, but mixing skin tones shouldn’t be. In my workshops, I teach a method to simplify the process.

Mrs. Bea Green, 16×12, oil

How to mix skin tones

  1. First, choose a “base” color like yellow ochre, transparent oxide yellow, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, transparent oxide red, or transparent oxide brown based on the skin tone you are painting. This is what makes this process work for all ethnicities.
  2. Mix the base color with white to form the “foundation color.”
  3.  Mix that “foundation color” with various warm and cool colors- like red, blue, and green. The goal is to tint it- so you only need a touch of the primary color.
  4. The result is a palette of premixed harmonious- warm, cool, and neutral- skin tones with the correct “undertone” throughout.

Mixing the needed skin tones is now almost done. Small tweaks in the value or temperature will be necessary, but that is much easier than staring at pure red, green, and yellow piles of paint every time you need a new mixture.

———————————————————————————————————————

A closer look

Let’s look closer at these steps. I will demo for you in pictures so that you can see what I do. (I also have uploaded a video on YouTube that explains this process. @susanpattonart)

  1. Choose a base color.

To help you decide, do a simple color chart. (A quick one- I promise.) This will help you to choose which “base” color is best for your subject’s skin tone. Mix one base color at a time – yellow ochre, transparent oxide yellow, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, transparent oxide red, or transparent oxide brown with white and put it onto a canvas. Repeat with each color until you have a sample canvas of foundation colors to reference each time you paint portraits. (Eventually, you will be able to choose your base color without this aid.)

Next, hold this canvas with its mixtures up to your subject. Choose the color that has the correct undertones. Choose the one with the least contrast between your subject and the mixtures,

I made a canvas with several sample “Base” colors on them. I put it next to skin tones requiring a different base color based on their undertones for you to see the advantage in making this color chart. I can use this simple color chart to choose my base color with portraits in the future if need be.

Tip: To help you out even more, mix several warms and cools for each base color and paint them onto separately labeled canvases. You can keep these canvases for future use when choosing your “base” color.

These 6 x 8 canvases were made with different “base” colors, but otherwise the same palette. The first is Transparent Oxide Brown, the second is Raw Sienna, the bottom left is Transparent Oxide Red, and the bottom right is Burnt Umber. Which would you choose as your base color for these pictures?

Which base color would you choose for doing a master copy of Sargeant’s painting?

Once you have chosen your “Base color”, put a small line of it onto your palette with a thicker line of white above or below it.

Tip – Can’t decide? A good middle-of-the-road is “Raw Sienna” for light skin. “Burnt Umber” works well for darker skin that has cool undertones.

2. Mix the base color and white to form the appearance of makeup that would blend in with the person’s skin.

Above that line, put dots of other colors. These colors are up to you and can be chosen based on the colors you see in the person’s skin. The idea is to have both warm and cool colors. Put a dot of blue, red, yellow, green, and black paint in a row above the foundation line. (You can also use any of the colors we named above as a “base color” in this row if you’d like.) No color is outlawed in this row- these are up to you. You can also put as many colors as you’d like.

Tip: Can’t decide which colors to put on this line? Try Ultramarine blue, Cad red, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Lemon, Sap Green, Transparent Red Oxide, and Black. Mix purple using blue and alizarin.

Tip: Also be sure to include colors reflected onto the person’s skin from their clothing or surroundings. For example, if you plan to paint their shirt “Turquoise” be sure to put “Turquoise” in this line. That is because light bounces and carries color with it. Some of this color will bounce up and reflect in the skin around it.

3. Now that you have your “Foundation” line and dots of colors above, take your palette knife and “tint” the foundation with the colors- one at a time. For example, take a small amount of the blue and mix it into the foundation color (base color + white + small drop of blue), next, bring a small amount of red into the pure foundation below to get a pinkish flesh color (base color + white + red). Continue this process across your palette until you have various flesh tones to paint with.

Mixtures using Raw Sienna

Mixtures using Burnt Umber

Tip: Depending on your base colors, your flesh tones will have an undertone of warm or cool. Different base colors will yield a different spectrum of colors.

4. You are now ready to begin painting the portrait! The advantage of this method is that in choosing a base color, the colors stay “interconnected.” This makes them flow harmoniously from one to the next as the form turns around the head.

Tip: You can also mix the pure colors to form darker colors.

Be aware:

  1. Skin tones do not have to be matched precisely. The value and temperature are much more important than matching the hex color code. Look at Sorolla’s painting, After the Bath. Sorolla was much more concerned with beautiful shifts in temperature and getting the light and shadow correct than with matching the precise skin tones. It appears he wanted every area to be beautiful, regardless of the “actual” color.

These are some colors that I sampled from the skin of the lady and the child in this painting. Notice the beautiful warm and cool colors.

2. Avoiding plastic-looking skin, unless it is your intent. In my painting, Cherished, I painted a little girl and her baby doll.

There are differences between the baby doll and the little girl’s flesh. The baby doll is made of plastic in 1 color, so the only change of color or value is the light reflecting on the hard surface. Conversely, the girl’s hand has the warmth of blood flow, a bigger temperature change where the light hits it, and limited reflection because the skin is porous and soft. To show these differences in a painting, use a change of temperatures with similar values to indicate translucence. Control the amount of reflection on the skin by using stronger chroma without a big change in value.  To show light reflection on the doll, use a change in value with less chroma. 

3. The application of the paint and the direction/visibility of the brushstrokes are as important as the color you choose. Every artist has their tendencies and practices regarding this. Practice and time will tell your preference. The Portrait Society of America hosts an annual International Portrait Society Convention. It is a great way to see wonderful examples of beautiful portraiture. This painting was done as one of the “Faceoff” demonstrations by artist Jeff Hein at this year’s International Portrait Society Conference. Note how every color, temperature, and direction of the brushstroke is intentional.

4. Mixing beautiful skin tones is important but secondary to getting the drawing correct. Drawing with charcoal is a great way to practice getting likeness by focusing on turning form without color. After learning to draw, you can learn to sculpt (push/pull) the painting with temperature and “Color Value”, as Everett Raymond Kinstler would say. Never just color. Never just value. “Color-Value.”

This is a charcoal sketch of my grandmother. I drew it from a photo of her looking at me one day when I visited her. It is just like her, even though it is monochromatic.

My process of mixing skin tones is not the only way that works nor the only way I ever paint, but it has been an effective method to help my workshop participants see color in portraits. Maybe this will help you, as well, get a “head start” on mixing skin tones.

To see Susan’s upcoming workshop schedule, visit www.susanpattonart.com/workshops

View Susan’s video here: https://youtu.be/eKuH-oWqQx4?si=vw1IqotYPHuKRHr2

Thoughts on COMPOSITION, by John Taft OPA

John Taft OPA · Aug 13, 2024 · Leave a Comment

Back when I was beginning to paint the landscape, I did this great trip with a few others to the Wind River Mountains.  It was an ambitious trip for me, especially because I was a novice painter. I remember asking myself, “How do I capture this subject on my canvas?” and “Where should I put the focal point?”  Heck, I was asking, “What IS a focal point?”


When people take photos they frame a subject so it looks good.  As “artists” we are often credited with having a “good eye”.  But in doing a painting with a whole world in front of us and a panel that can capture only a part of it, the idea of subject placement becomes job one.


I remember observing how unequal divisions created a relationship of spaces.  Notice the diagram below.  On the left are rectangles with equal divisions, on the right, with unequal.  In this most simple of illustrations, notice how on the left, A and B are equal in size and shape.  They almost become meaningless, speechless.  On the right, A and B are unequal and they now are in relationship to each other in a way that says something about each.  This principle of unequal divisions is foundational to good composition.

Most of us have heard of the “rule of thirds”, which is very helpful.  Arguably the more sophisticated version of that concept uses the golden mean, used throughout history in painting.  Below are a few examples from some of my heroes. Let’s take a look at how their primary subjects are positioned on the canvas. 


In Homer’s “The Fog Warning”, both the dominant vertical and dominant horizontal follow this idea.  Additionally, so does the diagonal.  The three directional lines make for a simple yet powerful composition. 


Bellow’s “Dempsey and Firpo” follows a similar structure where in this case, the strong diagonal is even part of a triangle

Isaac Levitan, the most poetic of these three, paints “Vladimirka Road”, a dirt road on an overcast day.  It is a masterpiece of simplicity.  If the vanishing point was centered like the left sides of our diagram above, each division would compete with each other, and it would be a weaker painting.

I include the last image, “Smith Rock”, because I kept the basic principle of unequal divisions in mind as I approached what for me was a complex subject.  I have found that doing so helps all my work.

“Smith Rock” by John Taft


Finally, in the first “Pirates of the Caribbean”, when Keira Knightley’s character pleads for “parlay”, according to the the “pirates’ code”, the captain’s response was “the code is more of what you’d call…guidelines than actual rules”.  The same applies here. 

Getting Good Shapes, by Rich Nelson OPA

Richard Nelson OPA · Jul 12, 2024 · Leave a Comment

Rich Nelson Violet, Charcoal and White Conte
15″ x 23″

I believe Richard Schmid said that most problems with paintings are due to drawing.  Most of us start out drawing but often, as we begin painting, we don’t circle back to drawing much.


I was fortunate to study drawing principles, such as perspective and anatomy, in art school in the ’80s in Detroit, Michigan.  However once I began painting a lot, I did not draw much and even began to feel that drawing was becoming a weakness I could mask with the occasional lucky shape, splashy brushwork and such. 


Fortunately, I was asked to do a series of charcoal portraits around 2007, and since then have done about a thousand of them! These have helped me to regain some confidence in drawing. They are usually done from my own photos, which I set up as though the person is sitting near.

Rich Nelson Hampton, Charcoal and White Conte 20″ x 16″
Rich Nelson Claire, Charcoal 20″ x 16″

This brings me back to Richard Schmid’s point. I think what he meant is that very often what is required to “bring a painting home” is accurate drawing, along with excellent values, color, brushwork, etc. 


It is confidence in drawing which helps to capture details that can really help elevate a painting. Richard Schmid was very accurate in his “drawing” of things like leaves or other details in his work, even if they were supporting characters in the overall composition.


To be clear, to me drawing is getting accurate shapes in my work. I’m not interested in minute detail of rendering every eyelash or thread or leaf or whatever.  I try to continue improving shapes throughout the drawing or painting process. I don’t “get a perfect drawing” and then fill in between the lines.

As you can see in the comparison of the block in photos and the final paintings below, it is drawing that helps to “bring home” the finished paintings; placing the shapes of the head and background, features, highlights and such correctly. This makes for a decent result at our three hour, Wednesday Night Head Study group. (We’ve been getting friends and neighbors to sit for us most Wednesdays since 2013!)

David Lanik ‘Block In’ Oil 16″x12″
Rich Nelson David Lanik, 16″x12″ Oil
Quick Drawing for Rachel 16″x12″ Oil
Rachel ‘Block In’ Oil 16″x12″
Rich Nelson Rachel, 16″x12″ Oil

If you’re feeling like you’ve lost touch with drawing skills, or would like to improve them, you might consider joining or starting a drawing class, drawing some still life subjects, or drawing your own face in the mirror. 


It may be necessary to revisit basic perspective or anatomy to understand our subjects, so that we can render them with confidence. For the figure, I like Andrew Loomis’ Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth, and there’s no shortage of information out there about basic one, two and three point perspective so that we understand things like eye level, vanishing points, ellipses etc.


I believe Norman Rockwell said his ability to draw was a little gift that he always had in his pocket that enabled him to pursue all of his ideas. It’s good to think of strong drawing skills as we draw or paint as our friend and ally, and not a weakness that we can somehow avoid for the rest of our days.

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