Painting with the Shortcut

The other day, I bought an angled brush with a stubby rubber handle, and wished I had done it sooner.  May I introduce to you the Wooster Shortcut.  

I get a nice clean line edging, and the handle is easy on my hand.  It makes for a very fast paint job.  I highly reccomend this, if you're painting your house!  

Summer Reading

I love reading, for entertainment or for knowledge.  I was the kid that was not at all troubled with summer reading assignments.  I was going to read something anyway.

You might have seen me mention that reading about art can give you almost as much knowledge as the process of actually making it.  Well I just found a pretty rad reading list on the portraitartist.com website.  It's not an enormous list, but it breaks things down by topic, and includes instruction books, historical, books by movement, there's even a section on the business side of art.  Check it out here.  All the usual places sell these books; Amazon, Barnes & Noble.  I'll be visiting my library with this list in hand soon.

Oil Painting Paper?!

I have this feeling that I'm late to the party, but there's apparently paper designed for oil paint!  I love painting on the smooth surface of board as opposed to the texture of canvas.  This might change my world forever.  Seriously folks, FOREVER!  

Drunk Tank Pink

Is it just our associations with the color pink that causes people to be calm, or something physiological?  I might just have to pick up this guy's book, to learn more.

Here's the article on Big Think.

Read All About It

There is nothing like making work to improve your skills. Recently, I have found that reading about making art helps a great deal, too. You will find techniques, inspiration, tips. You may get a critique of your work by proxy. It's really quite wonderful.

One of my favorite new resources is Artist Daily. It's a community and forum, but they post lots of great articles. This week included debated tools, pricing tips, and a discussion on why being sociable helps you sell.

Take a look here.

Van Gogh Restoration in Cincinnati

I went to school in Cincinnati, and I didn't even know they had a Van Gogh at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  Anyway, they're restoring it.  It's amazing to be able to see the care with which this work is done, and I love the idea that they are restoring it in view of the public.  It's a part of the art world that is not often seen.

What Do I Call It?

Lately, most of my energy has been put into fixing up my house.  I mean, dark paneling and hearts-made-of-flowers border are nice and all, but not really my style.  Check out the transformation so far:

Last night, I had some free time and broke out my art brushes.  I paid very close attention to my values this time.  This is something I have struggled with in the past.  The result is a much ore interesting painting than just a likeness.  At least, I think so.

The last step is coming up with a title, which is never much fun for me. I even struggle to title my blog posts.  How do you name things?