Artists Magazine

How well do you remember your first drawings? Not the stick figure drawings of Mom and Dad, but the drawings you made surreptitiously in the back of your school notebook or on the pages of a lovely new sketchbook your artistic aunt bought you? I recall having an early fascination with the animation of inanimate objects. I drew smiling apples and grapes, angry forks and spoons, sleepy sofas and hungry mailboxes. Then, in third grade, I started making drawings for my classmates on their birthdays—Snoopy and Woodstock, mostly, or Tweety Bird. That practice led to actual commissions, mostly for the brown-bag covers we wrapped around our textbooks. “Will you draw a unicorn on this for 50 cents?” a friend would ask. Up until then, I’d only considered sketching as something…

“ÉDOUARD VUILLARD'S BOLD, YET EXPRESSIVE AND SUBTLE USE OF COLOR INSPIRES ME TO LOOK HARDER AT WHAT I SEE IN REALITY AND EXPLORE THE MANY POSSIBILITIES.”—@JANE.CROSSFELLARTIST Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875) excelled as both a landscape and figure painter. Other artists have done this, but what’s fascinating about Corot is that he peaked at the two distinct genres at very different points in his life. Between 1825 and 1828, Corot left France to live in Italy, ostensibly to study the Old Masters. His true calling, it turned out, was to produce dozens of small plein air paintings in Rome and the nearby countryside. The modest perfection of Corot’s Italian landscapes has never been surpassed. The artist painted Sibylle 45 years later, near the end of his career. In his 70s, Corot produced a…

i had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Blake—the designer of the legendary Sgt. Pepper album cover—in his London studio a decade or so ago. Blake was instantly recognizable, nattily attired, as always, though somewhat miffed. Seems I was a good half hour late since I was still finding my way around the city, but he quickly warmed to me and had no qualms about showing me his spacious workspace. It was immaculate, everything in its place, which is very much reflected in his art. Even the Sgt. Pepper cover, while appearing somewhat disjointed initially, is very orderly. His nearly spotless studio was quite counter to the studios of my favorite trio of artists—Francis Bacon (Irish, 1909–1973), Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) and Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901–1966). I’ve always loved their work and…

Portrait painting has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been consistently working to get better at it since my early 20s. I began these efforts as a student in Florence, Italy, where I studied traditional methods of drawing and painting that had been passed down to my teachers from genuine masters of the 19th century, and I continue to hone these skills today as a drawing and painting instructor. Alla Prima Studies Skill-building is a complex endeavor for artists. First, we need the right theories, and then we need to follow through with the right exercises. I’ve found there are two approaches best suited to the practice of painting: There are longer studies, made over the course of many days or weeks, sometimes even…

anyone who has ever leafed though an avid stamp collector’s album and seen page after page of intricate, colorful illustrations knows that the appeal of stamps goes well beyond postage. Antonio Alcalá is someone familiar with the aesthetics and artistry of stamp design, as he is one of four art directors in the Stamp Development Program of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Simultaneously, Alcalá runs Studio A in Alexandria, Va., a small but in-demand design business that creates exhibition catalogs, books, identities and other supporting graphics for major museums and institutions across the country. The Studio A team of four employees often lends a hand to Alcalá with his USPS stamp assignments. PATH TO THE POSTAL SERVICE Growing up in San Diego, Alcalá was always interested in fine art and graphics,…

“Color is best seen outdoors in nature, for without light, there is no color. Joaquín Sorolla was a great outdoor painter, and his colors are full of light—rich, deep and luscious. He could paint white in 100 different ways.” ANTONIO MASI ARTIST AND PRESIDENT, AMERICAN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY “Helen Frankenthaler, sometimes described as a Color Field painter, deserves praise for her use of color, applied in thin but powerful veils of liquid paint against an unprimed canvas. Her organic images are reminiscent of the forces of nature and yet remain calm, lyrical and expansive. Her large-scale paintings appear translucent, as color seems to spontaneously seep into and bind with the canvas, whether washed on with oil or acrylic.” JAYNE YANTZ INSTRUCTOR OF ART HISTORY, PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS “David Hockney, hands down. Whether it’s his…