International Artist – August-September 2019

(Barré) #1
Discovering Art 127

ACCESS ESSENTIAL
ART SKILLS HERE!

Visit http://www.internationalartist.com
and click on the Virtual Art Academy®
button to access instant downloads
needed to master the art of painting.

The Virtual Art Academy®
Apprentice Program
A structured four-year program of 192
lessons that will help you systematically
build up your foundational skills from
the ground up to help you master
painting. A key element of this program
is series of 350+ assignments specially
structured to help you build your skills,
and an Online Campus where you can
meet other students from all over the
world to share your artistic journey, and
support you along the way.
Each lesson includes an overview of
the principle or technique, one or more
short videos to demonstrate the skill you
are learning, many examples of how to
do it, and one or more assignments to
assist you in assimilating the material.

Lessons For All Skill Levels
The Apprentice Program is designed for
all levels of artists, from beginners to
more experienced artists and
professionals. Beginners work through
the lessons in sequence. For more
experienced artists, the program is
structured to give you complete
flexibility in your learning program.
Strengthen your foundation in those
areas in which you are weakest and take
your paintings to a new and higher level.

Master Artist Critiques
A key element of this program is a
study of historical master works.
Discover what makes them work,
increase your appreciation and
enjoyment of great artworks, and apply
that knowledge to your own work.

Flexibility
The program is available on a simple and
flexible pay-as-you-go monthly payment
plan. You do not need to commit up-front
to the whole program and you can cancel
at any time. Join our 800+ students who
have already improved their painting
skills, and you will soon be on the road to
painting success.

Key Discoveries in Practice: Still Life


I


was giving some tips on painting to the daughter of one of my collectors in their Beijing home
when I spotted the sunlight streaming through the window hitting this beautiful bunch of
flowers. The colors were so lovely I just had to try to capture them.

My goal was not to detail all the flowers and model
everything to a photographic degree of detail. Instead,
what I wanted to do was to take advantage of the luscious
quality of oil paint to express the sheer joy of the flowers.
At the same time I wanted to create an interesting abstract
design when you look closely at the painting close-up. To
do this you need to master two key discoveries.
The first is called color pairs. If you look at the red flower
in the top close-up, you will see I use two major colors.
One is in the light, the other in the shadow. You have to
get the relationship between these two colors extremely
precise. Only when that relationship is precise will the
color sing. You can practice this skill by doing lots of small
studies using simple colored blocks as your subject.
The second key discovery is bravura brushwork. By using
a lot of calligraphic brushstrokes in the painting I created
an abstract expressionist quality to the paint surface. To
make this work you have to avoid over blending. It require
a high degree of skill in color accuracy as well as in drawing
to make this work.

To learn more:
» Go to the International Artist website http://www.internationalartist.com and click on Virtual Art Academy®.
» You work your way through our comprehensive four-year Virtual Art Academy® Apprentice Program I will show
you how to build up your skills in these key areas.
Free download pdf