Art Articles

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

Drawing is the expression of form on a plane surface, and although colour can have very expressive qualities, I personally feel a well-executed drawing in charcoal or graphite can have more expressive qualities than a rainbow of pigments.

If you stop and think for a moment, you will find many of the old masters’ drawings used very little colour in their studies and they were often more highly charged emotionally than their paintings. Why? Because of the expressive use of line and shading…

Article by Vladimir London, Drawing Academy tutor

Born 12 May 1830 in Moscow, Aleksei Savrasov demonstrated artistic skills early; indeed, he sold his earliest landscape paintings at age twelve! Although his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a merchant, Savrasov entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture in 1844, focusing on landscapes. His father was so opposed to art school that Savrasov quit after only a few weeks, but was encouraged to return by his instructors in 1848. Studying under Rabus, he became the most distinguished landscape student at the academy. After he caught the notice of a notable patron of the arts, Likhachev, he received a scholarship to study in Odessa, where he further developed his landscape technique. The paintings made around this time earned him a certificate of appreciation from the art school,…

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

There seems to be a debate about whether or not it’s good to copy when drawing. Some say no, others say yes. Did you know they used to do that in the old school of art where new students were made to copy from drawings and prints of their masters. In fact, they would spend the first year constantly copying from prints, or from the ‘flat’ as they called it, which was taught as being good practice…

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

If you are one of those people who lacks confidence at drawing, or convince yourself that you cannot draw; you are creating your own barrier to learning. Because you believe you have no talent whatsoever, you never take the steps to learn. Let me tell you something; you can learn to draw just as you can learn any other skill. Don’t knock yourself down. Decide right now that you will learn and then put in the effort to achieve your goal. All it takes is to learn HOW to draw and then practice the how’s…

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

How many times have you heard someone say ‘I cannot draw a straight line to save my life’? Perhaps you have said the same thing yourself. Well, take note, drawing a good straight line is difficult, even for some of the most experienced artists, let alone a beginner.

In art, drawing a perfectly straight line is neither necessary nor desirable. It has no expressive qualities, therefore has no artistic merit; it looks un-natural and contrived….

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

Most drawing tools artists use today originate from ancient writing tools. Over 4000 years ago for example, man used a bronze or bone tool to scratch into clay tablets. 1000 years later the Egyptians used thin reed brushes or reed pens on papyrus scrolls. Later still, the Romans used a metal stylus for writing into thin sheets of wax and after 600AD, in Europe, the quill pen was invented…

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

Over the years, as an artist, I always smudged graphite to create smooth, graduated tonal blends. I used various materials for blending such as the cotton bud, piece of soft leather, piece of linen, tissue, paper stumps etc., each one creating a slightly different result. However, there is a problem when adding more blended graphite to achieve a darker tone; the drawing often looked lifeless and shiny, which spoilt the final study. I was at a loss about how to overcome the problem. I tried not to take the smudging of graphite too far; but without darks, the drawing appeared weak.

This left me with a dilemma. Do I continue smudging graphite or not? Or do I push myself to use another medium such as charcoal. Because graphite pencils have been my favourite drawing medium, I decided to continue smudging but persuaded myself to find a way to overcome the problem. I used most of the grades from 4H to 8B to obtain all the tonal values I needed, but the 4Bs to the 8Bs were the main problem; they were the pencils that created the glossy look…

Article by Ronnie Rayner Larter

One might wonder today, what on earth has happened to art? Why have we been bombarded with weird images, strange ideas, non-realistic subjects, wild colour themes? It seems there are no rules in art.

Students are given absolute freedom. There are no restrictions on how or what they want to create and it’s all down to a handful of artists who broke away from the traditional rules of art…

Article by Slater Smith

The Renaissance was one of the greatest periods in art history. Man lost the teachings of the Ancients during the Middles Ages, but was able to not only renew, but to improve upon them. We think of Raphael’s monumental frescoes, Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, and Michelangelo’s awe-inducing sculptures. They must have been gifted. They must have been talented from birth. They must have had divine motivation or inspiration to reach such heights. Or so we think. The artist was not much during the Renaissance. In fact, “artist” was a word nearly floating into obscurity. They were simple craftsmen trying to make a living, just like a normal man. Not as moving of a purpose as the modern world would expect…

Article by Slater Smith

Very recently, I got into a discussion on which careers are beneficial to society and which are not. At some point, an individual said that art has absolutely no purpose to the world, giving no explanation as to why. I was immediately startled. How could anyone not know the value of fine art? After a day or two of thinking, I realized that very little painters, sculptors, and other craftsmen are ever referred to outside of an art history or appreciation course and how many students even take the time to participate in such classes? I does not make sense to study the French Revolution with without studying Jacques-Louis David, nor is it logical to speak of religion without the Sistine Chapel being mentioned. In this article, I would like to explain the various ways artists have shaped today’s world…