Open Art Collections

More and more museums and libraries are digitizing their art collections and posting them online. While many institutions have done this and have put tens of thousands of images online, not all online collections are well organized, easy to search, or easy to get to the good stuff. Simon Sarris has a nice page up with a curated list of links to particularly well organized and searchable collections with either public domain or creative commons licenses. 


Interview - Grigor Eftimov - Caricatures
A caricature painting by Grigor Eftimov

I'm excited to present my third interview with Grigor Eftimov. In this one, we go deep into the topics of Grigor's background with caricature drawing, his process, and how he learned to create award-winning caricature art. We also explore the relationship between caricature drawing and realism and realistic portrait drawing. Even if you don't intend to ever do any caricature or cartoon drawing, I hope you enjoy this journey into some of the core concepts of realistic art.


How to Manage Anxiety and Stay Creative
A photo of a passing storm

I'm writing this in March of 2020. The country is currently in full-blown panic mode about the coronavirus and the Covid-19 disease. The state of California, where I live, is under lockdown. The numbers for confirmed cases is skyrocketing, while the question of "how bad is this thing" in terms of what happens to you, if you were to get it, still remains unclear. 


New Tutorial: How to Draw a Skull
A drawing of a skull.

I've posted a new tutorial about How to Draw a Skull. It will be the first of many anatomy tutorial and presents a step by step, and easily repeatable process for drawing a skull. The process of drawing the skull, repeatedly, helps you absorb and memorize the form and proportions of the skull which will help you draw more realistic and accurate faces, heads, and portraits. 


Brains!

One of the most popular books about drawing is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. The book relies heavily on the split-brain or hemispheric model of the human brain, which sorts various functions and activities into two groups.