Art on Social Media

The new issue (April/May issue #114) of International Artist Magazine includes a feature about sharing your art on social media.

I begin with an overall piece of advice: Try not to worry too much about the numbers of likes, views, or followers. The quality of the interaction is more important than the quantity.

Even though using social media can be a great marketing tool, I think of it more as a community-building activity. It’s good to engage with the platforms that connect you with people that you find enjoyable. 

If your time on social media improves your art or inspires you as a person, it’s worth doing. If it feels like a chore or a waste of time, don’t bother with it. The number of followers will grow as an indirect consequence of creating content that inspires and connects others. 

The article in International Artist has a chart laying out 72 strategies for dealing with each of the Big Six: YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, and Instagram. I recommend cutting those pages from the magazine and sticking them on your studio wall.

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You can read those tips at my earlier blog post: 72 Tips for Sharing Art on Social Media

International Artist Magazine

New Art Book on Jon Whitcomb

Jon Whitcomb was one of the leading fashion and women's magazine illustrators of the mid-20th century.

He was known for his attractive handling of romantic and domestic scenes, always up to date with the latest trends.

Whitcomb contributed a lot to the field of illustration as one of the founders of the Cooper Studios and the Famous Artists School. He also wrote a column about the life of Hollywood celebrities, and was himself a sought-after celebrity for his work in illustration.

Courtesy Norman Rockwell Museum and Famous Artists School
Jon Whitcomb, “Portrait in Stages of Development,” c. 1948. Gouache on board. 

He kept his own darkroom and brought in the best models. His painting style was efficient and assured, working in both gouache and oil.

The new book is 224 page, 9x12" in a hardcover format. In its basic edition, it retails for $45.00. It starts with an informative and well illustrated bio, filled with pragmatic information. The rest of the book is all artwork, a combination of printed pieces (with graphics) and reproductions taken from original artwork, arranged chronologically. As with the other Illustrated Press editions, the quality of the printing, paper, and binding is first rate. 

I would recommend the book for anyone who is interested in mid-20th century glamour styles, retro graphics, or gouache illustration techniques.   

From Amazon: The Art of Jon Whitcomb
The book is also available from Illustration Press
Also, don't miss the other Illustrated Books editions:
Tom Lovell-Illustrator
The Art of Dean Cornwell
Shannon Stirnweis: 80 years Behind the Brush

Stop Motion Film "I'm Scared"

"I'm Scared" is a stop-motion animated short about an eight year old boy named Ralf, who warns his little brother about all the monsters lurking in the night.

It was directed by Pete Levin based on the art of Greg "Craola" Simkins and funded by a Kickstarter campaign.



The behind-the-scenes featurette (link to YouTube) shows the work of the puppet department.
via Cartoon Brew

Husky Portrait in Casein

Casein gives you a safety net when you're painting animals because you can switch to a new pose halfway through. That's what happens during this portrait of Smooth, the husky. (Link to video on Facebook)

I start out with a sleeping pose, assuming he'll stay there longer. But the squirrels act up outside the window, and he lifts his head up to an alert pose that I like better.



Making a big change like this demands a spirit of faith and carefree risk-taking. No worries—it's just paint, and any mistake can be corrected.

With oil, it would be better to rub off a failed start, or else the paint would get muddy. But with casein, you can paint opaquely over a previous passage without lifting it up.



Smooth alternately goes to sleep, wanders off, and checks his food dish. But with a little encouragement, he comes back to the window. When he does, I make corrections and try to commit the details to memory.



I like painting animals because it keeps me on me toes as a painter, sharpening my attention and speeding my decision-making. For me, efficiency of technique and speed of execution aren't central goals of art, but they're a by-product of a heightened state of consciousness.
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I'm editing a 15 minute version this (very detailed step by step) that I'll release in a future tutorial on animal painting.
Check out my casein painting tutorial video:
Download "Casein Painting in the Wild" at Gumroad
Download "Casein Painting in the Wild" at Sellfy: Buy now
DVD from the manufacturer (ships worldwide)
Gurney's Casein 6 Pack is white, black, cobalt blue, raw umber, Venetian red, and yellow ochre
Pentalic 5" x 8" watercolor book

Early Sketching Umbrellas

From an 1892 F. W. Devoe and C. T. Raynolds Company catalog.

Nineteenth-century sketching umbrellas were usually between 28 and 32 inches across, made of grey linen fabric. The clamp at the top allowed for the umbrella to be tilted to the side to block the sun or spill the wind.

The 48-inch support pole was made in two or three sections that screwed together, with a steel-tipped end that could stick into soft ground. The height was ideal for a painter sitting on a folding camp stool.

Here is John Singer Sargent sketching on a boat. Since he couldn't stick the pole in the deck, he lashed it to his leg and anchored it to other support points off to the right.

Modern umbrellas are a larger, made from a white nylon material, with an adjustable goose neck and a clamp that attaches to the easel, since soft ground is not always available. The white material is better than the light-blocking silver or black umbrellas. Those force your work to be lit by the light bouncing up from the ground, which is often strongly colored and prone to glare.

Any umbrella attached to an easel has a tendency to blow over when the wind comes up at all. One option is to attach the umbrella to a free-standing C-stand ballasted with sandbags. It's less likely to blow over, and if it does, it won't take the painting with it.

Do you have a story about problems with a sketching umbrella? Please share them in the comments.

Previously on GJ: White Umbrellas
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Smudge Pots

Mel Munnster asks: "Do you know what a smudge pot, in an art context, was used for in the early 1900s? I'm stumped."

Mel, nowadays the term "smudge pot" usually refers to an oil burner that produces heat and noxious smoke to protect orchards from insects or frost.

I found a source that suggest that hundred years ago, the term had other meanings.

This smudge pot was once owned by Kate Freeman Clark

An old book called The Popular Guide to House Painting, Decoration, Varnishing, and Whitewashing says that "painters will use the contents of their smudge pots i.e., vessel containing refuse paint, for this purpose" (namely for priming a surface). The authors go on to advise against using paint from the smudge pot for priming.

According another early journal for orchard growers, it was a common practice among growers to burn off the contents of their discarded paint pots, together with asphaltum. This would have given off a toxic cloud of lead fumes, but who knew that then?

N.C. Wyeth's Study from Bargue

N.C. Wyeth study (left) and Bargue Plate (right)

Blog reader Andrew Sonea discovered that N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) studied from the Charles Bargue: Drawing Course:

"I was looking through the Brandywine River Museum's online Catalogue Raisonne for NC Wyeth and made a small but interesting discovery. One of his early studies done at the age of 18 (before his studies under Pyle) is a copy from the Bargue Drawing Course! Even the curator seems to have overlooked this as there is no mention of it on the page and it was previously presumed to be drawn from life."

"I've attached an image with a side by side comparison of NC's drawing on the left and the plate from the Bargue Drawing Course on the right. This is the first time I have ever come across anything connecting Wyeth to Bargue! I'm extremely interested in how different artists have influenced each other, especially across generations, so I wanted to share this neat connection with others. It also shows that he was trained in traditional academic draftsmanship to have a solid foundation before he started applying it to storytelling under Pyle"

The curator at the Brandywine River Museum says:

"This drawing is representative of the type of work the artist did as a student before joining the Howard Pyle School. It could have been done during Wyeth's spring semester at Massachusetts Normal Art School (1900) for class described as "Model, charcoal," or done at the Eric Pape School during fall 1900."

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Charles Bargue: Drawing Course

Chuck Jones on Creative Discipline

Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones codified Nine Unbreakable Rules for the encounters between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

Rule 1: The Road Runner cannot harm the coyote except by going “beep-beep.”

Rule 2: No outside force can harm the coyote—only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products.

Rule 3: The Coyote could stop anytime—if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: “a fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.” – George Santayana)

Rule 4: No dialogue ever, except “beep-beep.”

Rule 5: The Road Runner must stay on the road—otherwise logically, he would not be called a road runner.

Rule 6: All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters—the Southwest American desert.

Rule 7: All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme corporation.

Rule 8: Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote’s greatest enemy.

Rule 9: The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

Chuck Jones grew up in Los Angeles watching live action film shoots of the early silent-era comedians. 

He was always a believer in how strict limitations, or "disciplines" as he called them, foster creativity. "Everyone I've ever respected always used restricted tools," he said. "The greatest comedians were the ones who wore the simplest costumes and worked in prescribed areas—like Chaplin."

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Chuck Jones's book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist is as much about creativity as it is about animation.

An excellent book on the art of Warner Bros. animation: That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation

Flat Shadows vs. Flat Lights

Dylan says: "I was looking at your awesome blog and found the post about Sargent's Escutcheon. A point you made is that he captured the brilliance of the light by flattening the lights and keeping the majority of the modeling and chroma shifts in the shadows. Up until now I've always been used to blocking the shadows first, and kind of doing the opposite; keeping the shadows flat and keeping the variations in the lighted areas."

The heraldic insignia or escutcheon of Charles V of Spain, 
part of a sixteenth century fountain at the Alhambra in Granada

"For myself," Dylan continues, "this has more or less become a method of capturing form, but I was wondering if you know of a context where this would fit an actual scene, as the flat lights fit the bright and sunny scene. Or, if there isn't a real-world context, how do you think the flat darks could be used best? I'm not married to the idea of flattening my darks, but rather I'd like to use it to its most usefulness, as well as introducing the flat lights approach to my process. If you have any thoughts on this, or know where I might be able to read about this, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks for getting this far!"

Dylan, this is a really interesting question, and it crossed my mind as I was writing the post, because I'm kind of a "flat-shadow" guy for the most part. If I can give a very quick answer, I'd say that the flat shadow approach is better for conveying low-light impressions of form, especially for portraits, while burned out lights and opened shadows convey a feeling of light. This is particularly powerful in landscape where you want to emphasize the warm and cool contrasts in the shadow. Form is a Force of art, but Light is a Force, too. Depends on what your pictorial idea demands.

If you're a photographer, you might say this thinking is analogous to exposing for the lights vs. exposing for the shadows. One will crush the darks and the other will clip the lights.

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The painting is called "Escutcheon of Charles V of Spain" by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)
Date: 1912, Medium: Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper. Dimensions: 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum.

Welcome, March

Isaac Levitan, March,1895. 75 x 60 cm. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) rarely painted snow. "But there came a time when he finally tackled the motif," says Alexei Fiodorov-Davydov. "Everything is shot through and through with the anticipation of spring."

"Though this was for Levitan a new theme, he created a picture that opened a new chapter in the history of Russian landscape painting. Nobody before him had painted snow with so much color, a sunlit, picturesque snow with blue shadows, nobody had so depicted the spring sky and trees."

As with many of Levitan's paintings, March captures the unassuming poetry of Nature's quiet moments, the majesty of the unadorned.

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Book: Levitan: Lyrical Landscape