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Artist Spotlite – Interview with Monica Vanzant

“My favorite medium is oil and landscapes fascinate me but my personality forces me to continuously stretch my wings and try new things. My subject determines my media. This is why I paint in oils, watercolor and acrylic. I want to experience the entire spectrum of creating art.”

The Lottery Player – A Study of the Artists’s Father Oil on belgian linen, 18 x 22

Q – What medium or mediums do you work with?

A – Oils are my favorite medium but I also use acrylic and watercolor. Oils are more forgiving and I think that’s why I favor them.

Q – How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A – I have been painting for ten years. It began as a hobby to relieve the stress from a very demanding job and it turned into so much more. I knew I was in trouble when I started a painting at about seven o’clock one evening after work and then all of a sudden the sun was coming up and I had to be at work in two hours.

Q – Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A – I attended two drawing classes at PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art) about four years ago because I desperately needed help with my drawing skills. Other than that I am not formerly trained. I learned through any media I could get my hands on including books, videos, on-line demos and claiming a bench at my favorite art museum.

Initially, I would happily slap numerous vats of paint onto a canvas with no knowledge at all of composition, values or the number of hairs applied to my canvas from the cheap .99 brushes I was using. I eventually got tired of my friends asking me “Um…is that a mountain?”

There was always something missing so I decided to buy my first art book and that is when I learned about composition and focal point. Though my paintings were a little better, I was still applying exorbitant amounts of paint to the same areas over and over again because it never “looked right”. So that is when I bought my next book on color theory and learned the importance of values and warm and cool colors.

Finally I realized that if I wanted to paint seriously I had to study seriously and so my self-education began and I have never looked back. Strangely, the more I learn, the harder it gets but it is an agonizing and satisfying journey that I would not give up for anything.

Q – Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A – My medium is linseed oil, dammar varnish and turpentine (equal parts). I use Windsor Newton paints most of the time but I am always open to try new things. If I had one suggestion it would be to buy good quality brushes. This really can have an effect on what you are trying to achieve. I think it is important for an artist to experiment to find their own favorites.

Q – Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A – My favorite subject is landscapes. My style depends on what I want to portray with a particular subject. I think that if I continue to try new things that are out of my comfort zone, I can only improve. For instance, my next project is to improve my sketchbook skills. I have seen some artist’s sketchbooks that are beautiful “stand-alone” works of art. That is the next goal I have set for myself.

Q – Can you recommend any books, videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A – Since that is how I learned, I have many suggestions. The following are all videos/DVDs…

I would most definitely start with Ben Stahl ’s video workshop series. He managed to touch on just about every aspect of art including drawing, cleaning brushes, stretching canvas, cutting your mats, painting in oil, acrylic, watercolor, drawing in pen & ink and etching. This man really loved to create art!

Next, I suggest Helen Van Wyk’s DVDs. She had the unique ability to teach the principles of painting that you could use to paint anything and not just what she was showing in her demonstrations.

As you progress, I would suggest Johnnie Liliedahl. She has an extensive collection of instructional videos and DVD’s. She teaches most, if not all, of the techniques of the old masters. In my opinion her media can be a little expensive but it is so informative, I would definitely suggest the investment.

I like these artists for specific subjects – Morgan Weistling (Oil Portraits), Susan Harrison-Tustain (Watercolor Flowers), McCreery Jordan (Acrylic Still Life).

The following are all books. (Some of the artist below may also have videos/DVDs but I strongly suggest the books as they provide excellent reference material.)

Linda Cateura – Oil Painting Secrets from A Master – About the artist David Leffel

Gregg Kreutz – Problem Solving for Oil Painters

Betty Edwards – Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain

Lois Griffel- Painting The Impressionist Landscape

Ralph Mayer – The Artist Handbook

In addition, please visit your art museums. There is a wealth of knowledge just hanging on those walls for us to view. Do not be afraid to get up close and personal. View the brushstrokes, try and figure out the under-painting used, etc. – But don’t touch! I wouldn’t want you to get arrested…

My last suggestion would be to learn some art history. You do not have to become an expert but it can be so interesting learning the detail behind some of our greatest paintings and the backgrounds of the old masters. If you are someone who needs visual stimulation, start with the Sister Wendy Series. In my opinion, she is very knowledgeable and makes the subject fun.

Q – How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A – I could be inspired by a beautiful landscape or a rotting piece of fruit. I really try and find the beauty in everything.

Q – Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A – There are many other artists that I admire but these are my favorites…

John Constable, Thomas Moran, Jacob van Ruisdael are my favorite landscape painters. I love the way they captured nature yet never lost the painterly quality of their canvases.

Sargent – He made every brushstroke count and I strive to do this. I am still not there.

Rembrandt & Peder S. Kroyer – Their techniques of painting light were so diverse yet both so effective & memorable.

Vermeer – He painted what “quiet” must look like.

Dean Mitchell – He paints with such feeling that I can actually feel the emotion when viewing his paintings. In my opinion, it takes a special artist to make modern architecture look romantic.

Q – Do you have a website you would like to share?

A – Yes I have two. One, www.simplesite.com/monicavanzant_artlesson shows my on-line art demonstration. The other is www.monicavanzant.com and is the gallery of my paintings and photographs. They are both works in process, but then so am I.

Q – Finally, do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A – Absolutely. Never stop creating, paint everything and as often as possible. Do this and you will continue to grow as an artist. No matter how frustrated you may get, Don’t Give Up! If necessary change your medium and learn something new to get the creative juices flowing again. Every night pick something, anything – a leaf, a branch from a tree, something small from inside your house and complete a small sketch or watercolor of it. Just keep practicing your skill anyway you can. Every painting is not going to be a masterpiece but I can promise you that every painting you complete will bring you one step closer to being the artist you want to be.

Best Wishes to all of you and feel free to e-mail me.

Regards, Monica Vanzant

vanzantart@hotmail.com

Oil Painting Assistant – Painting Software For Your Computer

Oil painting assistant is a nice piece of software that helps you complete an oil painting and is an excellent tool for beginners.

Here is the description of the software taken from the authors website:

“Oil Painting Assistant helps you produce oil paintings of images from a scanner, digital camera, or the web. With Oil Painting Assistant, you load in a digital image, crop it to fit your canvas, and adjust coloration to suit your tastes. It also applies a grid to the image so you can more accurately sketch on your canvas. The assistant then displays an analysis of the image showing what paints would be useful for the painting’s base coat. The analysis and grid-overlaid image can be displayed on your monitor while you paint, or printed on a color printer.”

Oil painting assistant is free to download and try out, however the author does request that you register the software for a very reasonable fee. I feel it is definitely worth the price and you should consider registering the software if you find it useful.

Click here to reach the site.

Watercolor DVD – Using Your Head, Heart & Hand with Frank Webb

Learn to Paint in Watercolor with Frank Webb

Click here for DVD pricing and purchasing information.

Join world-renowned watercolor artist and master teacher Frank Webb in a fast-paced energetic overview of seven approaches to watercolor painting in this watercolor instructional dvd, Using Your Head, Heart & Hand — a packed 112 minutes.

Using Your Head, Heart & Hand

In this watercolor instruction DVD Frank Webb begins his presentation with his favorite materials and then quickly moves on to teach a basic grounding in design terms and concepts. He then develops a ‘value sketch’ from a line reference drawing. He uses the value sketch in each of the following seven chapters as a springboard for his watercolor technique demonstrations. In doing so, the difference that this technique makes in the final painting becomes clear.

After each technique demonstration, Frank uses completed watercolor paintings as examples of finished pieces. His style is bold and decisive.

Frank breaks down this watercolor workshop into learning chapters that cover, Direct Painting, Wet Into Wet, Color Patching, Easel Drizzling, Calligraphic Painting, Layering and Darks First. Using his step-by-step procedure will impart valuable lessons for every artist wishing to improve their painting skills.

This workshop is a wonderful quick overview of watercolor and an energetic kick in pants for anyone wanting to break away from photo realism. In the design section Frank includes reminders about design and composition.

112 min.

Click here for DVD pricing and purchasing information.

An introduction to Negative Drawing with Mike Sibley

The tools you will require are simple: Paper – preferably plate finish or at least smooth Pencils – 6B, 2B, HB, H, and 2H (I use 2mm clutch pencils but any will do) Kneaded eraser or Blu-Tack (preferably the latter) NEGATIVE DRAWING I often hear the phrases ‘negative drawing’ and ‘negative space’ used as if they are synonymous. They aren’t. Negative space is employed as a brain-fooling method of seeing shapes with clarity. Negative Drawing is a conscious method of working that isolates and protects areas of your paper. These areas can be entire elements that are often completed later; smaller areas where the intention is to leave them as virgin highlights or white shapes against a darker background; or minute areas that, for example, form white hairs between their cast shadows. To further dispel confusion, Negative Drawing does not involve any form of erasing. Applying graphite and cutting into it with an eraser could be described as ‘drawing in negative’, but it is the exact opposite of true Negative Drawing, which primarily exists to isolate and protect virgin areas of paper. Think of it as defining the boundaries of a shape using only the tone that surrounds it. In other words, you aren’t drawing the object but simply giving the illusion of the object by drawing around it. NEGATIVE SPACE Negative Drawing involves the conscious creation of negative space so let’s study that first. The brain would seem by all accounts to store memory in the form of images, and these images, or symbols, are the mainstay of the it’s defence mechanism. Matching to stored, standard symbols offers a very speedy classification system. However, as artists, this facility works against us, because our brains automatically overlay the images we see with a range of symbols. This effectively disables the ability to produce realistic drawing because the information gathered is so basic – and often inaccurate if the brain’s ‘guess’ was incorrect. Fortunately, there are many ways of fooling the brain into letting go of the desire to match symbols, to classify, during the act of drawing. For example, working faster than you can think serves to disable the argumentative side of your brain, which struggles to keep up and then loses interest. To learn to see what is really there and not what you think is there, you need to take your brain’s automatic reaction out of the equation. Believe me, learning to see correctly really is a hard lesson to learn but the best way involves fooling your brain into not recognising the troublesome features. Fortunately, we have Negative Space as a supreme tool. Using negative space This exercise will not only help your mind to concentrate on the spaces between lines it will also help to confound your brain – your logical mind that attempts to identify everything it sees. You’re going to give it a really tough time because instead of drawing an object itself, you’ll be drawing the empty space around it. Take two strips of paper; say an inch by three inches (2.5 x 7.5cm). Now shade the right hand end of one strip right up to the edges…

Now do the same to the left hand end of the other strip and, without drawing any lines, leave an oblong clear in the bottom corner.

Now take a clean sheet of paper and lay your two strips end to end with a gap between them. What you have drawn is the capital letter ‘L’. That the letter exists is entirely due to negative space. The white of the letter is pristine, not a result of the removal of graphite. Practice drawing articles you know. Try to picture each on the page and then shade around it. Don’t draw lines around them first – if you do, you’ll just be shading around a positive shape, not shading the negative space to cause the positive image to appear. Since these abstract shapes share a continuous border with the object, when you draw the negative shape, you’ll be drawing the positive outline too.

NEGATIVE DRAWING – explained Where Negative Space involved the art of drawing the areas around an object to define the object itself, Negative Drawing involves the deliberate creation of your own negative space. So, what exactly is ‘negative’ drawing? What do you see when you look at the picture to your left? Do you see an ancient black drinking cup? Maybe an ebony candlestick holder? Or do you see two white faces both looking at each other? Imagine yourself ‘seeing’ these two faces on a white sheet of paper and then filling in the space between them so the faces are revealed. That is Negative Drawing! A ‘negative’ image is one that is entirely created by the area surrounding it – I prefer to call it ‘white space’. The uses of negative drawing extend from creating bright highlights that describe the curvature of a dark object, or white shapes defined by their shadows, to the isolation of key elements that can be better drawn at a later stage. You can’t draw white with a graphite pencil so, like a watercolour painter, you have to draw around it to define its shape. Teaching yourself to see white on white and drawing around it is one of the best lessons you will ever learn.

Other Negative Drawing and Negative Space resources: www.SibleyFineArt.com/tutorial–draw-grass.htm www2.arts.ubc.ca/TheatreDesign/crslib/drw04/negsp.htm www.dueysdrawings.com/negative_drawing.html drawsketch.about.com/od/learntodraw/ss/negativespace.htm NEGATIVE DRAWING – the basics If we draw three lines (below) how many lines have we created? The answer is five – three black and two white.

Let’s make that more obvious. I’ll extend and join the black lines, increase their number and join the white lines too.

Which is dominant or positive? Are we using negative drawing? Right now we can’t say. They share equal importance, as neither has yet been defined as an object. So let’s do that – we’ll zoom out until one or the other becomes a defined shape.

Now it becomes obvious that the subject is the white comb. It existed only in my mind until I enclosed it by defining the dark negative space. It ’s not easy to begin thinking this way. However, with practice, negative drawing becomes second nature and, more importantly, you learn to switch your mind between negative and positive drawing at will, and even to blend the two together. Negative Drawing, if you’re drawing spontaneously, involves ’seeing’ a white shape on white paper and shading around it. The same is true if it’s planned beforehand, but then you’ll have guidelines to assist you. Why use this method? Negative drawing offers important advantages that no other system can fully compete with. • It can divide a task into simple, manageable elements. No erasing is involved. Your whites remain pristine, and your paper’s tooth is preserved for really crisp results. • It permits you, when drawing spontaneously, to quickly create white objects on the paper by simply drawing the shadows between them – hair and grass, for example. You can do this without any thought being given to form or spatial relationships, as a final layer of tone applied over the area supplies the tonal shaping – either locally (a single blade of foreground grass) or globally (the overall lighting that’s affecting the area). • It permits you to split your drawing up into elements that you fully understand and those that you don’t. By drawing around the unknown elements first, you often gain a better understanding of them. You can literally draw around potential problems and return to them later. • It permits you to split your drawing up into areas of texture. If, for example, you’re drawing the wooden side of a barn, it’s easier to concentrate on, and complete, that texture by simply working around anything that overlaps it. • It permits you to split your drawing up into areas of differing importance to afford much greater control over tonal relationships. For example, you can establish the background before the foreground to give much greater control over the visual separation of the two. You can draw into the created white silhouette after you have established the tones surrounding it, so when you begin to draw the enclosed element you can control the tones you use to make it stand out – or not, if that is your aim. You can see below that I drew around the rope because I needed to control the way it stood out from the background.

Drawing the rope first would dictate the tones available for both the dog and the background, which is not at all what we want. In this case the rope passes in front of both the dog’s white leg and the dark ground. By drawing both first, I now know exactly how to make that rope stand out – and how to make it blend into the ground at its lower end. Negative drawing will allow you to concentrate on one aspect at a time. Using my way of working from dark to light, you establish the very darkest tones first. Now you know your darkest tone and your lightest (the white of your paper). The black is then extended and diluted as required to form the mid-tones, and drawn around the highlights, features and problem areas. When the black or dark areas are completed, all your lighter tones will just be flat white spaces. Now, with the full understanding of the tones surrounding them, you can begin to draw within the spaces to give them the tonal values and shaping that they require. This is much easier to practice than explain! EXERCISE… However complex a job may appear to be, it’s always possible to break it down into manageable elements or processes. Here, in this small 2” x 3” (5 x 8cm) drawing, I’ve mapped out the main stalks; lightly drawing a line either side to delineate the space that constitutes the stalk and leaf. Remember that you are defining white space so be aware that it is the inside edge of your pencil line that counts – you are drawing that line around a white shape.

Having planned and defined the main stalks (I call them ‘status’ stalks – they’re food for the brain) I’ll switch to a more spontaneous style of working to map out the less distinct grass on the rear-most plane. I rarely outline anything in these areas but create stalks merely by drawing the negative space. Here is where you let your imagination go free, working at a pace that prevents conscious intervention. You will find yourself introducing stalks here and there that may even surprise you with their placement. Don’t try to be too accurate – inaccuracies lend an extra realism in this case. And don’t touch those ‘status’ stalks – they are ‘unknowns’; you cannot properly define their tonal values until you have completed the grass behind them.

As you work on this secondary area between the established white spaces that represent the status stalks of grass, introduce random shapes and lines. As long as these vaguely follow the rules of natural grass and foliage, they will serve to fool the brain into seeing more detail than exists. In life you couldn’t distinguish every element in such an arrangement (especially in areas of deep shadow) so you shouldn’t be able to do so here either.

Now picture yourself looking into that area and begin to add reality to the situation; toning some stalks down a little and others so much that they are barely discernible. If you can see the reality in your mind you will achieve a sense of reality in your drawing. If you’re not sure how to treat something, leave it white then go back to it once it’s surrounded – as I have done here with the foreground. It’s going to be water and I can’t draw the reflections until I know exactly what reflections are required.

Finally, with complete control over their appearance and recession, the status stalks are given body, adjusting the tone of those behind them if required. The foreground grass is drawn, just as I described earlier, and the water and reflections established.

IN CONCLUSION… Negative drawing offers the means to tackle complicated tasks in manageable stages and, within the white space, presents the opportunity to draw perfectly and completely, without alteration or experimentation. Getting it right the first time will always give a sharply defined finish that all other methods muddy. It’s a liberating and controllable way of working and scores above all other methods in the drawing of complex negative shapes. A comprehensive description of this and many other techniques are presented in my 288-page book Drawing From Line to Life currently available from www.SibleyFineArt.com and www.ThePencilPoint.com or from your local bookshop quoting the ISBN #: 978-0-9551-5780-6 About the Author

Mike Sibley, who is renowned for his meticulous studies of dogs, lives in North Yorkshire, UK, and has been drawing professionally for over 25 years. Mike also runs Starving-Artists.net – offering free and subscription galleries for artists needing a Web presence. As a result of publishing “Drawing from Line to Life” in 2006, Mike now runs drawing workshops in the UK and USA. Further graphite drawing tutorials are also available from his website.

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