Artist Spotlite – Paul J. McCall
Artist: Paul J. McCall
Location: Blackstone, Massachusetts
Title of Artwork: “Late Fall Country Road”
Dimensions of Artwork: 8 ½” x 11”
Medium: Pen and Ink
Support: Paper
Describe this Piece: I did this piece in 1984 strictly from imagination. I began with the barn and let the rest happen. Now that’s freedom.
10 Watercolor Painting Demonstrations to Get your Creative Juices Flowing
Over the years, we have accumulated a number of exceptional watercolor painting demonstrations both here at artinstructionblog.com and creativespotlite.com. I thought it would be a good idea to create a post that highlights some of the best demonstrations that have been submitted in the event you have not already viewed these during your stay here.
Here are 10 wonderful watercolor painting demonstrations to get your create juices flowing:
Watercolor Painting Lesson – How To Paint With 4 Pigments
Learn and Master Painting With Gayle Levee – An Artists Review
Learn & Master Painting With Gayle Levee
This Learn & Master Painting Review is a bit lengthy, but I wanted to be sure you have enough information about this course before you make the decision to purchase it.
I heard about Learn and Master Painting from an Artist friend of mine. I asked her to recommend an all around good home study course that I could in turn recommend to you and Learn and Master Painting was at the top of her list.
Well on to the review and congratulations for making it to this page! You have found a real person who actually owns this course so rest assured you are getting an honest review.
Color Mixing Tutorials & Resources For Oil Paints
One of the biggest challenges for artists just starting out with oil painting is mixing colors. Color is a powerful tool. If handled improperly, things can become quite messy. Improperly mixed colors lead to muddy or unbalanced paintings. The good news is, with practice, you will become more skilled at mastering color in your oil paintings. I have collected a number of color mixing tutorials below including links to articles, videos and books. I hope you find these 
oil painting color mixing resources helpful.
VIDEOS:
How to Mix Colors for Oil Paints
Artist Spotlite – Michael Nelson
Your Name: Michael R. Nelson
Location: Carmichael, California
Title of Artwork: Road to Fort Smith
Dimensions of Artwork: 20 X 40
Medium: Oil
Support: Canvas
Website: http://www.nelsonfinearts.com
Describe this Piece: Western depicting US Marshals and their prisoner wagon transporting a prisoner from the territories to Judge Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas. There may be a gang of bandits, friends of the prisoners following the wagon in an attempt to rescue him. The original is on permanent display at the U.S. Marshals Headquarters in Washington D.C. and will eventually be on permanent display at the U.S. Marshal Museum in Fort Smith.
Tips for Creating Strong Compositions in your Paintings
Composition is one of the most important aspects of painting. A pleasing composition is one where shapes and colors in a painting are organized in such a way that there is a sense of balance. Creating a balanced and interesting composition is more challenging that it may appear. If something is out of place or wrong, the viewer is left confused or uninterested. The following tips should help steer you in the right direction.
RULE OF THIRDS
The rule of thirds is a tool made popular by photographers but equally important to painters and is used to help artists create a strong and balanced composition. There are certain things you can do to the composition of a painting that will make it unbalanced or unpleasing to the eye. For instance, a common mistake is to place the focal point of a painting directly in the center. Another common mistake is to split the painting directly in half as in a landscape painting where the horizon line is directly in the middle of the painting.
Oil Painting Art Course – Learn to Paint by Copying Paintings in Museums or Home – Michelangelo Did
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni’s father sent him for formal schooling, but Michelangelo preferred copying paintings in churches. He later befriended arts and studied with some of the great painter and sculptors of his time. But he thought that he could learn more by copying the masters.
In museums around the world, you can see artists creating copies paintings. In Louvre in Paris, you can see a stream of artists copying their great paintings. Copying masterpieces has been a cornerstone of traditional art education for a long time. In fact, one art course you can take at The New York Academy of Art in New York City, NY, USA consists of students walking a few blocks to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) and copying paintings. That is the course!
I have done copies of paintings at MMA New York City of oil paintings by Theodore Gericault (French Romantic Painter, 1791-1824) and Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish Baroque Era Painter, 1599 – 1660).
Artists at MMA who want to make copies make a request to MMA’s Education Department. The Museum allows artists to get exclusive use for a month to one room or gallery in the museum to do a copy of a specific painting. The public still has access, but only one artist is allowed to copy in that gallery. I highly recommend your doing the same.
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