Bridget Riley: It’s Not Art Without the Viewer
Bridget Riley is our artist this month. She made major contributions to the Op Art movement in the 1960s. It’s a style that we all recognize, but what is it really? What is Op Art? Op Art is short for optical art. Considered an abstract style of art, it became popular in the 1960s. There’s…
Androgyny for the Gods
Instead of doing a biography, we’re talking androgyny today. Documentation on Michelangelo Buonarroti’s life and work is plentiful (seriously good reading), so we’re going to look at one of my favorite topics: Why do his women look so masculine? Three Examples of Michelangelo’s Women Night Michelangelo was commissioned to create sculptures for the Medici Chapel,…
February Artist of the Month: Franz Marc
What is Expressionism? Expressionism began around 1905 in Germany and Austria. Recognizable by its bright, artificial color palettes and simplified forms, it introduced distortions of reality designed to elicit an emotional reaction from the viewer while simultaneously taking inspiration from and rejecting art movements of the past. German Expressionism was a response to two things. …
Expressionist February
Our artist this month is Franz Marc! I chose him because despite his short life and career, he was a major influence in the German Expressionist movement. His work is instantly recognizable – if you’ve seen the painting of blue horses, you’ve seen a Franz Marc painting. Marc’s work was so avant-garde for the time…
Impressionist Art – Did I Do It?
When I started my little digital Impressionist painting, I made sure to go in with no expectations. If it came out great – great! If it came out bad – also great! The whole point was to try it out and hopefully learn something along the way. It was definitely a rough start at first,…
January Artist of the Month: Berthe Morisot
When I decided to do the Artist of the Month project, Berthe Morisot was one of the first artists I thought of. Her talents as an artist could have easily been tempered by the male-dominated art world and societal norms of her time, but she was in a unique position to contribute to the rise…
New Year, New Projects!
Happy New Year! Whether celebrating or sleeping through it, I hope we get an amazing start this year. The bar may be low, but we can clear it! Now that the holiday season is over, some of us will be making resolutions and plans while others will be saying to hell with it all. I…
Promptober was a Success!
Success! We did it! Every drawing done on the day! Not one missed! Considering past years where I’ve ended up several days behind (or the one year where I dumped over a week of drawings at once), let’s just call this year a big win. I also took the opportunity to try some different techniques…
Prompt, Draw, Ink!
Inktober. Drawlloween. Promptober, Prompt O’Ween! (Wait, what??) The season is upon us! It’s time for the best drawing challenges of the entire year and I’m 100% on the bandwagon. Not only am I putting a full list out ahead of time this year (last year I posted the prompt each day), but I made it…
New Year, New Goals!
Happy New Year! Let’s start with a nice virtual hug. Come on, bring it in! We all need a nice, solid hug. The new year doesn’t mean things automatically change for the better (or worse), but that symbolic fresh start sure is nice. I don’t know about you, but I’m not aiming for any resolutions…
