How did it happen that all of our drawings and paintings are in rectangles? In my online figure drawing class last Sunday, I showed drawings by Matisse, Modigliani, and the very Matisse-like Pierre Boncompain. I talked about positioning the figure within the rectangle, thinking about how the shape of the figure and the shape of …

I’m currently reading the The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. I wouldn’t wish the book or the subject on anyone, were it not imperative. In Seattle, the temperature typically varies from 37°F to 79°F, and right now we’re setting unpresidented records for heat, day after day, so it’s seeming especially imperative today. “In Seattle, where …

Painterly Figures with Tone was a 4 week shortie art class, snuck into November/December. This post includes some of my favorite moments from that class. Please kindly overlook any flaws in the photography. A Sunday evening class, the images were taken on the fly, and in the dark. A word about working from photographs… Typically …

Every quarter I teach figure drawing on Sundays. No class is ever the same, which means that every artist gets to experience different ways to approach the figure. Each comes with a specific challenge that teaches a skill, and I hold the artists to that challenge, but individual styles are celebrated, as you’ll see in …

Figure drawing offers artists a never ending series of challenges and inspirations for the artist. In my figure drawing classes we try a different approach every week, so students strengthen many different aspects of drawing, all in a single class. In drawing sessions, we have focused on how to measure proportions and useful landmarks in …

This creative challenge is different from a lot of other challenges out there. Designed to foster a wide variety of artists, these prompts are aimed at an unusually wide variety of creative skills. I’ve categorized prompts by type, so you can enjoy the things that come naturally to you, and strengthen the things that don’t. …

Take a class with SAL – anywhere! Edward Hopper is one of the greatest American painters of the 20th century, having influence over photography and cinema as well as painting. His direct and realist paintings depicted light and shadow, and solitude in daily contemporary life. But what influences did Hopper have? Rejecting the style of …