Matthew Innis has put together an excellent article on Nicolai Fechin posted on his blog Underpaintings.
Not many realize Fechin died of lead poisoning, likely due to his painting technique of licking his palette knives and painting with his fingers.
Jeffrey Watts has just released a new 5 hour DVD on what he calls Gesture Painting.
Joaquin Sorolla is the Spanish John Singer Sargent. His complete works are available online here.
The Prado also has an exhibition online here. You can also visit Museo Sorolla for more images.
A great many artists who I have studied with and who I admire have studied under Fred Fixler. These include Morgan Weistling, Shawn Zents, Jeff Watts, Mark Westermoe and Jeremy Lipking.
Here are some links of interest that relate some details of Fixler’s instruction:
Fred Fixler Notes on Drawing (Norm Nason) >>>
Fred Fixler on Gouache Painting (Norm Nason)>>>
Morgan Weistling Demo where he relates something he learned from Fixler >>>
Walt Stanchfield is the legendary figure drawing instructor of Walt Disney Studios. His classes were one of the most talked about among character animators in Los Angeles. When I was an animator in LA we would beg friends who worked at Disney to give us copies of the notes Walt handed. I have two huge binders full of Stanchfields incredible wisdom, and have spent many years pouring over them. Nobody could teach telling a story with the gesture of a human figure like Walt.
And now his material has been published in two excellent volumes. If you are an animator or artist of the figure, these books are must haves.
One of the least understood and least talked about qualities of painting is simplification and elimination of unnecesary detail. James Gurney’s post looks at this quality in the Theory of Sacrifices.
