"What I want to make is a drawing which will not be exactly understood by everyone: the figure essentially simplified with intentional neglect of those details which do not belong to the real character, and are only accidental." From Van Gogh's letter to Theo, 1883, Van Gogh A Self-Portrait edited by W.H. Auden.You can find out-of-print art books and newer books for that matter on ebay.com. Just go to ebay and do a search for "art book" or "watercolor book" and you can find about any art book you want. Of course you can also search by the name of the book or the author's name.For better prices and better selection I buy art supplies from Dick Blick, Cheap Joe's, Daniel Smith and Art Supply Warehouse Express. It just takes a few days to receive your order. Compare prices. Daniel Smith has some products that are not available elsewhere because they make a lot of their own products. Email or call and they all will send you a free catalogue.
"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist as he grows up." Pablo Picasso
(Watercolorists) You can go over and over the paint on your paper so long as the paint is WET. That's wet, not damp or moist. The only other time you can add paint over paint is when the paper is DRY. Dry means totally dry. Touch the back of your fingers to the paper, if it feels cool it is not dry.You can use a hairdryer to speed up the process but you might be careful not to blow the paint around too much. You make beautiful paintings this way without creating muddy looking areas. (Of course rules are made to be broken!). "Art is jealous, she does not want us to choose illness in preference to her, so do what she wishes....It is true that I am often in the greatest misery, but still there is a calm pure harmony and music inside me." From Van Gogh's letter to Theo, July 1882, Van Gogh A Self Portrait edited by W. H. Auden. We know that blue and red will make purple but to make a vibrant purple use a blue and red that already lean that direction. Ultramarine blue (which has some red in it) and alizarin red (which has some blue in it) will make a great purple!"All colors are friends of their neighbors and lovers of their opposites." Marc Chagall"A primitive artist is an amature painter who sells." Grandma Moses"A portrait is a painting with a little something wrong with the mouth." John Singer Sargent"Nobody's art is capable of long remaining at a fixed level. It either evolves through sustained effort and exploration or it deteriorates through repetition into stagnation." From Drawing with an Open Mind by Ted Seth Jacobs~Anonymous~
