Artist's resources

I wandered across this site last night and it site provides hours of reading on watercolour paint production, colours, paper. The Hand Print site, by Bruce MacEvoy. Here's a sample regarding pigment history. I don't think I have any of this in my local art store...

I've left for dessert everyone's favorite, Egyptian mummy or caput mortuum (no CI name), a tarry brown pigment made from mummies excavated during the 18th to 19th centuries from ancient Egyptian communal tombs; these dried bodies had been embalmed with asphaltum (a petroleum residue) and resins. Pigment made by grinding up these carboniferous corpses was commonly available from the late 18th century up to 1925. (Winsor & Newton closely mimics this historical color in their caput mortuum violet.)

This information sent me wandering in search of other resource documents for artists.

Daniel Smith provides a basic guide to artist's pigments.

Art Studio Chalkboard is a resource for artists and art students that focus on the technical fundamentals of perspective, shading, color and painting. They were compiled and designed by Ralph Larmann, art faculty member in the University of Evansville Art Department.

Sue Dickinson's Painting Tips & Demonstrations -- Sue's watercolor tips are wonderful. If you are a beginner, do not miss her invaluable advice for buying watercolor materials!

Egg Tempera -- Lots of helpful information and links from The Society of Tempera Painters.

The Drawing Board for Illustrators -- Resources, links, articles, and a message board for illustrators from all fields.

Sketching Wild Birds -- A sample of lessons from Trevor Smith's book which covers sketching techniques, behaviour, anatomy, composition and much more.

Pencil Portrait Drawing -- The instruction is organized so you can choose the area of interest to you: Proportions, Features, Shading, etc.

Useful Paper Terms -- Daniel Smith explains the terms used to describe paper and its various characteristics.

Grid Method -- Teaches how to use the grid method to get an accurate sketch.

Tips & Tricks -- The Pastel Artists of Ontario Canada offer advice on pastel safety, keeping colours vibrant, exhibiting pastels, and more.

I've been on a roll with animal sketches this weekend. Here's another couple that I did this morning. Tomorrow, I must make a start on a portrait. Its a long weekend in Canada so I'll have time to get it drawn and hopefully transferred to Stonehenge.

On the farm some new geese arrived while I was away. These are Embden geese, big stocky birds with beautiful blue eyes. They are in a temporary pen now but will be moved out to the fields in the next week or so. They seem more placid than the Chinese brown geese that we currently have and much less noisy!



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