COMPOSE

Try this.  Looking at this photo, squint your eyes so that all the details go away, stare and hold it for a few seconds.  Notice ...

If on a dark night the lights go out, there we are in total darkness unable to see a thing.  But can you imagine the dark going out? The imp...

Chiaroscuro.  It's pronounced key-air-row-skew-row , but what does it mean? Artists who exercise the chiaroscuro principle play with...

What do I do if I want to get your attention? In his popular Fifth Symphony, Beethovan gets our attention with a precise da/da/da/DUM.  An...

Let's face it. There are times when we must work in the studio using resource material although, I agree, the best reference material i...

Image traps usually hit when a bunch of stuff is in the same scene. Here is a photo, a raw image, full of potential image traps. ...

On the mast of my easel I have scribbled these words: squint-observe-select-aim-stroke. I know that whatever's in front of my eyes has...

Probably the one thing that causes repeated mediocre and poor paintings is what I call the "image trap". The artist is so concern...