Chris Beatrice

Dark Vision

by Chris Beatrice | Monday, October 5th, 2020

“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.” -Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West What exactly is meant by this word, “shadow”? An area of darkness, of less light, perhaps? The very concept of shadow is an artificial convention, which can lead to limiting mischaracterizations of the underlying reality. For instance: Everything in shadow is not darker than everything in…

Art… ificial Selection

by Chris Beatrice | Monday, September 7th, 2020

What do you feel is the greatest thing about Charles Darwin? A. He came up with the theory that species evolve over time. B. He had a mighty hipster beard. C. He insisted that humans are all one species. D. He named his ship after the author of The Last Unicorn. E. He realized that the illusion of design could emerge from random factors. I say C. After that, B, I guess (the beard is…

You Don’t Suck At Color

by Chris Beatrice | Monday, August 10th, 2020

Help Is On The Way Do you suffer from chromophobia (the fear of using saturated or bright colors because every time you do your picture winds up looking like a cheap effect from Star Trek TOS)? Well, turns out you don’t suck at anything, but you probably misunderestimate the role of something else… It goes by many names: lightness (I’ve heard), luminosity (la di da), Mithrandir (I think that’s one of them), brightness (unfortunately),…

A Treasure Trove of Tutorials

by Muddy Colors | Thursday, July 23rd, 2020

One of our newest members, Chris Beatrice, has spent years creating really helpful tutorials for...

Water, Simplified

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

Water… translucent, reflective, fluid—a painter’s nightmare! But it doesn’t have...

Is White a Color? It’s Any Color You Want.

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

…

Perspective: An Important Weakling

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

Perspective is important, but its feeble strength is easily defeated by a world made up of complex...

Lose the Line

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

Try ditching the line art and see if you can make your picture stand without it. It’s not a...

Giving Birth to a Mouse

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

A run-through of the process I used to design the character, “Mo”, for the animated...

Color, The Simplest Way

by Chris Beatrice | Sunday, July 19th, 2020

A lot of artists struggle with color. If you start by keeping it simple you will gain confidence...

New Video

Jesper Ejsing : Painting Demo

Featured Posts

Be MIGHTY

How to Do Acetone Transfers

How I Make a Picture Book

10 Things…Evaluate Your Painting

10 Things…I Wish I Knew Starting Out

Recent Comments

katerin on How to Paint Skin – 10th Anniversary Video Giveaway!Thank you so much for sharing this you have no idea how much i appreciate this, painting skin and making it look alive and soft is always difficult an…
BRIAN BOWES on 10 things…10 bestGreg, these "10" posts are super valuable! As a teacher, I pass these along to students to support ideas we're discussing in class. Thank you for your…
bernhard knoll on 10 Things…FailureThank You for your honest sharing!
Richard Budig on 10 things…10 bestYour comment about value reminded me of a saying I keep in the front of my mind: Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work.
Margaret Stermer-Cox on 10 Things I Remember…About ProcrastinatingHi Greg, thank you for sharing your experience and insight. It is funny how the same things (ie about procrastination and fear) said a different way c…

Archives