Robert blogs on art, creativity, politics, CSA, religion and culture. Many overlap into multiple categories, like motivational or random favorites. Robert is a life-long artist, writer, musician & actor, a professional creative his entire adult life. Born in 1959 in Detroit, he has lived in New York, New Orleans and currently in Charleston. His commission portraits and fine art are part of over a thousand collections throughout North America. Read his bio.
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A Rant on Values
Sometimes Having Strong Values Means More Than Just Being a Nice Guy* Sometimes a value that appears to be correct in a painting is anything but. You've got to know and understand how light works on form if you want to make your paintings look lifelike. Excellent...
Drawing for the Ages
Drawing for the ages Ridge came to my studio for a quick sketch this morning. He was a delightful model and his mom really liked the drawing. Ridge was a very patient model for a 5 year old! I really enjoy sketching from life and as I always tell my students, life...
No More Smooshing Paint Around
Getting it Right the First Time Rather than getting the wrong value on your brush and then working it into the painting, try getting the right value on your palette and painting directly onto the canvas, without apology. Smooshing the paint around only weakens the...
Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Joe Maniscalco Returns Fom the hey-day of illustration Here's one of the vintage Joe Maniscalco illustrations I have re-purposed. I wonder what they were used for originally. They are masterfully painted in the hey-day of illustration. I was thinking of other...
Joe Maniscalco Illustrations
Joe Maniscalco Retrofitted I've really been enjoying excavating my father's legacy by digging out these vintage illustrations and re-captioning them. I am re-purposing and compiling images of his and my work, along with witty and not-so-witty aphorisms into a coffee...
Fold in the Light
This is from an art lesson yesterday in class. Want to express folds in drapery or in skin? You must understand how forms behave in the light. Here is a fold depicted in light, side view and top view. There is a hard cast shadow on the left side. And there is a soft...
Aspire to Happiness
This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing not being but becoming, not rest, exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not...
Trouble with Trifles
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESvmg0W_dc[/youtube] Captain James T. Kierkegaard to the Rescue What is a disagreement but a trifle? What makes a healthy debate over ideas into a conflict, an essential disagreement? Without preliminary understanding there...
Golf Portrait
Look dad, I did it! As my very first friend once told me, "Rob, there are two kinds of people: boaters and golfers." Well here are a couple golfers. This was a particularly meaningful portrait for me, as it expresses a father's love for his son. I enjoy a bit of...
The God Factor
Most theologies would support that God is more about how things are connected than in how the are separate. Drawing is a celebration of the connections between forms. Therefore, these connections might be thought 0f as a celebration of God; the more connections,...
Beauty
As I approach the first anniversary of y marriage to Cate (June 1), I am re-sharing the poem I wrote soon after we reconnected. In that moment, I realized I'd found the love of my life. I pray for all who long for love to know it's waiting for you too, if you are...
Psalm
PSALM Opening my eyes to the God I see in you, I see myself being seen in loving praise of all that is. Now, dear other, cry for the children without the words to plea, the savvy to endure, the tenacity to wait, unprotected by the healthy boundaries those of us,...
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Remembering Manny Krammer. He was a loving mentor, an unequivocal supporter of my early career as an artist. He got me teaching and exhibiting in his little gallery in Rochester. He was one of the first messengers of love and positivity in my life, a gentle force of will, reminding me and everyone he touched that we are not alone in this work. Gone but not forgotten. ... See MoreSee Less
Great study by a great portraitist  ... See MoreSee Less
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When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.Again, portraiture in all its forms, is legacy, it is history, it belongs to everyone. ... See MoreSee Less
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When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.... See MoreSee Less
Shoulda asked me. I guarantee a perfect likeness. 😆 ... See MoreSee Less
Anne Boleyn painting is ‘actually a different royal’, claims historian
www.the-independent.com
Off with her head? Painting in National Portrait Gallery’s collection may have been important political tool to shore-up Elizabeth I’s hold on power