TODAY'S FEATURED POST

Monet and Venice at Brooklyn Museum

Lauren Panepinto

Happy Christmas, Solstice, Hanukah, Kwanza, or whatever other holiday you may celebrate. In my family, there's a run of family birthdays between the first week of November straight through Nov & Dec until my mother's birthday on December 18th. And most years I take the day off work and we go to a museum together. This year, we went to see the Monet and Venice show currently at the Brooklyn Museum. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1JNQTZCx30[/embed] Now, I respect…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

Toad in the Grass

YESTERDAY’S POST

Image

The Idea Map

Wylie Beckert

August 13, 2025 - The prevailing wisdom is that a painting starts with a sketch. My own methods are a little less direct; usually the beginning of one of my paintings looks something like this: I've found this sort of written concept exploration is damn near essential to making a good painting - first and foremost because it helps me avoid making the kind of rote images ("girl standing badassedly with sword; flames optional") with which the fantasy art world is already well-supplied. More surprisingly, it does quite a bit of the heavy lifting for a painting. It's a lot easier to get away with a bit of broken anatomy or an imperfect inkwash if your image is ABOUT something - keeping the eye and mind of the viewer too busy to dwell on the way you drew an…

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