Titian
- It is not bright colors but good drawing that makes figures beautiful.
- A good painter needs only three colours: black, white and red.
- The painter must always seek the essence of things, always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting.
- Those who are compelled to paint by force, without being in the necessary mood, can produce only ungainly works, because this profession requires an unruffled temper.
Rembrandt
- A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished.
- Choose only one master – Nature.
- Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.
JMW Turner
- I have no secret but hard work. This is a secret that many never learn, and they don’t succeed because they don’t learn it. Labor is the genius that changes the world from ugliness to beauty, and the great curse to a great blessing.
- My business is to paint what I see, not what I know is there.
- It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create.
James McNeill Whistler
- Paint should not be applied thick. It should be like a breath on the surface of a pane of glass.
- A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared.
- You shouldn’t say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you’re perfectly safe.
- Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or a desire for which you had deeply longed. Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life.
- Industry in art is a necessity – not a virtue – and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.
John Singer Sargent
- The thicker you paint, the more it flows.
- If you begin with the middle-tone and work up from it toward the darks so that you deal last with your highest lights and darkest darks, you avoid false accents.
- You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.
- Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents.
- Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire.
- I don’t dig beneath the surface for things that don’t appear before my own eyes.
- Not a direct quote – Sargent felt it was excellent practice to paint flowers. They teach you precision as well as refresh your sense and enjoyment of color. He also recommended changing your painting medium once in a while and painting outside to improve your indoor painting.
William Bouguereau
- I produce a lot because I work all day long, without any breaks. It is the only way in fact of achieving good work.
- Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there.
- There’s only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian.
- This craft is acquired through study, observation, and practice; it can improve by ceaseless work. But the instinct for art is innate.
- above from a promotional email I received from Udemy. I definitely picked out the recurring themes of hard work and the importance of sketching. If I had compiled this, I would have put in more women masters. For now, just enjoy this one:
New Neural Grooves 