I had a chance to see Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings at the Met (see my previous post). It’s a great exhibit that continues to the end of December. Unlike many polished master drawings that seem to spring from the artist’s hand fully realized, you can really see Van Gogh working and learning in his drawings. Even after he had mastered some aspects of drawing, deftly executing complex perspective problems in large drawings of fields and farm buildings, you can still see him struggling with other challenges, like human proportions and placement of features on a face. It’s a fascinating and enlightening exhibit for anyone engaged in the ongoing process of learning to draw.
The Met has created another learning experience – an online Flash interactive called How Van Gogh Made His Mark. It’s ostensibly aimed at children, but worth a look for anyone interested in drawing. The interactive uses several Van Gogh drawings to explore some basic principles of drawing as well as investigating Van Gogh’s own process and history. It features reproductions of drawings that can be zoomed in on and dragged around within the interface. It investigates the artist’s tools, methods and learning experience and features a “sketchbook” where you can draw onscreen with a virtual reed pen.
Illustrator, concept artist and comics artist Robert Chang works in both traditional and digital media. His 2D digital work is often done in Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. The “Goodies” section of his site includes tips, techniques and downloadable custom brushes for Painter. There are also several excellent and detailed tutorials for his digital work, including the image shown here.
I’m not always fond of minimalist illustration. Too often artists will pare down their approach to the point where it loses visual interest. 
Brilliant Dadaist/Surrealist Max Ernst is sometimes lost in the glare surrounding more well-known figures like Dali and Magritte. Ernst was a founding member of the Surrealist movement and created some of the most powerful Surrealist images. 
