Mandy Theis
Saturday, 25 September 2021
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On Mastercopies in Art
Is copying bad in art? In my experience within art education communities, there is a deeply held belief that copying anything in art is harmful. It’s true that copying another’s work and passing it off as your own is clearly … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 18 September 2021
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Name Your Shadow Shapes when Drawing
Naming the shapes within your shapes helps you to draw accurately. Name Those Shapes “Don’t you see? It looks like Minnesota on crack.” This is how I once described a shadow shape to one of my students in … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Sunday, 12 September 2021
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Why Is Red So Hard to Paint?
Red subjects have a bad reputation for being difficult to paint. But if you take time to identify its attributes, you can easily overcome red’s obstacles. Have you ever tried to Cosplay Sabastian from The Little Mermaid? It’s no easy … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 4 September 2021
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It’s OK to Be Afraid of Atelier Training
Are you afraid you might not be good enough to start atelier training? You’re not alone. Atelier Training Can Be Intimidating I constantly field questions from people who have always dreamed of drawing and painting realistically, but are … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 28 August 2021
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Community Suppression of Art Knowledge
What happens when a community suppresses itself? Types of Community Suppression When I was 14, my classmate D and I completed a science project together and have been good friends ever since. D’s great-grandparents had immigrated to the United … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 21 August 2021
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Does Training Ruin Artists’ Voices?
“A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people.” – Edgar Degas in the Shop Talk of Edgar Degas Translating Visual Information Did … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 14 August 2021
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Why Not Just Use a Camera?
Cameras are just one way of translating information onto a 2D surface, but not the only way. And definitively not always the best way. There is a misguided belief that all realism is photography, and that all realism … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 7 August 2021
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Art As a Collective Body of Knowledge
Is atelier training Eurocentric? When considering mathematical concepts, rarely do people worry if the Pythagorean Theorem came from Ancient Greece, and that the symbols to represent numbers come from the Middle East. Throughout the history of humanity, discoveries in math … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 31 July 2021
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Seeing with Your Eyes and Not Assumptions
Artists work hard to lose their assumptions about what they are seeing, and truly observe the scenes before them. Seeing with an Innocent Eye Most of us at one point learned how to draw an apple by starting … Continue reading
Mandy Theis
Saturday, 24 July 2021
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Everything You Know About Warm and Cool Colors Is Wrong
Red, orange, yellow – warm colors right? Green, blue, purple are cool colors, right? Wrong. The truth is, that every color is both warm AND cool, and that warm and cool colors are all relative to each other. Take purple … Continue reading
