Sponsored byTwo Demos Using the Marabu Art CrayonEnjoy the buttery-smooth quality of a wax-based medium that has superior blendability? Looking for an art material that is highly pigmented and water-soluble for transparent effects and reductive techniques? If so, the Marabu Art Crayon could be the perfect art product for you.

The Making of ‘Art City Mural’After creating “Art City, USA,” a list of the 10 best art cities in the U.S. for artists, creatives, makers and art-enthusiasts alike — based on five key attributes: affordable housing, artists’ enclaves, museums and galleries, bookstores and cafes, and inspiring environment — we wanted to incorporate the top 10 cities as an issue cover for the magazine.

Painting Techniques You Can’t Go WithoutOf course, there are more than three painting techniques that will allow you to create a compelling artwork, but learning how to paint a picture well can certainly start with these elements.RhythmPainting objects that actually look alive, in the case of the figure, or lively, as in a landscape, is often a matter of visual rhythm.

For some reason, we associate crayons with being easy and simple to use. Our childhood memories of quickly filling in our coloring books with single colors come flooding back. Each area was quickly scribbled in, and our youthful minds were also quick to say “voila!” We were easily amused and satisfied.

If you’re self-taught, this blog will likely be of help to you in your artistic pursuit. I’ve been teaching art for more than 35 years, and I highly recommend to my students that they try to slow down and learn things gradually. This keeps the level of frustration down and the ability to hone the skills high.

“Abstract art has been with us in one form or another for almost a century now and has proved to be not only a long-standing crux of cultural debate but a self-renewing, vital tradition of creativity. We know that it works, even if we’re still not sure why that’s so, or exactly what to make of that fact.