We know Bill was a master artist. Today’s video clip is going to show you he was a master teacher.

Bob Hoffman is a popular speaker and author in the field of advertising and marketing. He is an outspoken critic of digital marketing in particular. He doesn’t spare his peers in the traditional marketing realm either. His quote below applies to both spheres.

Did you know ninety-seven percent of American adults send text messages every week, if not every day? Since 97% pretty much includes everyone, I guess it’s no surprise we send over six billion texts every day.

In the book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, Dr. Betty Edwards discusses how artists see the world. She states: “Drawing is a curious process, so intertwined with seeing that the two can hardly be separated.

What do you think most artists consider the number one obstacle to their success? The following is a response from a survey we ran that’s typical of a lot of responses.

Forty years ago, Noel Burch developed a new model for learning. Burch worked at the Gordon Training Institute founded by psychologist Thomas Gordon. Their specialty was conflict resolution and building effective interpersonal relationships. Burch identified the following four stages of learning.

Tom Anderson is a native Californian. He studied at the College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. Even as a young boy, Tom had the ability to draw. He would copy paintings from his parents’ encyclopedia. Drawing in pencil, Tom copied the works of Michelangelo, Donatello, and others. He taught himself all the body’s muscles and their movements.

When I retired I knew I wanted to paint, but I had no idea how to start. It seemed like there were a million “How to Paint” videos on YouTube. I realized, after a while, they were, in fact, “Watch me Paint” videos. There was no, or little, teaching.

"Beginners never know, they never know the paint will help them." - Bill Alexander

In our last article, we wrote about the importance of setting a path to excellence. Earlier, we wrote about how you need a vision to achieve your goals. This article is about the element that binds these two ideas together.

A “Washington Post” reporter wrote recently, “Jimmy Carter was a good, honest man and the system ate him up.” Isn’t that how it is? Those who are honest, decent human beings seem to be at the mercy of those who are not.

What a powerful force we are as parents.

Is this an accurate statement? For master artists – maybe. How about the rest of us? I don’t know about you, but the only thing I see in my work are mistakes. There seems to be no worse critic than ourselves.

A “polymath” is a person whose expertise spans many domains – or subject areas. Leonardo was a polymath. He lived during the Renaissance, so Leonardo is the quintessential “Renaissance Man.”

The fact that the very first words in the Bible introduce the concept of light and dark tells us it’s essential in our lives.

How can you get more depth in your paintings? Bill shows us how to add depth to the sky using both size of objects and positioning. Think of your canvas like a dome rather than a flat surface.