This is my “Simple Sushi” painting. My painting palette is really simple, which makes the painting process kind of interesting. I don’t own a tube of black. I always felt like black paint has ugly characteristics and doesn’t really belong anywhere in nature. My palette is red, blue, yellow and white. All you need is a little patience, but once you start mixing these colors the possibilities are endless.
Another original sushi painting. Oil on 16”X11” limited edition prints will be available at the end of august. 
I have finally had my paintings professionally photographed. This means that the limited edition prints will be printed soon.
Quite often, while scrolling through blogs and photos of art, particularly paintings, I pause. I stop and stare at a painting for a minute or two and wonder if this is digital art. or did someone really achieve these amazing effects with just oils and a paint brush. Well typically, it is digital art, but not today. I came a across a beautiful portrait that had these gestural characteristics, but the color and blending was so sharp and accurate that it looked real. I thought there was no way this was a traditional piece of art. And then I saw the name. John Singer Sargent.
His portrait paintings are so flawless, but also very gestural and impressionistic. He has always been one of my largest inspirations, and after wasting another significant portion of my day staring at beautiful paintings, I am reminded why he inspires me, and why I love painting.
This is a link to the ‘entire body of work’ by John Singer Sargent, which one is your favorite? Let’s see if you can get lost in the artwork, just like I did.
http://www.johnsingersargent.org/
I always get excited when there is cream cheese in the sushi. Although, I can only imagine that cream cheese in the sushi is far from traditional. It’s always delicious!
9”X14″ Oil on stretched canvas.
This Painting was done on a wooden panel. I love the texture I got from this painting. It’s much more expressive. I’m going to paint on a few more wooden panels today. I’ll be sure to post them a bit later.
The thing that keeps me going is finding artwork that inspires me beyond my own expectations. to see something so epic, and surreal, that my mind is taken to new places. Today I found an artist, that actually made me have to stop and waste several hours of my day staring at image after image. Michael Cheval is a surrealist painter that paints beautiful realistic portraits, but also with surrealist qualities. He has several other paintings which are all arranged into different series that represent a specific theme; Nature of absurdity, illusion of absurdity, sense of absurdity, and several other themes. The themes are strange, to say the least, but still seem very appropriate and traditional. Almost as though they were taken from some fictional history book. there is no real way for me to identify or describe this artwork. You must see it for yourself. I am in awe of what some people can do with a paintbrush.
This is a tutorial that talks about all different types of drawing styles. It’s so important to know that everyone has a different style, and the main objective here is not that you guys learn to draw like me, but that you use my drawing strategies and tips to personalize your own style and become more confident in your own drawings.
In this video post I’m talking all about the tools that I use to do my drawings. I go through a lot of drawing phases, and sometimes I change things up. But for right now these are the tools I use.
People come up to me often and ask me, what paper do I use, what type of pencils do I use. And It’s really not as important as you think. If I’m doing some quick sketching, I’ve been known to use printer paper and a pencil out of my sons backpack.
If I’m going to be drawing something like a finished portrait drawing, custom drawing, commissioned drawing, or whatever, something that will end up in a frame. I may use some different tools, but mostly, at that point it’s really just the paper that needs to be improved. Check out the video and let me know what you guys think.
Whenever I have an exhibition, I have people walk up to me and constantly say “Oh my, I wish I could draw like that” or I hear, “Oh, I suck at drawing, I could never do that.” I always want to say to them. YES YOU CAN!!! I swear, I used to say the same thing.
I remember taking a figure drawing class when I was 18 or 19 years old for the first time in my life. drawing beside me was a woman (in her 40’s) that was a career artist. She would draw these amazing pictures. Breathtaking drawings, in half the time it took me to draw childish amateur disproportionate drawings.
My drawing teacher was a chain smoker and he would have a smoke break every half hour during this 3 hour class. One day I walked out with him and started asking him about the potential of becoming a famous artist. He told me that it’s not easy and that my talent level wasn’t quite high enough. I remember being deflated, and feeling that my alternative degree, elementary education, should be the path that I take. So I did, I became an elementary school teacher bouncing from kindergarten to highschool, Amongst all this time I never stopped drawing. I practiced, and took the occasional drawing and painting class, I read books, and googled drawing tips and techniques. After a while, I started producing some really nice drawings. All it took, was a little instruction, and a whole lot of practice. I said to myself, what if I can recreate a regime of drawing that is similar to a real university level. I became a self taught artist. But I never expected it to take off like it did.I have turned my hobby of drawing into a real career, drawing custom portraits and commissioned drawings for people all over the country. I’m still not where I’d like to be, and I feel like I missed out on some really powerful art instruction, because I was intimidated and scared of the ‘starving artist’ stereotype. Being an artist is as risky as many other professions. Many people decide to open up their own business, many different types of businesses from providing services, to selling goods. I like to think of an artist in the same way. and since you’re producing a service/product that I create myeslf, it requires a very small investment. I love drawing, and I wish someone would have encouraged me to practice more, and take more classes.
I’d like to provide as many people as I can with some free drawing tutorials, and drawing critiques, You will be able to submit drawings and artwork for critique. I also have 2 artist friends that are very successful and can help provide some valuable feedback on your artwork. keep your eyes out and we will start posting more and more videos. Thanks for your support and keep your eyes out on all different types of tutorials, from eyes to mouths, to learning how to become a freelance artist, doing custom portraits, couples portraits, any type of custom drawings. Keep your eyes out and get ready for some awesome artwork.
Andrew Horvath 