Ifat's Art

All art, as well as our experience of the world, rely on our experience of reality: therefore, there is no art without some form of realism. However, there is no such thing as experiencing every single aspect of reality at the same time. Our mind filters and selects some aspects of reality to focus on… Read more: Realism and Style – Opposite forces?

I could largely divide my approach to drawing into 3 main stages: The pre-Atelier, Atelier, Glenn Vilppu stage, and lastly the (omg I can’t believe I’m saying this) Russian Academy stage. This might be a technical article for most people who might read this, but very interesting for me. If you are not an artist, you… Read more: My evolution/ journey as a draftswoman

I gained so much knowledge in this world building class at Brainstorm in the summer of 2019. Since then it’s been hard being able to afford any more art classes, and then the world went to hell in 2020. I’ve been focusing on starting a business, which I will elaborate on some other time. But… Read more: Something Ancient, New, unborrowed, which makes me blue

A few months ago I got a tablet, an iPad Pro with an apple pencil, and truth be told, ever since I got it, I’ve been doing so much digital artwork that I almost completely neglected my traditional media. From the moment I held that Apple pencil it was like a new romance…. The freedom,… Read more: Ifat’s Romance with Digital Art

and I think today I have made a breakthrough in finding the answer to a question that has been bugging me for a very long time. I’ve been trying to study the “right” and the “wrong” way of making art, to find some guiding principles, something to go by in order to make “good art”. And… Read more: The “Right” way to make Art?

A thought about tools and painting: The tools we hold actually change our thinking. A tool determines what can and can’t be done, what solutions and options are open to us or not. Our subconscious looks for solutions based on the options our tool provides. If the size or shape of your brush is not… Read more: How Tools influence our Thinking

One of the strangest things I came across which has stayed with me, was one person’s description of how they feel about Enya’s music. They said they like her music a lot, but that they feel that it lacks emotion. To me that was the strangest thing to read, because I feel the complete opposite… Read more: Emotion Vocabularies and communication in Art

It started with a square canvas which I built from wood. One of the first panels I ever made. It was the summer vacation in my Art school in Seattle and some of the students hired a model to pose for us for a long pose. 6 hours a day for 4 days. I brought… Read more: ‘Glimpse of the Desert’; Oil painting from start to finish

Most works of art are presented to us, the viewers/ readers, without explanation. They ignore our existence and  are yet designed to display themselves to us as if we are the center of their universe. “Here is an interesting story”, “Here is a collection of sounds”, “Here is a picture for you to look at” “It’s… Read more: Narrative Point of View in Visual Art

Having a grasp of general principles of balance allows an artist to draw figures better; to create a sense of stability, dynamic stability or a sense of someone about to fall over. Those are created by how the body’s position relates to the frame of balance. Poses can be classified in their relation to balance as: passive… Read more: Pose Balance

This painting was completed in June 2014 and I wanted to present it with some of its earlier stages and thoughts while I was painting it. It started when my friend came for a visit and graciously agreed to sit for a portrait. I set up and started painting from observation that day when she was… Read more: The many expressions of Sharon

Visual contrast is a key concept in the making of an artwork. A concept I learned from online lectures by artist Bill Perkins at NMA. My initial concept of visual contrast was very limited. I thought that contrast consists of something visually standing out due to being darker or lighter than what’s next to it. I was… Read more: The many forms of visual CONTRAST

Values is a term in art that describes how light or dark something is. It refers to the grayscale value of a color. How light or dark something is is one of the primary ways our visual system analyzes the visual world around us. It’s how we recognize something as a shape or an outline… Read more: Value in composition

8”X11” Graphite on Paper. I named this one ‘Dancing through Fire’. I started it while listening to the lyrics of a song I heard on the radio earlier that day. It was a pop song about self-empowerment, but the visual image of a dancer dancing amidst flames ignited my imagination and I grabbed my sketchbook and… Read more: Invented Dancer figure

Anatomy has been a delightful pursuit for the last year since my graduation from Georgetown Atelier. I am so enamoured with it; the human body, the biological machine, an absolute beauty; sophisticated and elegant, powerful and capable of executing our will as well as express our emotions. As social beings our bodies and minds have tremendous… Read more: Passion for Anatomy

I had a fun day going out drawing with my new watercolor sticks and a black fountain pen, sitting in the street on the sidewalk and drawing trees. It was a fun to walk going around “hunting” for a special tree I find appealing and a way to experience an otherwise somewhat familiar neighborhood through… Read more: Tree Drawings

I came across this excellent local-value study by teaching artist Melissa Weinman (website). She drew 3 balls which she colored white, gray and black with acrylic paint, placing them under the exact same lighting conditions. The image bellow was the result. The most important and interesting deductive use I found for this is for skin… Read more: Study of Local values

I did this small study of leaves for an art event this month. I really enjoyed trying out something new; I use mineral spirit as a medium without using any oil or gel to make the paint flow. The result is that the paint becomes much like watercolor while still allowing thicker areas where mineral… Read more: Leaves on Translucent background

Hi all. I’d like you to meet my newly hired studio assistant, Ralph. My go-to guy for abstract art and general help for rough painting days. (Picture credit: Adam Harnett / CATERS NEWS) Some days… no matter how hard you try, paintings just don’t come out right. And that’s when you call Ralph to the rescue. Available… Read more: New Studio Assistant!

 As an art student you will often hear the idea that the artist must learn to ignore what “they think they see” about their subject matter in order to actually see it as it is. That in our mind, there is an abstract visual symbol of different things (such as the shape of the head)… Read more: Visual Principles vs. sheer Observation in Art making

Forest Trail, Oil on Canvas 11”X 15” This summer I had the luxury of going outside and painting. It was relatively a new experience for me and I enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes I would go by myself and sit in a forest for hours, painting, and sometimes go with a friend and do short… Read more: Conclusion of Summer outdoor Painting