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The Golden Ratio is Bullshit

Golden Ratio is a Myth I’ve suspected this for some time, and I finally got an article that shows this, albeit in a more practical way. The Golden Ratio is kind of a crap number when it comes to nature, art, and design. Now, the author, John Brownlee, suggests the Golden Ratio (or, more simply, 1:6) isn’t practical for mathematical reasons. He firstly says that the number isn’t just 1.6, or 1.6180 as he notes. In fact, the ratio is much like pi in the sense that it just keeps on going and going. This makes any design based on

June 2, 2015

How to Make High-Quality Prints at Home

Click here to reference my article on how to make high-quality prints at home: Step One: Buy a good printer. You’ll need one that uses archival inks. Do your research on this. Here are a few printers that I found. I personally use this one. You’ll want to find a printer that both uses archival inks as well as one that will continue to sell these inks. While most of these printers are expensive, there are inexpensive ones out there. You won’t find one for $200, but you also don’t need to shell out $2000 either. How to Make High-Quality

May 11, 2015

A Lack of Diversity in the US Art World

This is a shame. According to the ArtNews.com (my link is to the LA Times), one-third of all solo museum exhibits in the United States are by artists from five different galleries. In other words, there’s a lot of power in the hands of very, very few. That’s a clear lack of diversity in the US art world if I ever saw one.Sure, you can argue that there’s diversity in the art world still, just like you can argue there’s diversity in the workplace – until you walk into your company’s board room and suddenly realize that you either completely

April 27, 2015

Art and Taxes: It’s Mostly Good News!

Here’s a short and sweet explanation about what artists can do with their art and taxes. It’s the same as any business, but there are some things that are good to know. For one, you may need to depreciate that new easel, and you may need to only deduct some expenses after you’ve sold the artwork. However, if you’ve bought it or done it for the purposes of making, marketing, or selling your art then you can deduct it. One piece of advice that I would give is don’t think you have to file as a business every year. My

April 12, 2015

Conversations About Art: with Bazévian

I recently started doing conversations about art and what people in the art world think about their field of work. The first article was about abstract art with Guido Viaro, the writer from Curitiba, Brazil. Today’s article is about figurative art, and for that I caught up with emerging artist Bazévian. He is primarily a portrait artist, specializing in capturing the homeless using oil pastel and china ink. Bazévian is originally from the north of France, and he grew up under the auspices of art because both his mother and grandmother were artists. “I was exposed to art very early.

February 24, 2015

Drawing Tips for the Advanced Artist

As I do often when I have some time to kill, I float through the Internet looking for ways to improve as an artist. Sometimes I stumble on basic instructions such as this one about shape and form. I find these basic instruction sites helpful because it helps to remind me the fundamentals. However, I much prefer to take the next level. That’s why I was happy to have found Keene Wilson’s art notes for the advanced artist. Wilson does a great job of just listing things to remember. These are his notes, so they aren’t meant to be a

February 22, 2015

Greg Mason Burns