In the studio with artist, photographer and instructor Robert Louis Caldwell

“The Stand” Marabou Stork Graphite on 300# Arches watercolor paper, mounted to 1/2" maple panel and varnished 11 x 6 inches These are such odd birds, and some would say ugly; I find them disturbingly beautiful. With its bare head, hunched shoulders, and skinny bare legs, the Marabou Stork is often referred to as the Undertaker. Not only for the way it looks but also for its vital role in the ecosystem. They eat carrion and clean the land of dead animals. Although I will stop to photograph these birds anytime when I am in Africa; my 2016 safari-inspired this particular scene. I was in the Serengeti and up and about before sunrise, in the Land Cruiser slowly driving and scanning the early morning terrain for movement. The sun was starting to hit the tops of the trees, and up ahead, I noticed a form in the top of a dead tree, a Marabou Stork. We stopped and sat back as the sun illuminated the top of the tree and brought the Undertaker into full view. That scene, for some odd reason, ...

  “Frog Legs” Saddle-billed Stork Graphite on 300# Arches watercolor paper, mounted to 1/2" maple panel and varnished 9 x 14 inches “Frog Legs” is the first drawing I drew in my Stork series, a Saddle-billed Stork. It is a beautiful bird to watch in the wild they seem sleek but comical with their movements on those long lanky legs. They have a bright red bill with a black band and a yellow frontal shield which looks like a saddle. As for most people, 2020 was a challenging year; for me, to put it simply, it was a loss of a business that I had been building for the last six years. I found myself in June 2020 realizing that my art school was most likely not going to survive the pandemic, and I spent the rest of the year working through the process of closing a business. During this time, I did not paint or draw except for instructional purposes for those students who followed me to online instruction.  In January 2021, I found myself able to focus on my art again. I decided to s...

I have been asked many times about private instruction, and I am happy to announce that I have just created a private coaching program on the studio website. The Private Coaching allows artists/students to check in with me either 2, 4, or 6 times a month at a time that works within their schedule. The program is for artists/students working on their own projects and simply seeking guidance with their current projects. Questions may be asked about composition, color theory, reference materials, techniques, framing, basically anything to help you with your artistic endeavors. Visit the Private Coaching web page to read more about my new Private Coaching Progam , pricing, and submission form.

It may seem silly, but I can not express how happy I am that I have finally found and purchased my first plaster casts! I started instructing students in 2010 and have wanted to purchase plaster casts to use in my drawing and painting instruction since then. I have only bought my first three, a male foot, a female hand, and the Mary mask from Michelangelo's Pieta. Drawing from plaster casts is terrific because the plaster does not create any harsh highlights allowing the artist to focus more accurately on the transitions of values. They are excellent teaching aid and have been used for a long time. I can not wait to draw these, create future drawing courses, and create reference images for my students.

 I took a break from teaching classes for the week of Thanksgiving, but I didn’t sit around twiddling my thumbs; I recorded two new sketching courses. The two new courses finish my introductory sketching courses focusing on a simple subject matter with relatively no textures. The first one in this set is already available, titled Still Life - Eggs and a Creamer; the additional two will be titled Still Life - Eggs and a Cup and Still Life - Teapot and a Creamer. As I mentioned, the subject matter for these introductory sketching courses is being kept simple. An artist can focus on the purpose of my sketching classes, see the larger shapes first, and then break them down into smaller and smaller shapes. I continually stress to my students not to get bogged down by the details but to focus on the larger shapes that support the details, to see through the curtain of details. To work from general to specific. Now that I have the courses recorded, I will spend the next week editing the v...

It has taken me six months to get to this point, where I can now successfully create an instructional video that looks good and communicates the instruction in the manner that I wish it to. If you had told me back in March of this year that by the end of the year, I would be able to create a video that looks like the one below, I would have asked you what you had been smoking! It seems like it would be easy to create an instructional video, but many variables go into creating a successful video. The first part is how you want to communicate what you are trying to teach. It was imperative for me that you can see what I am drawing and painting clearly and that you can also see the reference that I am looking at and zoom in on it and mark up the reference. I also wanted to include a picture in a picture of me when I am talking and painting classes a picture in a picture of my palette. I also wanted to make sure that I could add a graphic letting you know what pencil or brush I currently h...

 It is almost October, and I am getting ready to start my next round of instructional courses, and I thought pumpkin still lifes would make the perfect subject. While taking the reference photos, I got a bit carried away with setting up the still lifes and took more images than I could need for this go-around. I narrowed it down to seven different images after looking through them, cropping, and editing. My goal is to create one drawing course, one intermediate-level painting course, and one intermediate/advanced course from the still lifes. I have selected two images to choose from for my drawing course, two images for my intermediate painting course, and three different images for my intermediate-advanced course. Decisions, decisions... decisions? And that is why I am writing this post today to get feedback from you, my students, on which one in each category I should choose.