ABOUT ALAN
Alan McGowan was born in Glasgow in 1964. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and returned there to teach, as well as hosting courses in many prestigious venues, including London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Leith School of Art and the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.
Alan was a semi-finalist on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014 and his work has featured in the BP Portrait Awards and the Scottish Portrait Awards. He teaches art online via regular courses and his new Patreon account. www.alanmcgowan.com
Back to basics
I’ve been teaching for a long time, working in art colleges and doing visiting lectures. All of that has changed in the pandemic. I started a Patreon account, but I didn’t just want to take what I was doing online already and charge people for it. So every month, I take a topic and make a video or two about it for my subscribers, mostly about working in oils and working with the figure. There are chances for people to ask me questions as well. Topics or themes might be colour palettes or glazing.
The next thing I’m discussing is transcription. It was a big part of art teaching for a while and then it became unfashionable. The slate was wiped clean by conceptual art and colleges moved away from things like anatomy, transcription and life drawing. When you return to these topics, there’s a freshness about them now.
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Esta historia es de la edición Winter 2021 de Artists & Illustrators.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Still life IN 3 HOURS
Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn
Movement in composition
Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement
Shane Berkery
The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio
The Working Artist
Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work
Washes AND GLAZES
Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING
Hands
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
Vincent van Gogh
To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display
BRING THE drama
Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene
Serena Rowe
The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall
Bill Jacklin
Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration
