Christmas 2024: Free Shipping on nearly every product! Giclée canvas prints ordered by November 29th and all other orders placed by December 11th should arrive before Christmas.
For years, I have enjoyed painting Nigerians, Haitians, Ethiopians, African Americans, and a host of other races besides—Mestizo, Native American, Filipino, Oriental, Latino. The list goes on. To my eye, there is no single magical key to the color scheme of the races. The only difference in the interracial skin-tone color wheel is where the highlight, mid-tone, and shadow dials express each individual. For anyone interested in detail as well as a how-to overview, I recently published an article that sets forth the basics of my palette and techniques in meeting the demands involved not in painting the races, but capturing the life-stories written in every face, regardless of the ink color in which they appear — "Some Picture Painted" in The Storybook Home Journal , Vol. 19 No. 2 (Hearth article)
more about Studios techniques and practices
Original artworks produced by the Artists of Al Young Studios are part of themed collections because the Studios is organized after the pattern of the Renaissance workshops of the old masters. The Artists take the long view of their work as being a lifetime journey toward mastery of artistic expression through selected techniques, reaching as far back as the 16th century. Artists work as peers in an intensely creative community in which each artist pursues his or her own work as part of the group's philosophy.
Subject-matter research; fabrication and acquisition of such things as costuming, props, accessories; use of models; photography; framing and other in-house Studios services support the work of the Artists. Artworks are also produced within a strong tradition of curatorial documentation.
The work of the Studios has been ongoing since 1981. The following links present some of the projects we've done and a few of the things we've invented and learned.