Present-Day Sight-Size Artists

Light is something artists know a lot about. It often reveals itself opposite of shadow, which makes the representation of three-dimensional form fairly straightforward. One can see the result in any number of high-contrast student cast drawings done in many of today’s ateliers. Successfully representing form in a fully lit, low-contrast environment is far more complex. It is a complexity at which Allan R. Banks excels. It is also one of the aspects which ranks him a master in the craft of picture-making.

Justin Hess, a Florence Academy of Art alumnus, was kind enough to participate in a phone interview awhile back. He’s an accomplished artist as well as the founder of JHess Studios, a working atelier located in downtown San Francisco.

Matthew James Collins is an American artist and teacher who lives in Italy. We first met in 1995 while he was a student at Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. Since then Matt has gone onto make a name for himself as a painter and sculptor.

Tom Dunlay is a Boston-area artist who specializes in cityscapes and outdoor figure painting. In the early 70s he was a student of both Robert Douglas Hunter and R. H. Ives Gammell. Tom and I met online a few years ago, through Facebook, and recently he agreed to a phone interview.

Urban is a Swedish artist and a friend from well over twenty years ago. We attended Studio Cecil-Graves together in Florence and were briefly roommates. Since that time he has gone on to make quite a name for himself in the world of European portraiture.

Artist, author and teacher, Kirk Richards and I first met, online in 2008, and in person during the memorial for Richard Lack in 2009. Since then he has often been a source of information and encouragement. Awhile back he was kind enough to answer some questions for sightsize.com.

The subjects in Richard Whitney’s portraits seem as if they are alive, they are masterfully done, without being overly rendered or colored. He is a prolific landscape painter as well and nobody paints spring tree buds and apple blossoms like he does.

Darren R. Rousar began formal classical art training when he was 16 years old. He has been teaching Sight-Size for over 30 years, to students from age 8 to their mid-80s. Darren is the author of numerous books and instructional videos. He is also the creator of this website as well as the Memory Drawing website.