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Thoughts and writings about art, painting, and tattooing, as well as my experiments and explorations in other media such as film photography, digital photography and design, video, and more.
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Summer Plein Air: Chasing The Light
Summer in Texas, where I live and work, is never the best outdoor painting time. Extreme heat and incredibly harsh, searing daylight add...
nickbaxtertattoos
Sep 9, 20233 min read
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Notes & Advice 12: What To Consider When Setting Up A Still Life
Discussing some of the subtler points of still life setup with Jake Meeks of Fireside Tattoo Network and Podcast. Part of my alla prima...
nickbaxtertattoos
Apr 5, 20201 min read
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Recent Painting Progressions
I love process in art–seeing it, knowing how things are made, reverse engineering them, speculatively forward-engineering them,...
nickbaxtertattoos
Mar 12, 20201 min read
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On The Benefits of Drawing
About 10 years ago I leveled up my artistic practice in all areas after discovering the classical atelier system of art education. Before...
nickbaxtertattoos
Nov 1, 20192 min read
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In The Studio 5: Reworking Plein Air Landscapes
Something I’ve never been a fan of doing is revisiting older paintings after some time has passed. The process of reconstructing or even...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jan 27, 20172 min read
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Notes & Advice 11
The popular text message shorthand TMI, as most of us growing up in the cell phone era know, means “too much information.” Normally not a...
nickbaxtertattoos
Mar 3, 20162 min read
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Notes & Advice 6
I came across this quote today by a plein air pastel artist, and found it to be a perfect description for the process of realism...
nickbaxtertattoos
Nov 14, 20132 min read
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IGOR at 1261
I just shipped out my painting “Dying In America” to Gallery 1261 in Denver, for the 11th annual International Guild of Realism juried...
nickbaxtertattoos
Aug 13, 20131 min read
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Transfiguration: Process
Here are some studio and process shots from the few months’ timespan of painting my latest large work in the Apostasy series:
nickbaxtertattoos
May 20, 20131 min read
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Realism Techniques 7
I finished painting #12 in the Apostasy series, now tentatively titled Sacrificial, a few days before my recent galavant to Galapagos....
nickbaxtertattoos
Aug 26, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 6
After a few experimental forays I returned to the studio recently to continue work on The Apostasy series, which has been my major...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jul 21, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 5
My Black Sauce In order to add richness, subtlety and depth to the darkest areas of my paitnings, I avoid the use of the color black...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jul 6, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 4.5
Here’s the followup and conclusion to my earlier post featuring a texture experiment with some new subject matter. The results are now...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jul 3, 20121 min read
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Realism Techniques 5
Just as a tiny version of a future full-size drawing is referred to as a thumbnail sketch, the term study is often used to refer to a...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jun 12, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 4
Splatter technique is one of my favorite methods for laying down a foundation of random texture on a painting. This is usually done...
nickbaxtertattoos
May 21, 20121 min read
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Realism Techniques 3
Working Smarter, Not Harder Here are two more quick paintings from my visit to Jeff Gogue’s studio last summer, which I’ve blogged about...
nickbaxtertattoos
May 10, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 2
After recently finishing my newest series of paintings for my show in May/June at Last Rites Gallery, I had a chance to revisit an...
nickbaxtertattoos
Mar 23, 20122 min read
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Realism Techniques 1
This is the start of an occasional ongoing series on this blog where I’ll be discussing the process and techniques of sharp-focus realism...
nickbaxtertattoos
Jan 12, 20121 min read
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