We at *TOP-ArtistsDirectory aim to feature different artists in their various categories once a month where possible.

This month we put up a poll for people to vote from 10 different candidates, all of whom are amongst artists who don't appear to be so well known here at dA. (This does not mean they aren't well known off-site.)

The winning artist for April, who has won a featured interview article and a three month subscription is *ryoung and we are proud to present you with his short biography, together with some features from his gallery. We would like to encourage you to take a look at this artist's stunning works and to add him to your .

Richard Young's Biography

Overview

I was an absolutely prolific artist when very young, up to the age of 16. As I saw no real future in art at that time, and against the advice of my tutors, I 'retired' and went to engineering college for several years in order to pursue a career in engineering and travel outside of the UK. My family always encouraged me when young, and again when I came out of retirement in 2003 in order to take up commercial art as a part time hobby. It is slowly developing each year now, though it's still part time unfortunately.

All four of my children are very artistic and incredibly creative. Three of my children play one of more musical instruments. My wife's father was a professional artist, as is his brother...

Since I left school I have had no formal training, though I study a lot and practice different techniques. I'm an engineering consultant by day, though I hope to give this up one day as my artwork develops and becomes more profitable. It's moving steadily in the right direction...

Influences and Inspirational Sources

I am influenced by the old masters in particular, especially figurative artists, and I'm a big William Bouguereau fan... I gain lots of inspiration from extreme and high contrast lighting, especially on figurative subjects displaying passion and emotion...

I try to create passion, emotion, mood and an atmosphere in my artwork, which is predominantly figurative. I spend a lot of time on minor details that give the viewer more to find over time.

Techniques

I sketch only an outline of major elements in a light ink on the blank canvas while planning my paintings, usually, using several photographs for reference

I am very lucky that I have made many friends through my artwork who are photographers, dancers, musicians and models who are willing to help me.

Nowadays I always paint using only a knife, due to brushes wearing out too quickly and taking too long to clean between strokes or areas of my artwork. I have a set time for each painting too.

I never mix colours on my palette, doing this only on the canvas and limited to three colours in any one area, occasionally having a lighter glaze very finely and quickly added to enhance direct light. Time is of the essence throughout!

Finally, I scan all of my artwork with a wide format feed through scanner that I have customised to scan thick rigid and delicate flexible mediums. I then edit using Photoshop CS2 software only to remove minor blemishes, as nothing else will handle files that are occasionally over a GB in size. For my personal website and dA, I reduce the image size, convert to a jpg and finally compress the file using MS Paint!

Three Farourite Images and Why

Just to select only three is very difficult for me. Ten would be easier!

'The Passion of Dance': (I wish I hadn't sold this one!)
'Bailarina-orgullosa-d-flamenco': (I have a print of this on my wall!)
'That Tango Moment' (These dancers are almost in love!)

I like them all for the same reasons really. They are fairly simple paintings, emphasising the subject and passion of their dance, with minimal distractions, uni directional lighting and the dancers although known subjects, could be anonymous. I am very proud of these paintings.

Advice for aspiring artists

• Practice with many styles and techniques until you find one that or more that you are happy with, then develop it / them over time.


• Be very critical of your own artwork. Spend time after each painting identifying the most important aspects that should be improved upon in the next painting and how you will try to achieve this.


• Don't revisit a painting to make corrections. Move on and incorporate improvements in your next painting.


• Study the artwork of others that you like. Identify specifically what exactly it is that you like about it and how it was achieved. Try to replicate the effect in your artwork. Try also to find something about it that you feel could have been done better, however minor.


• Have a time budget for your artwork and try to stick to it.


• Don't create artwork when you are not motivated.


• Take a break every few hours or when tired and relax. Rest your eyes.


• Strive for perfection, though you will never achieve it.


• Don't put down your artwork to possible buyers or galleries or point out what you think are mistakes or areas that could have been done better.


• Be always on the lookout for inspiration in life and the many media around. Collect ideas and reference material in any form that have something about them that you like and use them to plan and create your own future artwork, though don't copy anything without permission!

Events Coming Up

I've an exhibition ongoing in Hong Kong: [link]

Also a series of exhibitions across the UK: [link]

Here is a display taken from *ryoung's Gallery

<sub>Awarded the much coveted dA Daily Deviation on 2007-11-28



Richard Young</sub>

Richard Young's Website


Richard Young was interviewed by who produced this article on behalf of the *TOP-ArtistsDirectory Team.



<sub>The aim of TAD is to enable people looking for some of the best artists on dA to easily acquaint themselves with those listed so far. As stated elsewhere, this list is by no means complete, and is constantly expanding. We are happy to receive suggestions and the Team of TAD will follow these up as quickly as the member's time limits permit. It should also be noted that *TOP-ArtistsDirectory's listings do not necessarily reflect the opinions of dA in general, but we do hope that many will find our service helpful, particularly if you have just joined this community.

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