Interview with Professional Artist Vladimir London
Fine artist Vladimir London takes about his art business, teaching online art classes and publishing art instruction books in this interview.
Vladimir London Bio
Vladimir London – fine artist and art teacher
I have drawn and painted for as long as I can remember and was very fortunate to have professional fine artists as my art teachers from a very young age. The art skills I have today came from intensively studying easel drawing and painting. This experience and knowledge did not come overnight. It was accumulated, learned, and practiced during many years of education and a creative career.
I work in various mediums such as oil, graphite pencil, and silverpoint, yet watercolor is the most interesting for me because it brings unpredictability. Mastering it gives a sense of achievement. My artworks have found their homes in private collections in many countries in North America, the UK, Europe and Asia.
Presently, I am teaching fine art students over the Internet as it helps to provide value to so many people around the world who would not be able to benefit from me otherwise. No more do limitations of my personal time or country borders constrain the way students can learn the skills and techniques of drawing, painting, and art marketing from me.
Please tell us what you do.
Apart from being a full-time fine artist, I work as an art tutor.
In teaching art, I want to demonstrate the genuine values of classical fine art, to keep time-honored painting and drawing techniques alive, and to inspire artists to develop their individual creative styles based on the rich heritage of traditional art skills and craftsmanship.
To deliver the educational materials to a wider audience, we create online courses, videos, and eBooks.
I’m an art tutor at the following online courses:
DRAWINGACADEMY.COM
The Drawing Academy is an online drawing course that teaches the fundamental rules and principles of drawing and traditional drawing techniques that have been developing since the time of the Old Masters. It is also an art community, where students benefit from unlimited support from the Academy’s tutors and fellow students.
ANATOMYMASTERCLASS.COM
The Anatomy Master Class is an online video course for figurative artists. It gives students all they need to know about anatomy for artists and the proportions of a human body. In this very comprehensive and easy-tofollow course, students rapidly learn the “must-have” skills of drawing realistic figures and portraits from life or imagination.
OLDMASTERS.ACADEMY
The Old Masters Academy is an online video course for fine artists who want to learn how to paint like the Old Masters using modern materials. It provides step-by-step lessons on painting realistic figures and portraits in
oil and also reveals the unique drawing techniques that are not taught in contemporary art colleges.
I also write art books as helping guides for art students. My two recent books are “How to Draw a Portrait” and “Drawing in Perspective”, both available on Amazon as eBooks and soft-covers.
There are many more books and videos listed here.
What is your art background?
I started drawing before I can remember, yet my professional art education began at the age of nine and spanned over 15 years. I went through the system that taught art in the classical way. First, it was a school of fine arts, where I studied drawing, painting, composition, sculpture, decorative arts, and art history for five years. This was intense education in addition to a normal school. By today’s standards, at the end of such art school, children would be considered professional fine artists. Then it was the five-year course at the academy of arts’ department of easel painting and drawing. And finally, I spent five more years obtaining a university degree as a professional fine art teacher.
You specialize in fine art, where did that passion
and focus come from?
I take inspiration from true values of classical fine art and share this passion with my students. In art, I want to portray the beauty and meaning of life. Portraying the world in a realistic manner helps to tell a meaningful story.
Do you feel that new artists are neglecting
traditional skills?
Many students today decide to become artists and go to a contemporary art college or university, but instead of learning the skills of the trade, they spend four to five years conceptualizing and discussing the definition of “art.” You can only be sorry for these people who get into heavy student debt just to be tricked by the system. As one art graduate told me, “I entered the art college without drawing skills and graduated the same way, but I have a piece of paper that allows me to put any shit together and call it art.”
I think it is up to every artist to decide what path to take. Following the “no-skills-required-express-yourself” way is easy. Learning traditional art skills requires time, effort, and good teachers.
Fortunately, there are a few places left where traditions are cherished, and professors are accomplished fine artists. You need to learn Russian, though. If going to St. Petersburg or Moscow for seven years is not an option, you can look for online courses and study art in the comfort of your home.
To help students who would otherwise not have an opportunity, we created several online video courses that teach proficient drawing and painting skills. These courses are listed here.
You write books and create online courses, can you
please outline some of the benefits and drawbacks
of each for art students?
Although reading art books helps in developing a wider view on art and gives new information on drawing and painting techniques, I haven’t met a single professional artist who learned drawing just by reading books.
Video courses give more in terms of demonstrating how other artists create their artworks. However, good art education takes about seven years and covers many subjects; no online course is designed for such a long curriculum.
Don’t get me wrong here. Reading books, watching videos, and attending workshops all help to elevate your art skills. By all means, use every opportunity to learn.
As one of the best artists who ever lived, Michelangelo Buonarroti, once said: “I’m still learning.”
There has never been such abundance of online art courses and eBooks as now, so there’s no excuse to skip on high-quality art education.
Here are the three online art courses we run:
DrawingAcademy.com, AnatomyMasterClass.com, and OldMasters.Academy,
They offer the following benefits:
- These courses are unique because in every course, art students receive a lifetime membership and can study at their own pace without any time pressure.
- These are the only courses where art students receive unlimited personal support from the art tutors. This support includes artwork critiques, answers to their art questions, and tailored advice on how to improve their art skills. This customized support is provided for a lifetime. It comes at no extra charge—no art college would ever offer the same deal.
- Our art students also benefit from an online art community, where they can exhibit their works of art and get feedback from fellow students, receive art articles, albums, and bonus video lessons.
- All our online art courses are based on traditional, time-proven art techniques that are no longer taught the same way in contemporary art colleges.
- Our students achieve better results in just a few months compared to contemporary art college graduates who have spent four to five years of their lives and up to $100,000 on art education.
As an art instructor, is it important to publish both
books and courses?
Books and online courses help to deliver educational materials to a wider audience. We have students from every continent except Antarctica; such reach was simply not possible before the Internet.
I publish art books not to make profits, but to give great value at the lowest price possible. Amazon doesn’t distribute eBooks for free, but we regularly do free giveaways to our art newsletter subscribers.To get your free video lessons, art albums and eBooks, you can subscribe to our email broadcasts here.
What advice can you offer for someone interested
in an art career?
If your goal is to make a career in art, there is one thing above all that would be the most useful for you—proficient drawing skills.
Drawing is a visual, non-verbal language of communication. Whatever creative path you take—digital, industrial, or graphic design, fine art or any job whatsoever that involves visual thinking—drawing skills will help.
Improving your art proficiency is not a project, it is a lifelong process. That is why in the Drawing Academy, Anatomy Master Class, and Old Masters Academy, we offer a lifetime membership and provide unlimited personal support.
Another valuable thing is the knowledge of marketing.
For the first time in the history of mankind, a single person without a hefty marketing budget or extensive help of a marketing team can promote his or her art to the whole world and become known in his own lifetime. If this is your aspiration, then invest time and effort in your education. To help you, we created the Art-Fame.com educational resource.
Vladimir London and Natalie Richy Most Popular Art Class: The Drawing Academy
Learn How to Draw Whatever You See or Imagine. The Drawing Academy is an online Drawing Course and Art Community, where you can learn how to draw in the comfort of your home, and benefit from the support of Academy tutors and fellow students.
Vladimir London Links
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