The Direct Approach

Today, I came in to find a copy of Fritz Willis's The Model on my desk. This fine book, which I got from my personal book delivery service, is #117 in a series of art instruction books published by Walter T. Foster, who was sort of the Mel Bay of painting.

There doesn't seem to be a copyright date, but the cover price is a buck, so I'd guess it's from the sixties. The instructions are fine but, oh, sketchy. They'll say, "Here are four stages in constructing the painting," and I can never imagine being able to do any of them. Still, I grew up surrounded by people for whom I'm sure the instructions made complete sense.

(Neither Mel Bay nor William T. Foster have ever had trouble finding really good artists to work on their series. Check out Fritz Willis here.)

In the long list of books, one I don't see is how to actually get people to notice your art. I think Foster should get Banksy to write one.