I first learned of Will Cotton while taking figurative oil painting at the NY Academy of art. The training there is really technical, literally we learned to match every single brush stroke/color to a photograph so that we could convey light and shadow correctly. I found it rather tedious. I learned a lot but never do oil anymore. It’s funny that I spent my whole education and beyond focused on opaque media and now that I work as an illustrator professionally only use transparent. I just love the immediacy of it!
Anyway I’m madly deeply in love with Will Cotton’s work. His paint application is so skillful and his subject matter so enticing. He reminds me of Wayne Thiebaud and Lisa Yuskavage rolled into one.
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