About Matt Abraxas

Matt Abraxas is a fine artist, illustrator and video producer. Matt's art work is part of private collections throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. His illustrations are currently focused on a series of theological biographies written by Simonetta Carr. Matt continues to work on other illustration projects as time permits. Matt Abraxas runs El Duende Productions, LLC, which is a multi-media company focusing on film-making, video-advertising, and motion graphics. Matt Abraxas lives in Colorado with his talented wife, Rebecca Abraxas, and their two sons, Zorba and Rainer.

Stealing from Peter McKinnon

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." Pablo Picasso Some days, while working on things like color-correction or motion graphics (anything that can be slow-going), it helps the time pass to keep on a steady stream of YouTube. And you can't go too far into YouTube without running into the YouTuber mogul, Peter McKinnon. I [...]

Stealing from Peter McKinnon2020-04-17T21:35:51-06:00

Discover Your Personal Art Style

Discover Your Personal Art Style Why Are You An Artist Anyway? photo by Jason Frinchaboy I am an artist because I have an inherit need to express something creatively.  I have an extremely strong impulse to create, and it's not rewarding to me unless what I create excites me. I guess that all artists [...]

Discover Your Personal Art Style2019-01-06T10:54:07-07:00

How To Paint Dynamic Hands With The Structural Method

How To Paint Dynamic Hands With The Structural Method Painting a realistic hand is made easy by understanding the basic structure of the hand's anatomy and rhythms of hand operation. Don't worry - this is not going to be a lesson in Metacarpophalangeal Joints and Lumbrical Muscles.  I don't really know what those are and [...]

How To Paint Dynamic Hands With The Structural Method2019-01-06T11:00:51-07:00

Self Portrait of an Artist – How To Paint A Portrait by Matt Abraxas

Self Portrait of an Artist - How To Paint A Portrait by Matt Abraxas In the final video for creating my yearly self portrait, I bring you along on a time-lapse demo to show you how to paint a portrait. I paint my self portraits each year around my birthday which is on March 25th. [...]

Self Portrait of an Artist – How To Paint A Portrait by Matt Abraxas2019-01-07T09:42:31-07:00

Solve Problems Early With Study Sketches Before Your Final Painting!

Solve Problems Early With Study Sketches Before Your Final Painting! Painting should be fun, but when it starts looking bad, the joy rapidly dwindles.  What if with a little preliminary work, you can ensure a more enjoyable process and a better piece of art? This post is a continuation on the process of creating a [...]

Solve Problems Early With Study Sketches Before Your Final Painting!2019-01-07T10:12:01-07:00

Starting A Self Portrait With The Composition Study

Starting A Self Portrait With The Composition Study Continuing from my post earlier this week about creating my yearly self portrait and in time for Jerry's Artarama Self Portrait Contest, I am beginning the process with a composition study sketch. To read the previous post explaining the process of creating the general concept of the [...]

Starting A Self Portrait With The Composition Study2014-03-28T22:16:15-06:00

My Recent Video Tweeted By Jerry’s Artarama

My Recent Video Tweeted By Jerry's Artarama I forgot to embed this in my last blog post concerning starting a self portrait.  The next stage of the video will be up tomorrow where I actually create the Composition Study. And then over the weekend, I'll have the Color Sketches of the Self Portrait posted. Keep [...]

My Recent Video Tweeted By Jerry’s Artarama2014-03-18T20:12:58-06:00

Painting A Self Portrait and Jerry’s Artarama Contest

Painting A Self Portrait and Jerry's Artarama Contest Follow Along With Me In Creating A Self Portrait Over The Next Few Weeks Self Portrait Study 2012 Every year at around my birthday in March, I paint a self portrait.  I've been doing for a long time as an exercise to see the progress [...]

Painting A Self Portrait and Jerry’s Artarama Contest2014-03-17T16:03:22-06:00

How To Be An Artist

How To Be An Artist I walk the dog most mornings and as I do, I listen to an audiobook.  It’s my time to take in the day and prepare myself for whatever the day may bring.  If the audiobook is a good one, the thoughts presented stay with me throughout my day.  If the [...]

How To Be An Artist2014-03-09T11:46:51-06:00

How To Draw Hair Easily – from The Studio by Matt Abraxas

How To Draw Hair Easily - from The Studio by Matt Abraxas Lesson in How to Draw or Paint Realistically You can go straight to the video HERE Working on an illustration that involved a portrait of a woman, I had the challenge of creating a different hair style than I had on the model.  Typically, [...]

How To Draw Hair Easily – from The Studio by Matt Abraxas2014-03-06T09:58:09-07:00

30 Minutes to Become a Better Artist

30 Minute Painted Quick Sketch   Improving How You See in 30 Minutes The Video for the Painted Quick Sketch is Below A common problem in painting is in understanding color.  There are countless colors in paints, but no matter how many we use, we often still create a flat, convoluted mess.  Paintings often lack [...]

30 Minutes to Become a Better Artist2014-03-09T11:45:08-06:00

How to Draw and Paint

How to Draw and Paint - Seeing as an Artist Learning to draw and paint begins with copying simple easy-to-follow art lessons, but when you find yourself wondering how to draw realistic people or paint a landscape as beautifully as you envision it, then you have to go beyond the basic step by step drawing [...]

How to Draw and Paint2014-02-14T16:11:34-07:00

My Demo Painting at SmithKlein Gallery – Painting From A Snapshot Picture

Painting from a Snapshot Photograph At SmithKlein Gallery in Boulder, CO., last month, I painted a demonstration of how I sometimes work directly from a single photo. Before anything else, I do want to stress the importance of working from life as much as possible.  In order to understand tonal value (the graduating differences from [...]

My Demo Painting at SmithKlein Gallery – Painting From A Snapshot Picture2014-01-28T23:23:34-07:00

Painting Several Characters Using One Model

Painting Several Characters Using One Model In the 2 part video below, I show you how I used myself as a model for an illustration involving 4 adults. This can be very useful for illustrators on a tight budget and deadline, or for anyone who is having difficulty arranging other people to pose. An important [...]

Painting Several Characters Using One Model2014-01-29T11:19:10-07:00
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