Darren R. Rousar

I am an atelier-trained artist and teacher who teaches students how to see better so that they can draw and paint better. I do that by first teaching them how to see using Sight-Size.

I have written numerous books, the most recent being The Memory Drawing Course Book. I have been teaching students how to see, draw, and paint since 1988, both in the States and in Florence, Italy. I frequently publish articles on SightSize.com.

While still in high school, I studied privately with Annette LeSueur and then with Richard Lack. After high school I spent four years at Atelier LeSueur in Minnesota, followed by an additional year at Studio Cecil-Graves in Florence, Italy. During the mid-1990’s I was the assistant director and an instructor at Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, after which I became vice president of The Minnesota River School of Fine Art in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Through my publishing company, Velatura Press, LLC, I have also republished an expanded edition of E.G. Lutz’s book Drawing Made Easy (1921) and edited a combined reprint of Asher B. Durand’s Letters on Landscape Painting (1855) with Birge Harrison’s Landscape Painting (1910).

As an artist I paint strictly from life and prefer to make many of my own materials.

My wife Kathleen, who is also an artist, and I live in Excelsior, Minnesota.