Reportedly checks shade that constrains pavement artist? (9)
I believe the answer is:
kerbstone
'pavement artist?' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'reportedly checks shade that constrains' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'shade' could be 'tone' (both can mean a colour) and 'tone' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'kerbs' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for kerbstone that I've seen before include "Pavement edge" , "that's set by the road" , "Pavement edging block" , "edging for flags?" .)