When you want to try soft pastel, you might not be sure which colours to start with. There are so many brands and so many colours! Which colours should you start with? Many brands have starter sets available, but do …
Albrecht DurerThe Large Piece of Turf1503Watercolour on Paper, 40.8 cm (16 ″); Width: 31.5 cm (12.4 ″)Albertina Museum in Vienna I find this work quite amazing. It was painted in watercolour in 1503 by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), one of the greatest …
Oil painting without using solvents or toxic mediums; can it be done? Absolutely. This guide explains how oil painting can be enjoyed without the need for solvents or heavy metal pigments. It will explore how to keep your studio safe …
An Illustrated History of Colour, so reads the subtitle of this small but chunky book. The blurb on the back of Chromatopia tells us it will reveal the origin stories of over 50 of history’s most extraordinary pigments. Now most …
Here are some tips and tricks for beginning portrait painters to get a likeness in your portrait work. I hope you will find these 6 tips useful. I’ve added some images from the history art for inspiration. They include some …
Ampersand Gessobord is a premium rigid oil painting support. It is a wonderful support that I regularly use. In this article I’d like to describe its qualities and explore its uses. Gessoboard comes in a cradled and uncradled version. The cradled …
So many of us get frustrated while we paint. The painting just doesn’t work, you can’t make it sing, there’s something wrong but you’re not sure what. Sounds familiar? I think we’ve all been there. We plod on and on, …
Should I paint the background first or last? This is a question I hear quite often as an art tutor. It illustrates very well how many beginning portrait and still life painters think about painting. They focus on the subject …
Recently someone asked me this: “what does your entrepreneurial journey mean to you? How long have you been an entrepreneur?” It made me smile. A few years ago I would have laughed out loud at the thought of considering myself …
We all make mistakes. Imagine what the world would look like if we didn’t. I often explain my painting method as one big process of fixing mistakes. So, there’s nothing wrong with mistakes. It’s all part of the process of …