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This week we’re painting this lovely image of young cyclists next to the Thames. A great light and dark piece that uses the opposing contrast to really draw your eye to very specific areas. Keep your brush nice and loose here and you’ll come out with some great results. Enjoy
This week we are painting one of my idols. This is simply called ‘Bowie”. We have a lot to do in this painting, plenty of wet into wet and ensuring we keep that background dark enough and the face light enough to maintain the highlights. If you do you’ll get a great result and come away with a great painting to really be a talking point on your wall. Happy New Year…
This time we're painting a still life of one of my own photos taken a while ago now but I love the illustrative feel of this painting which is created by the text on the cup and the little logos I’ve kept this time. Take your time on this and you'll get a really vibrant bright result. Enjoy…
Welcome to this weeks tutorial, we’re painting this stunning “Old Ford”. I took this photo quite a while ago now but always loved how the light shines off the various angles and shapes the car gives us, It also gives a lovely stark contrast compared to the softer foliage, This is the painting to really practice your highlights using the white paper to create lighter areas, and even though I don’t do it much n the tutorial, you’ll probably want to lift a fair amount especially if you don’t think if yourself as an expert. Enjoy…
He’s still waiting in that queue even after all this time! We painted this chap last year as part of a larger painting, this time we’re zooming in on a single subject and we will keep it to just two layers using all six colours from the start. This is a great one to use our techniques in a different way and is really fun to do at just under an hour. That means you really can try this one several times and see your improvements with each version. Enjoy…
This week is an advanced piece for our members. Creating dark indoor tones with vibrant lights reflecting off our hero of the piece, the saxophonist. There’s lots of wet into wet here to create that lovely background and some great lifting off at the end to create those bright highlights. Enjoy…
This week is an antidote to some of the more complex paintings we’ve been doing. A single wash and a little tweaking to create this wonderful little piece called “Just Chilling”. A single figure for simplicity with a variety of textures in our background to create some interest. Get your shadows right and your colours bright and you won’t go far wrong here, enjoy…
This week we go a little more in depth into one of our intermediate pieces “Getting ready to fish”. This brings us some great use of our colours to create dark rocks. We don’t want muddy brown so we mix them on the paper to keep the colour really vibrant. This one is just over an hour and thirty minutes so we split it into reasonable sections, doing our first wash, main wash on the person and finally the background plus a little tweaking. I really hope you enjoy this one…
This week is a lovely still life composition of my own. Its called ‘Potting shed’ and is a great piece to practice wet onto dry. We use just two washes here, one for the background and then a second more intense wash using more pigment to bring out our plant as the hero of the piece. You can do this several times as it’s only just an hour and see how you improve each time. Enjoy…
Wow, this week we have a fabulous project of painting a dog perched at the front of a boat! He is clearly the ‘king’ of the piece but there’s also smooth reflective surfaces, animal fur, and floral elements to create in our background. This is a challenge for all of our members so give it a go and I look forward to seeing your work in our gallery. Enjoy…
What a great way to end the summer, a beautiful photo, one of my own featuring this really interesting “rusty old bike”. This is about letting the negative space do the work, don’t get hung up on every spoke, create a feel of spokes with loose brushstrokes and let the paper shine through to create your highlights and emphasise the shapes you’re creating, This is great for all levels and can’t wait to see some in our gallery. Enjoy…
This week we are painting a simple single figure in a great pose from Tenerife. It’s called “Hey, what’s up?” A great pose from our main subject gives a really happy feel to this painting and allows us to use all of our techniques, preserve those whites, a light first wash and wet onto wet and wet onto dry to create a soft background. Enjoy…
This week we are painting something sentimental to my wife Pauline. This is just simply called ‘Daffs’ but the beautiful dove piece next to the daffodils was given to pauline on her 18th birthday. I've set this still life in a nice bright window upstairs to catch all of the glorious sunshine streaming across both elements, we’ve got soft flowers with some nice white porcelain and an intricate vase too, so its a tricky painting to get right but its a lovely still life to really get your teeth into. Enjoy…
As the second part of our double tutorial weekend we are really pleased to introduce “Rock Singer” This is a really different image to my usual choices and creates some fun challenges along the way. We use several washes here building layer on layer and this is a difficult piece to master, but try and try again and you’ll be really surprised with your results. Enjoy our 150th Tutorial.
Let’s get back to painting some figures, and this week we’ve got one of my favourite topics. Buskers make great subjects for “studies of light and shadow” because they are usually in the direct sunlight and so focused on their music there is an intensity and focus about what they’re doing, and that’s what we have to capture. This guy also has a great hat that masks the face but gives us great highlights and so we are going to do one wash only using the bright whites of the paper for our highlights, no first wash, no little adjustments, just one pass creates the entire painting. This is quite advanced so if you’re starting out, either slow the video down to half speed or watch 20 mins then go back and paint that section, take a break and repeat. Take your time here and really preserve those highlights. Enjoy…
This week is a beautiful image of a father and son fishing from the steps in Tenerife. This is a great tutorial for all abilities and is broken down into easy sections. You can start with the usual light wash followed by focusing on our two fisherman, then the sea and the dark background steps make our two fishermen lift off the page and become the stars of the painting. You’ll all enjoy this one.
Remember when we were ‘Back in the pub’ well this image is a close up from that very painting that were going to do in more detail. He’s looking quite sombre as he contemplates life over a good old British Pint. Lot’s of light to use here, in fact its the most important element, use it to accent where the brights hit his face and the table in front of him is important as it bounce light back onto him too. Use those deep tones to create a rich, wood effect, and don’t forget to let the soft furnishings feel nice and rounded. This is great for all levels.
And now for something totally different… Yellow Beetle is a fabulous painting that everyone can complete. No figures here but plenty of detail to add as we create this beautiful image from Mexico. Lots of wet into wet with a little bit of wet into dry for our crisp details and we add a final layer of dark detail to really accentuate the colours and highlights here. This is a great tutorial for all abilities and a fun way to start your new year.
It’s Christmas season and what better way to celebrate than painting our winter scene. This is ‘Snow Shadows’ and is a beautiful composition of my own using two photos to create this stunning snow painting. This year we aren’t using any masking fluids, we’re going old school and using the paper to create our highlights. Plenty of colour is still used in our surroundings to accent the whites, a great painting for all abilities. Merry Christmas everyone.
This week we are "Checking the bill" with this wonderfully busy cafe scene. We break it down into 3 sections, the top background, the people and finally the chairs and foreground, giving it a nice easy to follow structure. This is an intermediate to advanced painting but will be great fun as its a challenge to recreate accurately, but don’t try to repeat every line, use shapes and shadows to form your darks and keep those whites preserved. Enjoy...
Fancy a Great British tradition? Well today is your day, we’re going Bowling but this is Crown Green bowling and a photo taken mid afternoon to create a lovely, active photo for something that’s quite a calming activity. We have so many whites to preserve here but you have to keep some colours in here too to show our reflected greens and our blue top lady. This is a great painting if you’re at an intermediate level but is good for all to try, keep your lines sharp and your backgrounds soft. Enjoy…
125! Yes it's our 125th tutorial this week, so I saved a real favourite of mine for this one. This is "Bubbles" and it’s a photo of my nephews daughter taken a few years ago now. Perfect as a really interesting and advanced subject for you all to try, this is all about that cheeky face and the white, crisp bubble outlines that make this truly shine as a painting. Happy 125th tutorial everyone...
This week's tutorial is a reminder that summer is here (even though the UK isn't really seeing it) and this is a great reminder of those lazy days just walking down the beach with the sea lapping at your feet. This is an intermediate level piece and relies on a loose touch to create some lovely movement and texture in our sea and sand with some nice sharp lines to define our figure. Enjoy...
This week it’s just one wash, yep you heard right, only one wash of all six colours directly onto a wet canvas to create this great Venice Gondola scene. We then use some lifting off to help enhance our highlights. This is one of our really simple paintings to really encourage our new members to give this painting a go several times to see your progress each time. You’ll really enjoy trying this and seeing your water and pigment controls improve as you go…
This week we have something totally new, its two paintings in one. We do our first painting with a sea and sky background and then replace that background with a darker version based on our original photo. This is a great opportunity to see how just changing the background can transform your painting without touching our main subject at all. It’s a great exercise in knowing how to correct something using darker tones. This is fairly advanced but good for all levels to try if you can set aside a couple of hours to complete it. Enjoy…
I love this weeks painting, it’s a nice intermediate to advanced piece that’s quite long but produces a fabulous result. “Join the queue” is something very British, we will stand in queues for pretty much anything, but this is a typical scene you see on our streets and this one is from our great city of Oxford. We split this up into bitesize chunks to allow some time for coffees, but you could do it all in one sitting if you’re really brave and let your brush stay loose and expressive. I really hope you enjoy this one it was a fun one to paint…
Get comfortable. Todays painting is one of the hardest projects yet. It’s a busy scene with lots of small marks to help form the shapes of the people in the distance, but you must preserve those whites between, this will help to keep those lovely highlights in between as the sunlight bounces down. This one is a world famous market in London called “Portobello Road” enjoy…
The streets of San Francisco are famous for there undulating nature and we have a challenge here for our students, the perspective changes due to the nature of the hill but you’ll see as we paint along that it’s still using our normal techniques to create this effect. This is a really fabulous painting to display if you can master it, an interesting location, a great bustling scene and some vibrant colours, what more could you ask for…
This week were using just one wash, no going back over areas, just one single wash to create this nice quick piece called “Been Shopping”.
Keep your brights bright and your background nice and wet to keep the colour flowing. Your foreground should be subtle and in the light here so don’t overdo it. Enjoy everyone…
This is a little different today, we’re using 8 colours not three or six ! So if you’ve been here a while you’ll know I use Winsor Violet and Winsor Green when I’m in the mood, lol, just to add some extra tones into paintings and that’s exactly what we're doing today. "A hot day at Long Beach" deserved to add those extra colours to give our greens and purple shades a little boost. You’ll have lots of fun here…
This was taken in Oxford, England several years ago and it maybe “two go cycling” but we have five people in this one so it’s definitely in our advanced category.
Everyone should give it a go but take your time and watch and rewatch areas of detail. Give some special attention to the wheels, they not round so draw it carefully.
Remember above all, have fun and enjoy…
Well, this one is slightly different to usual, we don’t have any people in this scene, but a lovely warm bright boat, sadly sat upon the sands. This is great for everyone to paint along with, nearly an hour long, it’s great for intermediate levels and its important to keep this one nice and loose.
This one is a great challenge to get that background pushed backwards and abstract without obsessing over every branch, which in turn distracts from your main subject, its a piece anyone can try but is around the intermediate/advanced level really as its over 2 hours. This is a photo of a family friend of Jemma and Bess and its a really lovely action shot. You’ll get great results if you tae your time here and plenty of breaks in between layers. Happy painting…
Happy new year !!! As a perfect cure for those with slight hangovers we thought you could do with a nice intermediate level painting, this one is called ‘couple on a wall’ and its ALL about preserving the whites on the two subjects. Happy painting…
This is a perfect Christmas painting, the Strictly Come Dancing final is this weekend (dancing with the stars in the USA) but it originated right here in my home town of Blackpool and I thought a “Last tango” would feel very Christmas spirited right now. Happy Christmas everyone, and see you in the new year for another great year of painting some fantastic subjects…
This is a photo that was given to me by one of our members, Nancy Gallagher, and I loved the relaxed nature of the photo so thought it would make a great tutorial for us all. This really is in the advanced category and is over 2 hours long so give yourself plenty of time, and take several breaks as you go along. You'll really enjoy the end result though. Happy painting.
This is a fantastic painting for our advanced (or daring) students, this is "contemplation". We use a lot of wet into wet here and its a long one at 2 hours and 15 mins so get comfy maybe with a glass of wine or a beer and enjoy this fantastic tutorial. The result is well and truly worth it.
This week were painting a subject we’ve painted before, but from a different photo and using just two main washes to try and create a vibrant painting you’ll be proud of. This is a great piece for all levels and at just over an hour long its one you can practice a few times.
This is a great piece for all abilities. “Sunny girl” was taken near Kew Gardens in London a few years ago and is a great way to hone your watercolour skills, especially maintaining a lovely warm but bright highlight on our main subject as well as soft backgrounds that hint at the setting without doing every tiny detail. Enjoy…
Welcome to my 75th tutorial. This is a big one and has been requested by members many times, so here we go...
This is "The yellow parasols", a bright and vibrant painting you'll be proud to hang in your home. We use all our normal techniques and the final result is incredible. It’s an advanced tutorial, over 2 hours long, so get comfy and break it down into manageable stages. You'll really enjoy this one.
We have a real challenge this week, this is one of our more advanced pieces called 'The sleeping Cat'.
It's a beautiful image and I've added a cat in the drawing as it just fits so well in the scene. Lots of wet onto dry and those highlights are all important here, a fantastic result and well worth the time, have fun...
This piece is a great exercise in learning to add colour to a black and white photo.
You don't have to stick to my colours here, have some fun with this fun painting. Try to stay loose and get nice and expressive here, I can't wait to see your submissions for this one.
Todays tutorial is this fantastic Hot Rod. This is an advanced piece and it's not for the feint hearted. We are going to use softening to create the shining chrome effect and I've changed the background to something that’s a little nicer on the eye. Feel free to change it to your own, maybe the desert or perhaps someone will put it on the famous route 66?
Merry Christmas everyone ! This week we're painting 'It's Snow Fun' a fantastic winter image.
I've turned to the dark side and used some masking fluid (I know, I know) but its really the best way to create that fluffy snow texture as it gets thrown into the air. We then soften things down a little with a damp brush to create those lost edges. Enjoy this during some downtime over Christmas.
This week you’re painting one of grahams most requested paintings. We’re painting a horse and Carriage, mid ride in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. This is Grahams longest tutorial so make sure you’re comfy if you’re going to do this in one sitting. It’s a great way to use light and shadow to create shapes that jump off the paper. Colourful, beautiful and interesting, this is a great way to hone the skills we’ve learnt to create your very own masterpiece.
Today we’re in London with something that feels a little alien to us all right now. It’s a photo of a man sat outside a cafe relaxing. We’ve got some great use of lights and darks to create shadows around his bag and under the table as well as preserving all the highlights using the white of the paper where it's needed. Hopefully this will become the norm again so, enjoy…
Yeehaw, this week were painting one of my favourites. It’s a rodeo scene of a cowboy riding a bull. This is a really exciting subject as we have to create the effect of dust and movement in the foreground whilst keeping our focus on the bull and cowboy. Were using our pallet of three to start and moving on to all six colours for the detail, you’re gonna love this one…
Today we're in the world famous Liverpool. This is a photo of my own with great shadows to really show perspective in the painting. It’s two people ‘walking and talking’ in everyday life, a typical everyday scene that could be from anywhere in the world. We are going to use three colours for our initial wash, and then six colours for our detail. You’ll really enjoy this one!"
Today we’re back in the pub. This is a photo I took many years ago in Kew, London and is one I love painting because of the intense light coming through the windows and reflecting on the tables. We’ve got several people in the shot and they add some interest and detail, but were trying to catch the atmosphere and overall feeling of the traditional British Pub. Enjoy !"
We are going to Spain... This week we have a more in depth tutorial that focuses on two women sat on a wall looking out to sea. It's a great exercise in using wet in wet technique as we need a nice blurred background from which we can build detail into the main focus which is the two women discussing "Whats out there?"