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…

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 is our second painting in our cycling series and is faster paced and has a little more detail. We kept our Charleston cyclist very loose but here we’re spending some more time focusing on the bike detail, still loose, but a little more focused and precise. Plus our background matches more with our reference. We’re trying to improve our observations and retain detail from our reference photo this time whilst moving slightly faster to ‘keep it loose’. We’re not fine art painting just adding a little more precision here. Enjoy…

It’s highlights week, so we are painting “Two old friends”. This image was chosen specifically to give all of my fabulous members some real practice on your highlights, It’s a stunning, bright subject with tonnes of white sunlit areas, so be bold and go for the best highlights you’ve ever created. Remember it’s easier to add layers than take away layers so slow and steady wins the race here, watch a section, rewind and watch it again as you do it. You’ll love it the results if you PTW (preserve those whites) enjoy everyone…

This week we start a three part series on one of my favourite subjects, cycling. This week is our beginner piece where I take a little more time on a beautiful image from Charleston in 2017. But we won’t do the second instalment straight away, so next time will be something involving people and we will revisit cycling in a month or so. Here though we really focus on highlights and using colourful shadows to create depth in the image. Don’t get bogged down in every detail, keep it loose, especially in the background, less is more here. Enjoy…

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...

This week were doing a great piece for our beginners and anyone wanting to practice their vibrant shadow work. This is a photo taken from an unusual perspective that casts shadows diagonally towards us so they’re important in our composition. We also use a ruler to create some very straight pavement (sidewalk) lines that go through our shadows but behind our subjects which finishes our painting using a new technique. You’ll enjoy this one and it is just over an hour so it is one you can do a few times.

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…

After our advanced tutorial last time I thought we’d do something a little easy going this week, so I’ve chosen a subject I like to paint and is easy to repeat. ‘Casting’ is a great beginner/intermediate piece for our core skills, making sure our lights are preserved well and using a vibrant yellow to bring our main subject forward. The sky and foreground are great practice for blending colours to achieve some variation in the colours. Give this one a go a few times if you have some time. 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 is a fabulous image of a woman sat in the sunshine, (where we all want to be in January). What caught my eye was the shape and highlights in her hat so were calling this “The Red Hat”. Plenty of lights and shadows here and a nice textured foreground which blends to a calmer sea and sky, don’t merge you’re sea and sky colours too much you still want your horizon. This is nice an quick so you can do this several times and try to improve each one. Enjoy everyone…

This week it’s something a little different we’re painting something that could be anywhere in the world really, two geraniums outside an ornate window with the sun beaming across them beautifully casting shadows. There are no people or facial features to worry about here just use your brush to create shape, shadow and light areas. This is something a little different to our ‘people paintings’ as it’s always good fun to do something a little different and see how our brush strokes create the overall effect. Enjoy…

What a view to paint... He looked a little lonely up there on his own so I've added mans best friend. You can add your own dog if you feel that way inclined or use the reference I created. Either way this is a really great intermediate piece for us all to do, if you're an expert you'll still find it challenging and our beginners can still give this a go, stretch yourself and see what happens...

What better way to spend the weekend fishing, or painting fishing... This is a beginner intermediate piece for all to enjoy and its about brush control with some small marks and some lots sweeping strokes to create the dark foreground. You'll have lots of fun with this one...Its a really fun quick one to do but pay attention to getting your background cool and foreground warmish yellow, that sets him off beautifully, don’t forget those little pavement marks too enjoy...

This is an interesting painting because we have one simple main figure, but, we have some hard shadows (using dry brush onto dry paper) for his trousers and some nice soft shadows around the shirt area where we’re using wet onto wet and adding further pigment to it. Its a really fun quick one to do but pay attention to getting your background cool and foreground warmish yellow, that sets him off beautifully, don’t forget those little pavement marks too enjoy...

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…

The perfect intermediate tutorial… We keep our colours really clean and vibrant here and using simple lines to create the bench you can see how Graham adds colours into wet paint to create the variations in tone and how he adjusts for light and dark areas. Not forgetting to add our our two people with their backs on the bench we also have a vibrant blue sky with some movement all created by loose simple brush actions during that wash. You’ll really enjoy this one…

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 fun little project to try a few times to practice some of our core skills. It's a quirky photo of two ladies stuck in an unfamiliar city, looking at their maps, trying to figure out where they're going, and I think it's something that's just fun to do. 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…

This is a fantastic beginner/intermediate piece. Its based on a photograph from San Francisco a few years back that I caught sort of by accident, its a woman walking her dog and i immediately loved the pose she was in. Rather than being pulled along by the dog she was in compete control and mid stride which gives quite a serene feel. I’d love to see a few of your own dogs instead of the drawing for our more experienced painters. That’s if you’re up to the challenge?

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.

This is great for beginners and above. It’s a common scene we see today; “Texting in the sun”. She’s sat reading her phone, as we all do, so I thought it was just an interesting shot of everyday modern life. This one’s nice and quick at just over an hour so you can try it a few times to see how much you can improve each time.

This week we are undertaking a more advanced tutorial, this is ‘Late Sunday afternoon’ and is just over 2 hours so its not for the feint of heart. But the result is an incredible painting with sharp chromes in our ice bucket and lovely soft sunlight on our main subject. You’ll really enjoy this…

Today we’re painting this charming scene of two boys fishing in the rock pools of Tenerife. It’s a lovely beginner tutorial for all levels to have go at and produces really fantastic results in just over an hour. I’m sure you’ll love this one…

This week we’re painting ‘Girls take a break’ a photo taken in sunny Tenerife. This is a nice intermediate piece that can be tried by all. We’re using a nice three colour wash to start and moving to six colours for our sharper detailed washes. It’s a great painting to really practice leaving those crisp brighter areas and then choosing which ones you want to soften. Give it a go and enjoy…

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...

Today we’re painting “San Francisco Lady” and this painting “has colours run like watercolour in the rain” as the great Al Stewart once sang in 'Year of the cat’. This is fantastic for creating fast paced soft blending using colours to create the effect her dress. We use the reflective tones to create a soft fabric feel in the bright sunlight. This is an intermediate piece and most of all its a fun one…

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.

Welcome to “Cattle Drive”, it’s one that people have asked for a lot and it looks even better in real life. We’ve lots of wet brush work to create a dusty feel and we keep this really loose, we’re not counting legs, we want more of a feel of movement and action. Give this one a go, you won’t regret it…

Today we’re painting something a little different, we don’t have any people in this one. We’re painting ‘Boat and Tractor’ and this is a challenge to keep the colours vibrant. Try to keep moving with your brush and grabbing colours, don’t get too hung up on following every colour I use, this is about blending colours on the paper to make the desired effect. If you want to take it a little slower you can play the video at half speed if you need.

We're back in New York and this time we're out for a walk painting "New York Walk". This is great for refining details on people. We use the normal six colours to create a soft background with some detail and then focus on our figure. It's great to hone your detail work on figures themselves. Happy painting.

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?