Here is another quick painting tutorial based on the beautiful New Zealand landscape. All up the painting took about an hour – it was only a quick study. This is the reference photo I painted from: What I like about this photo is the sharp contrast between the dark elements and the light, distant mountains. … Read more
The focal point in art is one of the most important concepts you will need to learn as an artist. It is a key point of interest in your painting that you want to direct attention towards. It should be your most interesting point in the painting. Do You Need a Focal Point? It is … Read more
Complementary colors are basically colors that are on directly opposite sides of the color wheel. So blue is a complement of orange, red is a complement of green, yellow is a complement of violet and so on. Complementary colors provide striking visual effects when paired together. Claude Monet said this about complementary colors in 1888: … Read more
Colored pencils are a fantastic medium – they are easy to use, the cleanup time is minimal and you get exposure to the wonderful world of color. But with so many great brands of colored pencils available, it can be confusing to determine which colored pencils you should go with. In this post, I will … Read more
Daniel Garber was a talented American impressionist artist who was known for his large paintings of the New Hope area in Pennsylvania. He was also a teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Whilst not as well known compared to the likes of the other leading impressionists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, … Read more
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a leading French impressionist painter. Renoir’s works are colorful and vibrant with a distinct impressionist style. Here are some of the famous quotes by Renoir: “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” “Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.” … Read more
What is atmospheric perspective? Atmospheric perspective (or aerial perspective) refers to how the atmosphere affects how we see objects as they recede into the distance. Atmospheric perspective indicates that as an object recedes into the distance relative to the viewer, we see that object with reduced clarity, value and color saturation. In addition, objects in … Read more
I previously gave some tips for oil and acrylic painting, so I thought I would complete the circle and give some watercolor painting tips for beginners. Watercolors are not my preferred medium but I do use them from time to time. I absolutely love the way water and colors interact on the paper in an … Read more
An amazing technique for drawing attention to your focal point is to use increased color saturation to contrast against areas of more muted colors. I used this technique in my most recent painting, Queenstown From the Shore: This was a fairly gloomy painting with mostly muted colors. But this presents a perfect opportunity to draw … Read more
In this painting tutorial, I will walk you through step-by-step how I created my most recent painting, Queenstown From the Shore. I used oils for this painting but the general fundamentals are the same across all the painting mediums. This was a challenging scene to paint as there are so many little elements to capture … Read more
In this post, I will feature some of the paintings of water lilies by Claude Monet which were created during his lifetime. All up, I located a staggering 250-plus paintings of water lilies. This post is the third in a series where I discuss paintings of the same subjects by Claude Monet. Previously we discussed: … Read more
Ilya Repin (1844 – 1930) was one of the most renowned Russian artists of the 19th Century and was known for his beautiful and often dramatic realist/impressionist paintings. Few Russian artists were able to garner such fame and notoriety during their lifetime. He was never satisfied with his paintings and was always experimenting with different … Read more