If you want to improve your drawing skills, then I believe it is important that you put in regular practice (daily if possible). In a previous post I wrote about how I was doing daily gesture drawings. I have continued with this practice and it has greatly improved my instinctive drawing skills and understanding of the…

Taking beautiful photographs of your art sometimes feels harder than actually creating it. If you do not know what you are doing, then your photos will frequently turn out too bright, dull, warm, cool or glary (like the photos below of a recent painting). In this post I walk you through my process for taking…

Black is a very polarizing color in the art world. Some people swear by using black, and others avoid it all together. In this post I want to try and clear up some of the confusion around black and provide you with some information on how to use it in your paintings and how to mix…

A reader wrote to me the other day asking for my advice about pricing one of his paintings. I thought I would use this as a chance to put together a post about how to price your art to help anyone else having the same struggle. What Determines The Price You Can Charge The price…

When you sell a painting, it is important that you are able to get it to the buyer in a safe condition. So much effort goes into creating a painting that it would be a shame for it to be damaged in transit. I recently had to say goodbye to one of my paintings and…

When you start painting you will make all kinds of mistakes. That is just part of the journey. Making mistakes is not an issue in painting, provided you are able to identify the mistakes and learn from them. The problem when you are a beginner is that you will not be able to see most…

Most people will be familiar with the artist’s color wheel, but many do not understand how to properly interpret it. The color wheel is essentially the visible spectrum of colors wrapped in a circle and it is a useful tool which helps explain what happens when we mix our paints together. Boutet’s 7-color and 12-color…

William Wendt (1865 – 1946) was a German-born American painter who was known for his bold and colorful landscapes. He spent much of his life painting the California landscape and his prominence earned him the title “the dean of Southern California artists”. Many of his paintings feature lush trees, rolling hills and a beautiful sense…

In this post I will walk you through one of my recent paintings based on a photo my brother took in New Zealand. Here is the finished painting: Supplies And Equipment These are the colors I used for the painting: Burnt umber Ultramarine blue Cobalt blue Viridian green Alizarin Crimson Cadmium red Cadmium orange Yellow…

The artist palette is an essential piece of equipment for holding and mixing your paint. There are many different types of artist palettes you can choose from, such as the classic wooden palette, or more contemporary options like glass or disposable palettes. In this post I will run through some of the different options so…

Setting up lighting for your art studio has to be one of the most frustrating aspects of being an artist. I only recently got my studio lighting to a point where I am generally satisfied. Before that it was either too dim, bright, cool, warm or glary. It has been no easy task getting to…

I recently got a pleasant email saying one of my paintings had sold. It was a small study I did a year or two ago based on a gloomy New Zealand landscape. Gloomy Day In New Zealand, Oil, 10×12 Inches, 2017 Unfortunately, I was not all that prepared for the sale and it was more…