I recently put the finishing touches on a painting based on a photo from my Bali travels. It was an overcast day and we were walking through a temple which was claimed by monkeys. The temple was situated amongst the trees on the top of a cliff. The winding path around the side of the cliff…
The Zorn Palette – What It Is And How You Can Use It
The Zorn palette refers to a palette of colors attributed to the great Swedish artist, Anders Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920). It consists of just 4 colors being yellow ochre, ivory black, vermilion and titanium white. Cadmium red light is commonly used in place of vermilion by modern day artists. Whilst this may…
7 Plein Air Painting Tips For Beginners
Winslow Homer, Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, 1868, oil on panel Plein air painting is a highly recommended practice, especially for landscape painters. It helps you hone your skills by forcing you to paint with a sense of urgency as the light quickly retreats or otherwise changes. I made a commitment to myself to…
11 Things To Do After You Finish A Painting
It’s a great feeling once you finish a painting which you have long worked on and you are satisfied with the result. But your work does not finish there. There are a number of tasks which I recommend you do once you finish a painting. These tasks may not provide any immediate benefit, but let me assure…
Artist Paint Brushes – The Ultimate Guide
Your paint brush should feel like an extension of your arm. But all the different kinds of artist brushes which are available can sometimes only add confusion to the painting process, rather than make it easier. In this post I discuss the different kinds of artist paint brushes which are available for you to use.…
Oil Paint Drying Time And How You Can Manipulate it
Oil paint is inherently slow drying compared to the other painting mediums such as acrylic, watercolor or gouache paints. Because of this, you have much more time to manipulate oil paint on your canvas before it dries. This is one of the reasons why oil paint is so widely used by artists. So how long…
How To Start An Oil Painting
Claude Monet, Self Portrait In His Atelier, 1884 The most difficult strokes to make in an oil painting are the first and last strokes. The first strokes because you may not know where to start and the last strokes because you may not know when to stop. This post is all about how to start…
How To Mix Your Own Earth Tones
This post will discuss how you can mix your own earth tones. Earth tones are the browns and ochres such as raw umber, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. The purpose of this post is not to show you how to replace earth tones on your palette. Instead, it is merely to demonstrate that earth tones…
How To Mix Vivid Greens And Why You Must Understand Color Bias
Green has always been a troublesome color for beginners. Why that is the case, I’m not sure. It may have something to do with a lack of understanding of how to mix color. Or maybe it has something to do with how we actually perceive green. As Pablo Picasso once said: They’ll sell you thousands…
How To Paint Realistic Water
Water is a challenging subject to paint. There are just so many variables you need to deal with such as reflections, transparency and movement. In this post I will provide some simple tips for how to paint water with a quality of realism. “How to paint water” is admittedly a bit vague. Water comes in…
