Mastering Subtle Texture in Your Painting with White Paint and Glazes: Tips and Techniques

Mastering Subtle Texture in Your Painting with White Paint and Glazes: Tips and Techniques

In this video, I'll be sharing my top tips for creating beautiful, subtle texture in your paintings using white paint and glazes. By using a light touch with these tips and techniques you can achieve subtle and nuanced effects that elevate your work. I'll also be sharing my go-to technique for harmonizing colors. These techniques create a visually striking effect that pulls your painting together and makes it feel cohesive. I hope this video inspires you to experiment with these techniques in your own artwork!

My Top Tips For Building Incredible Texture In Your Work

My Top Tips For Building Incredible Texture In Your Work

Ready to take your paintings to the next level? By paying attention to the surface of your artwork, you can create depth and interest with beautiful textural effects to draw your viewer in close. So let's get started on taking your paintings from flat to FABULOUS!

The BEST 6 TIPS on How To Get Started with Abstract Art

The BEST 6 TIPS on How To Get Started with Abstract Art

If you’re wanting to move into creating Abstract Art there is lots of advice out there. I’ve discovered that asking Google HOW TO CREATE ABSTRACT ART resulted in bad advice. In this video I go through why Google has it wrong and what my BEST 6 TIPS are.

Producing A Group of Paintings Together Makes The BEST Artwork

Producing A Group of Paintings Together Makes The BEST Artwork

If I could tell you the ONE thing that improved my work the most - this is it. Working on a group of paintings together improves results because what you learn in one painting can be directly applied to others.

In this video, I show you how I do this by using 5 paintings in mid-process to demonstrate how ideas can be applied to multiple works and how my paintings took big leaps forward as a result.

Demonstrating the use of Collage in a Painting

Demonstrating the use of Collage in a Painting

Using Collage in a painting adds an element of surprise and also gives you the opportunity to explore design options. The skill of the technique lies in the integration of the collage so that all the pieces work together and the collage is secondary to the whole painting. In this demonstration, I talk through the decision making process explaining what I look for when using collage and how I integrate the pieces into the whole composition while still maintaining the element of surprise and difference.

Draw like Picasso to Solve your Design Issues

Draw like Picasso to Solve your Design Issues

What can we learn from Picasso’s Sketchbook Drawings?

In this video I talk about using Drawing to find the structure in your composition. By reducing your painting down to basic lines and shapes you can start to see how you can improve the design. I also show examples of different styles and techniques that Picasso used when drawing and planning his work.

Following these techniques and methods we can discover new directions to take our work and get clarity around improving the design. We can also just have fun creating simple compositions with line, shape and basic tonal value.

Demonstrating How to Include Imagery in Abstract Art

Demonstrating How to Include Imagery in Abstract Art

Who needs Still Life, a Nude or a Landscape when you can create a painting from your thoughts and dreams? In this demonstration I build a painting by using colours, imagery, words and shapes that come straight from my subconscious. It results in a strange world, yet is somehow familiar to me and includes my pets, favourite colours and patterns. It also includes a lot which makes no sense but is somehow pleasing to me.

Watch the video and then create your strange and beautiful world.

The ESSENTIAL Tools I have to make my best PAINTINGS

The ESSENTIAL Tools I have to make my best PAINTINGS

I’m sharing the favourite tools I use in my art process. Five of these you can purchase from your local art supplier and the other one you have to create yourself. You may have different favourite tools but the last one I know you need in order to create the art you love - whatever form that takes.

How to create Strong Design in ALL your Abstract Painting

How to create Strong Design in ALL your Abstract Painting

The key to a successful painting firstly is strong design. How you arrange all the parts of your painting will be the difference between success and not finishing… Watch this video to learn the easy steps to making sure your painting is well composed with strong Design - every time!

Combining My Favourite Shapes with my Favourite Techniques in Mixed Media Painting

Combining My Favourite Shapes with my Favourite Techniques in Mixed Media Painting

In this video, I demonstrate in my sketchbook how I combine my favorite shapes with my favorite mixed-media painting techniques. I like to contrast different shapes with lines and also contrast a range of surface effects by using mixed media with a variety of techniques. This creates a painting that offers so much more on close inspection but also demands attention with emphasis on strong design and shape.

Using Stencils to Create Original and Unique Abstract Art

Using Stencils to Create Original and Unique Abstract Art

I like using stencils to create unique and interesting shapes in my painting as I build layers and depth in the surface. Watch this video to see how I combine stencils with a range of media for different effects and then follow along and create an abstract painting with shapes you like to use.

Using Mixed Media to Create Complexity and then Simplifying with Shape

Using Mixed Media to Create Complexity and then Simplifying with Shape

The contrast of two opposites - Simplicity and Complexity always fascinates me. In this video I demonstrate how I create a complex surface and then create a composition by using simple shapes.

Using Collage, Paint, Acrylic Ink, and Paint pens, I build the surface in layers and then go about finding a composition made of simple shapes. Once the complex surface is created in this demonstration, the focus switches to simplifying to create an interesting and integrated composition.

What to Consider in Choosing a Frame for your Artwork

What to Consider in Choosing a Frame for your Artwork

In this video I share the most important considerations when choosing a frame. After completing your gorgeous painting you don’t want to choose the wrong frame, so it’s important to take some time and figure out what type of frame will suit the painting best. Your frame should enhance the artwork, not be a distraction to it.

Demo in How to Paint Intuitively - Techniques to Try

Demo in How to Paint Intuitively - Techniques to Try

In this demonstration I show you how I paint intuitively. See how many different techniques I use to create interest in the Painting. And listen to how I navigate my way to finish the painting - what am I looking for and how do I find the direction in the piece?

Then get your paints and painting tools out and give it a try yourself!

How to Use Masking Fluid in Your Painting

How to Use Masking Fluid in Your Painting

I’ve recently experimented with Masking Fluid which is traditionally used in Watercolour Painting. But as a mixed media artist, I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to create new marks and surface effects in my acrylic paintings. Watch this demonstration as I explore using Masking Fluid as a drawing tool and then have a go in your own work.

What I do after the Gesso

What I do after the Gesso

In this video, I demonstrate what I do after I’ve applied a couple of coats of Gesso. I use black and white Gesso so that my painting already has a variety of marks, effects and tonal values. My process is intuitive - I don’t have a plan, but rather decide and respond to the colours and paint effects that arrive through experimentation. There is a method that I use to avoid creating a mess which has no direction which could happen when painting in this explorative way.

Watch the video to see how I start my paintings with colour and line and make sure you watch to the end to see a surprise tip for getting the BEST results.

Reviewing Techniques and Media Used in My NEW Paintings

Reviewing Techniques and Media Used in My NEW Paintings

In this video, I reveal four newly finished paintings and talk about the techniques I used and the combinations of media used in each one. I also share how these paintings direct me to new work and what I want to focus on more in these.

This practice of reviewing your work when it’s completed is really important in understanding how your work is evolving and where the clues lie for future work.

I talk about media: paint, ink, and drawing media and how and why I’m using them in my work.