They look like photos! This is often what I hear when people flip through my landscape acrylic painting sketchbook, but that's usually because they're not looking too closely. If you were to take a careful look, the paintings have a loose, impressionist quality, focused on capturing the spirit of the landscape through colour and form. They're not so worried about the details, and instead hone in on a general impression of place. This is why I love sketchbooks; not only do they give me the opportunity to practice different techniques and strategies, but they force me into paring back detail and concentrate on what's really important. After all, how many hours have we as artists wasted fussing over details that, in the...
Before we start this blog post, here's my latest YouTube video that breaks down the whole process of painting in oil on paper: Regardless of your subject, painting into a multimedia sketchbook is an absolute blast. Here’s the steps I like to follow to create sketchbook entries that pop from the page. Insert the drawing. You can do this directly with ballpoint pen, or you can do a light contour with graphite pencil, before layering the ballpoint pen on top. When you do add the pen, make sure that it’s waterproof. Most ballpoint pens are, but some have a gel base that will bleed when wet. I usually do a test before using a new pen in my book on...
I get asked about the ethics of using a projector or tracing a drawing a lot on YouTube and Instagram. Can we really call ourselves artists if we don’t do the entire thing freehand or by using grids? Isn’t it cheating to use technology to bypass the difficulty of the drawing stage and head straight into the painting?
It's difficult to put into words how excited I am to be announcing this show. I have been thinking, hoping, dreaming, planning and preparing this show for months, and it's time to reveal both the concept and the name! If you want to watch the YouTube video revealing the name and concept, you can do so by watching below, or simply read on! THE SQUARE FOOT SHOW One of my goals this year was to increase the quantity of work that I produced, as opposed to only working on large pieces. Those large paintings often take me months to create, which means that my ability to teach that painting is somewhat limited. As such, I wanted to create a show...
