Painting Tutorials Online

This site is an awesome site for learning to paint portraits. Unike many online tutorial art websites I have found this one goes through step by step over about 30 short streaming Videos how to use oil paint, how to mix oil paint, colour streams, monochromatic streams of colour, supports, brushes, studio set up plus much much more.

Once you have had your fill of basic instruction, the Tutor Matthew Archambault, takes you through wo feature length tutorials, the first is how to paint glass, and the other is a portrait.

If you want to subscribe you can do this by clicking the picture above. You can pay by paypal yearly or monthly.

Happy Painting!!

A7 - Line & Wash

If you are a coloured pencil artist, or a water-colourist or any type of artist that uses soft papers as a support for your artistic endeavours then you will probably have scrapped many a painting before it has taken shape, due to poor transfer methods. Creating a detailed drawing onto paper before you paint can be a problem, for one you have just spent several hours perfecting a line drawing and do not fancy drawing it all over again onto your painting support paper, so you use a time served process of transfering the drawing by means of tracing paper, carbon copy, tracedown or even the old method of using a grid.

Boom, your drawing ends up in the scrap heap because you either muddy the colours with graphite, leave indentations in the paper that show through the paint or something just as hideous.

Well fear not my dear artists as help is at hand. the method you are about to read below is a simple but effective way of getting your drawing onto paper before you paint, and give it a fighting chance not to end up in the fireplace providing fuel for your warmth.

We did some fairly involved tests a while back on one or two of my 
Knuston Hall courses with students trying out various ways of making an 
outline transfer while NOT indenting the paper surface.
As you found, the softer the paper, the more likely the transfer line is 
to cut a groove if you use wax free transfer paper or even DIY pencil 
'carbon' paper made from tracing paper.

Having to speed up the transfer process for students to enable more 
actual CP time to be employed, means that any system of quickly putting 
the basic shapes down on paper is a bonus.
We have tried most methods.

The current favoured solution is to use either tracing paper or thin 
layout paper ( not so easy to see through, but it does work, as the 
paper is usually thinner than tracing paper).
First lightly trace the outline from the reference. I prefer to use a 
fine pointed marker pen for this as it ensures a constant fine line.
Next turn over the trace paper and check you can see the reversed image 
through the paper.
If you are using layout paper, then you can tape the sheet to a window 
and that will give you a good shot at the line on the other side - 
alternative methods use a light box, but that costs money !

Depending on the work you are about to undertake, take either 1/ a 
pastel pencil - with a sharp point or 2/ a soft wax type pencil - with 
a sharp point or 3/ a soft watercolour pencil - ditto - ( my 
preference - see below for why .. )
Choose a colour to go with the area you are working on - the horizon 
would be a blue line, edge line for trees - green, houses - grey, 
portrait - pink or flesh etc - you will quickly get the idea
Follow the image of the fine pen line on to the back of the paper 
producing a coloured reversed image with your soft coloured pencil of choice
You should now have the fine pen lines on one side of the paper and an 
identical coloured lines ( reversed) on the other.

Now lay the trace over the working paper with the coloured side DOWN, 
facing, and in contact with your working paper.
Either tape down three corners or use a dab of blue tac on three corners
You will want to check the transfer is working and also keep the two 
papers fixed together while you do it.

NOW the clever bit
Take a crafter's 'bone', the back of a spoon or fork handle, or 
something with a flat hard but slippy surface.
work the flat hard tool over the pen side of the trace and - with luck - 
you will transfer a light line in suitable colours to the working 
surface with no indented line.
This needs practice and experimentation, but I can assure you it does 
work and it is a good method.

If you find the paper grips the tool and the tool doesn't slide, it can 
help to wipe the top of the trace paper surface with a bit of 'Bounce' 
fabric softener.
Why do I prefer watercolour pencil ? because if you do go on to use 
watercolour pencils as a base to your picture, the line will just merge 
in and disappear as soon as it is treated with a damp brush.
Pastel pencil can be almost entirely brushed out,
Wax CP is fine if you are going on to use wax CP for your picture.

Ref:Peter Weatherill

To see a detailed tutorial step by step, by the artist who provides this advice please click the link the top of the page.

Enjoy!!!

Macro Owl

I took this while at Glastonbury Abbey seeing the birds of prey. This one was taken just as the owl was shaking himself down and I love it.

I have been very busy this last week and not had much time to update but I promise that will change, fingers crossed anyways.

Enchanted Art Studio

Street Dancing Plymouth

Street Dancing Plymouth, a photo by Lee Webb Artist on Flickr.

Check out Tim Fisher

Home

British artist Tim Fisher work and blog.

Butterfly Tattoo Inked by me

Yesterday I had my first client for tattooing since we left Cornwall, for Plymouth.

The studio is finally up and running and it was time to test my new working environment. I inked this butterfly below on a shoulder. It represents her struggle with weight loss and she will have one butterfy tattoo'd for each stone lost. This is her first. Well done!

This photo shows how tiny the actual butterfly is.

Happy Glastonbury Contemporary Pagan Exclusive Art

The Goddess a beautiful piece of art freely given to us by the Wonderful and Talented Artist at Happy Glastonbury, a local shop selling the most awesome pagan, spiritual gifts and Art in Glastonbury. If your in Glastonbury this shop is a must.

She is now the feature of our bay window in our living room and looks completely at home, even the kittens are giving her a wide berth.

Glastonbury is a lovely place, with so many things to see and do especially if your a practising pagan, we managed to squeeze in so much in the two days we were there and i took some fantastic photo's of birds of prey at the Glastonbury Abbey, and some awesome flower close ups at the famous World Healing Centre Chalice Well.

We were also very lucky to be allowed to attend the Maitreya Project Heart Shrine Relic World Tour at Chalice Well of which I have some amazing photo's of the Relics and even some very strange ones.

Keep an eye out over the coming week to see some of the photos of our trip, some of which I am hoping to transform into contemporary oil paintings this year.

Happy Glastonbury

Sometimes an email is awesome!

I get hundreds of emails a day wading through them is like wading through mud sometimes, sometimes I just select all, delete but that's very rare.

Occasionally though, an exciting mail shot creeps into my vision, I click thinking omg could this really be an offer I cant refuse, after refusing 99 other, I cant refuse offers?

One such mail hit me today, its from the Jackson Art Supplies store, a store that I buy from and a store whose mail shot I have signed up for; this mail contained a link, a link to a colour mixing interactive chart. It uses Acrylics from Golden but its an awesome bit of kit. You can upload a picture, click on a section on the picture a voilà, the chart shows you the colour and how to mix it

Click here for more information, go on, its worth it!!!

Step by step guide to drawing correct human proportions

Human Figure Drawing Proportions

Technical chart for teaching human proportions

Proportions Of The Human Figure | School Charts | Educational Posters

Its been a massive week for me

I have had so much going on this week with working a full time job, planning out my first few tattoo clients tattoos' at my new studio and busily preparing for a short weekend away to Gastonbury next week its been manic and I have had no time to post.

So this is a brief update of my life, its hectic, its manic, its full, its tiring but I woulld not change it for the world.

In other news, we are getting a chocolate labrador puppy to add to our menagery and Sammy is busy tapping away looking at all the puppies to choose from;  I'd better get them there tattoo guns a working quick time

I have also been asked to provide the story board and artwork for a new adult dark fantasy comic, its mad I'm scared and nervous but thrilled to be asked

I am not able to give you a synopsis of the comic but all I can say is watch out Marvel!!!!

Pyrography

I found a lovely website Click here today via Twitter of an artist who specialises in Pyrography Art, an art which both myself and my wife Sammy have recently acquired some skill in.

Pyrography is the burning of a design, say a landscape, onto a piece of wood or leather, or anything really that will burn withough being destroyed. I guess it really smoulders the support with which you are using at the time but its easier to describe the action as burning.

Take a look at this basic video below to see what its all about, happy art making you guys.

Art Tutor has launched

Art Tutor launched this week and promises to be an exciting new way for artists of all levels to brush up on skill that they need. Video tutor-age seems to be the order of the day, with step by step, bite sized chunks guiding you through all you need to know in a variety of mediums.

Take a foundation course in Watercolour, Oil Painting, Acrylic Painting, Pastel and Drawing plus much much more. What's more is you can pick and choose what you want to learn through the entire range and all for just a small subscription of £10 pcm if your based in the UK. You can cancel once youve finished what you want to learn its that simple.

Click the picture to see for yourself what its all about, I shall be taking up a subscription myself.

IMG-20120719-00492.jpg

This was taken with my blackberry torch to capture a love heart found on the side of my wife Sammy's coffee cup

Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

A selection of my recent pictures untouched

Some photographs that I am planning on developing into paintings or for Digital Manipulation.

Working on my blog content

I have been working on my blog content today and you will find some new things appeared on the right hand side. Firstly there is a Video feature linked to the Painting and Drawing Channel, which features tutorials from some of the best art teachers in the UK in a range of media, Oil Painting, Pastel Painting, Watercolour Painting and Drawing.

I have also added two link sections which contains 10 top links I think my readers, that's you, would be interested in. The first section contains Art related links including education, art supply stores and resources. The second section includes links to artists that I admire, whose work I find interesting and thought provoking. These links will be updated regularly so check back for more.

For a snippet of the Painting and Drawing Channel here is a taster video to get you started

Study Art at Home Home Study Art Course

Every so often I would like to include in my blog snippets of information I have found regarding art and one section of this is courses.

Not everyone can study art at college or on tutored holidays, because its expensive or they are unable to get out the house or they are just shy and intimidated by the thought of going to college, "I'm not good enough for that!" is a phrase that I often here, usually in my own thoughts.

A good way to learn art is to do so in the comfort of your own home and the London Art College is a great way to achieve this, you can take certificate courses or diploma courses in many different media or subject matter that takes your fancy.

These courses can be done at your own pace and you get tutor marked assignments to complete, all of which can be done on-line or by post. You can pay for the course in one go or in instalments making it a flexible way to learn.

I myself have taking a certificate in Coloured Pencil, which I am working towards as I write this, I lack confidence with a pencil so this a great way for me to brush up on drawing skills while at the same time learning a new medium with which to paint. I shall post my work as I complete it over the coming year.

If you'd like to consider a course or for more information, just click on the picture below and it will take you right to the London Art College website. Happy Learning!!!!

Par Beach Spring Evening

ParBeachSpringEvening, a photo by Lee Webb Artist on Flickr.

After some thought I decided to use this section of the painting as a finished peice in its own right after all I think it looks good compositionally, the strokes are free and loose and I'm happy with it. I shall develop the 2nd part to this and maybe make a few studies for a series of paintings. Who knows?

Par Beach Spring 2012 Digital Art

This painting is the initial stages of a developing art works, the first I have ever tried on a digital canvas. I am using Art Rage Studio Pro as the platform to develop the painting and my newly purchased Bamboo Tablet by Wacom.

I found it difficult at first especially as you have a wealth of settings and tools to choose from when using a digital art platform but after the initial hesitations that one feels with a new medium I settled in. This started off   as a sky experimentation and has developed from there. The initial painting is laid out and I have some manipuation to do, plenty of developing and then finishing touches. I expect I will fiddle for hours and hours to come before this is finished.

Here is the first stage, took me about 3hrs to get this far but hey whose counting?

Digital Oil Paint - Artrage Studio Pro

While my studio is being built this is the only way I can paint as everything else is packed let me know what you think!!!!

A tablet for my Illustrator Program

This is the Wacom Bamboo CTH-670 pen and touch tablet which gives you a platform to use programs like Artrage, Illustrator and Photoshop with ease.

I have got it out the box and spent nearly 3hrs setting it up and working through the tutorials, now I cannot wait to paint with it.

Even artists need dummies!

This is a great tool for starting out with illustrator, it explains all the necessary need to know bits to get you started without the techy jargon, it truly is for dummies and as I'm a dummy I'm qualified to say it works :-)

UKCPS Watercolour Pencil Tutorial

Hi Folks,

I don't know how many of you might be interested, but some of you may
recall we did an online exercise of a landscape using watercolour
pencils a year or so ago ( over the winter ) and around a dozen members
of the UKCPS Forum took part (and discussed their progress or lack of
it) - much of which was later published as The Allerford Tutorial on
www.penciltopics.co.uk

I am just about to get under way with another exercise that will build
into a quite big step by step tutorial.
This one is a street scene in Malcesine on Italian Lake Garda and
contains mainly buildings ( with a token tree).
I have just posted up the reference and will add to the notes as the
days go by, hopefully completing the picture and the notes before September.

If you want to follow along, have a look at
http://www.penciltopics.co.uk/page176.html
The tutorial also has links from the site home page so you can find it
again if you lose that reference.

I don't need you to get in touch, but if you do want to discuss what I
am doing in a similar group to last time, please let me know and I will
add you in to an EMail ring.

Cheers

Peter Weatherill
www.penciltopics.co.uk : 299 pages of free information
5000 plus readers every month seeking information on Coloured Pencils
and Pencil techniques

__,_._,___

Moved In

We have finally moved into our new home and the old tenants left it in such a state we have worked non-stop on cleaning and scrubbing and ripping up flooring.

Now we are on the decorating stage and finally unpacking some boxes.

My studio which is the cellar under the house is being used as storage while we square away the house proper.

I have done NO Art and its starting to get on my nerves now, but needs must. Life on hold, it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully start work on making the cellar into a usable studio for me and my wife.

As soon as I have some art to post you will be the first to know

Moving House

Many of my friends will know that a house move is on the cards, one with a purpose built art studio beneath it #bigsmiles

I am sat waiting patiently for the van......tap tap tap......... but it means that i have been quiet, sketches on hold, paintings on hold, driftwood on hold, life on hold

See you in a week roughly

Lee

Red Ball UK art project

Whilst enjoying the crisp sea air at The Barbican, Plymouth today, my wife and I were walking down the main cobbled stone street when we cam across an oddity, there squeezed between two "Elizabethan"?, buildings, was a giant Red Ball.

It turns out this ball is travelling the country as some sort of art project by Kurt Perschke and is titled, Kurt Perschke's RedBall UK

You can find out more about the project on its websites the UK site and the Artists Site click the pictures below, or follow them on twitter @RedBallUK

Sketch 6

Colour Study Composition Sketch 006 Oil Pastels

I did this sketch while working out a composition and wanted to lay down some colour as well so I decided to use oil pastels on paper

Drawing a Realistic Eye

Sketch a day 5

Just five minutes doodling with a new black marker that I bought for packing up the house to see if it has any qualities, it may come in useful but it saturates the paper

Daily Sketches 2, 3 and 4

Sketch 002

Sketch 003

Sketch 004

Pop Art Poppies

I took a lovely close up of a poppy in its natural surroundings sometime ago and i used this as a basis for creating a pop art poppy picture using a photo editing software.

Digital Art is something that appeals to me because I spend many hours on my laptop and it is something I can experiment with while doing my day to day activities

I cannot see it ever replacing my love of natural art though. However, my wife and children are buying me a digital art tablet for Fathers Day which is fast approaching. Yippeeeeeeeeeee

UKCPS

I've just signed up for membership to the society, seen as I have enrolled on a Coloured Pencil Certificate Course I thought that a membership would enhance my learning in this medium. I have always admired the beauty of coloured pencil paintings and hope that I can produce some great artwork that shows exactly how gorgeous this medium is

In other news I have just invested in a tin of Derwent Coloursoft 24 pencils and shall be doing some sketch work to see how the pencils produce for me and what effects, textures and colour blends I can get with them.

Bethany is back to normal today, armless, bored but back to her usual self. I just hope this means i can now knuckle down and continue with my schedule that has suffered since her accident.

I am moving in a few weeks time, no definite date yet but I cannot wait to get into my purpose built studio which comes with my new house.

I have some work to do

I am working on developing this picture into a painting in either oil or acrylic

Okay well its better to have a hurdle now at the beginning

Spent two nights in Hospital with Bethany so that they could reset her bones after A&E messed the setting of it up.

This means I have been unable to sketch or do pretty  much anything else, standby as I am not letting this get in the way.

Bethany is back to normal, how quick children bounce back

Sketch a day 001

 Traditional Cornish Unit - A4 - Pen and Watercolour Wash

Well what a horrid 24hrs

After settling down to do my very first sketch for my challenge sketch a day yesterday, there was a blood curdling scream and the upshot of that was me racing towards A&E (ER if your American) with my 7yr old daughter Bethany who has broken her arm in two places jumping around on her friends tramoline. 6hrs later two very tired people arrived home 4am one in plaster and the other wanting to get plastered.....

I have hospital Thursday with her to see if they shall operate.

I did manage my first sketch though which is only a simple view near to our house, it was all I could muster considering the chaos

Sketch a day

While I am a budding artist and I am in my comfort zone with paint and canvas, drawing has to be my weakness. I find it extremely hard to make marks on paper that I am happy with so I void it like the plague. Most people think that all professional artists are acomplished in drawing and sketching but this is just not so. There are so many ways to cheat the drawing process and get on with the painting that its easy to fool the uninitiated with graphite paper, tracedown, camera lucida, photographs and the grid technique.

So.................

I am plucking up the courage to better my drawing and sketching skills and one way I have though about this is to embark on a sketch a day programme. Taking out my sketch book everyday, drawing or sketching something and then posting the result on here for all to see.......

I am chewing my finger nails in fear and anxiety just writing about doing this....

okay deep breaths............ wish me luck

Check back regular for my sketch a day and my thoughts on the process' involved, for good or for bad I am going to do this

Turner Acryl Gouache

After seeing a demonstration of acryl gouache by Turner on youtube I was compelled to give them a try. I'm not a watercolourist by any stretch of the imagination and whilst I sometimes play with them from time to time I tend to stick with Oils and Acrylics. I am eagerly awaiting my trial pack which is currently out of stock damn it lol

Anyways I shall post the results once I get the chance to try them out.

If you want to know where you can buy these paints then click the link Turner Acryl Gouache

This is my daughters Art please check it out she is 16

This is just one picture from my daughters art portfolio she is starting a course in Photography September at Plymouth College of Art, please check out her work and leave her a comment.

Photo references that I may develop into Paintings

Still Life & Mythological Oil Paintings by Sandra Yagi

Still Life & Mythological Oil Paintings by Sandra Yagi

- Lori McNee Artist

http://www.finearttips.com/2009/11/palette-tips-%E2%80%93-organize-your-paints/

Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

Winsor and Newton Artists Oil Colour Bamboo Box, Art Supplies and Art materials, SAA

Winsor and Newton Artists Oil Colour Bamboo Box, Art Supplies and Art materials, SAA

These are the paints I use in many of my paintings and this is a fantastic set for starting out in oils. Always use the best you can afford, and using artist quality paint as a beginner will increase your confidence with the medium as the vibrancy in artist oils is so much brighter, and you will use less!

Artists Helping Artists: Branding and Growing Your Art Business

I came across this blog today while looking for other blogs with the same keywords as mine. This is just one particular post of many on the site which focus on blog radio talks geared to helping artists. I suggest you take a look because even though it is American based we can all adapt the advise to suit our own countries.

Enjoy :-)

Artists Helping Artists: Branding and Growing Your Art Business: Painting by Leslie Saeta "Branding and Growing Your Art Business" Scheduled Air Date: Thursday, January 19, 9:00 am PST, 12:00 noon EST...

Women are from Venus

This painting was a commissioned piece with a brief that it had to be a Landscape but out of  this world and needed to be pink and purple. I decided to do the work in my usual medium and used Winsor & Newton Artists Oils. I completed this in several stages.

Women are from Venus - Oil on Canvas 22" x 18"

Old Wooden Door

This is an old painting done when I was experimenting with Watercolour. I read an article of the "The Artist" magazine by Terry Harrison and decided to give it a go, I was working in oils at the time and had never used Watercolour. I must admit I do not paint often in Watercolour as yet.

I guess this page will feature my art

There comes a time in ones life where technology gets a grip of you and you either have to ride the flow of the tide or get swept away by it, so here goes, my artistic life will now be displayed for all of you to see warts and all.

I decided to plot my artistic journey, from sketches, planning, preparation paintings and masterpieces, expect to see it all the good the bad and the ugly with the odd ramble thrown in for good measure. I am working on developing a series of plein air paintings of Cornwall and I am toying with the idea of an engineering theme also at the moment, seen as I work full time for First Great Western Trains as a Mechanical/Electrical Engineer, expect to see trains.

I am also an avid photographer and I am looking to expand my photography portfolio into a business acumen so again watch this space.

Feel free to comment.

You can contact me Enchanted Art Studio