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If you've ever wanted to paint some loose urban sketches but still want to capture the essence of the scene, now's your chance! Artist Ruud Otten demonstrates his flair for loose yet charming urban sketches and shares quite a few valuable tips along the way. Step 1: Loose Sketch Ruud selects a scene of South Church (Zuiderkerk) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as he wants to capture the beauty of this place. You can find and download or print out a copy of the reference photo here. As for other tools, you'll need a B5 cold-press watercolour sketchbook or a sheet of...

Even if you are pressed for time, you can still capture urban scenes that pack a punch! Artist Amy Stewart gives some helpful tips and shares a few secrets to using value and colour to make amazing art. Step 1: Sketching and Inking While you can use these techniques at home and work from a reference photo, Amy highly recommends using them when you are outside as well. This is because working from real life is often better, as your eye can capture the moment and atmosphere much better than a camera lens can. Even if you are working against...

Fruits are a wonderful way to capture life's journey and bring a creative element to your journaling. In this fruity workshop, Becky Cao will show you how to use watercolour journaling to document the process of eating a banana. Read on and learn to capture the beauty of everyday life! Step 1: Straight to Ink To start, you'll need: an A4 cold press watercolour sketchbook, a banana, watercolour paints, a palette, a size 6 water brush (or paintbrush), 2 containers of water (if you're not using a water brush), paper towels, an HB pencil, a 0.1 black waterproof fineliner, and a small felt tip...

Whether you're just beginning to experiment with urban painting or want to hone your skills, there's always something very freeing about doing quick urban paintings. It's actually not as difficult as it seems, and luckily for us all, professional artist Adrianna Johnston has a few tricks up her sleeve that we can all use. Read on to learn Adrianna's easy-going sketching and painting techniques as she paints an old building on Ellis Island, New York.  Step 1: Sketching and Inking Adrianna starts with a quick demonstration of how she plans to add texture to her painting via the wet-in-wet technique. It's...

In a previous blog post, I showed some methods you can use when mixing different colours for skin tones. So if you're looking for the basics, check that out first! For this blog post, I'll be sharing a few more tips on painting different skin tones, and even a wild card for anyone feeling a bit more experimental. Tip #1: Start Light I touched on this in the other blog post as well but always look to dilute your mixture rather than adding white. Adding white paint tends to dull your colours, so try to rely on the colour of the...

  Sometimes, it’s good to just paint and use it as a time to relax. Artist Nuraya Karsan shows us how she does so to unwind after her day job of being a nurse, so do chill along with us in this tutorial! The best thing is you’ll get a painting that looks like it took a lot of effort, but actually was created during your break time!  Step 1: Quick Sketch Before we begin, you’ll need to gather: a sheet of hot press A5 watercolour paper (or sketchbook), artist’s tape, watercolour paints, a palette, a size 3 or 6...