Blog

  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...

One of the largest animals on the planet, these gentle giants are one of Lore's favourite creatures to paint! In this workshop, she shows how she likes to paint humpback whales in watercolour, with a bit of ink and splatter to finish it off.  Step 1: Quick Sketch To paint these wonderful whales, you'll need a cold press A4 watercolour sketchbook, watercolour paints, a palette, a size 3, 6, and 8 round brush, 2 containers of water, paper towels, an HB pencil, an eraser, a 0.1 and 0.3 black waterproof fine liner, and a white gel pen. It will also...

One excellent way to improve your painting speed is to paint from life and do it often. Liz McGrath makes beautiful diary sketchbooks to record her daily life. Follow along with Liz in this step-by-step tutorial and find out how to create an accurate botanical illustration in no time at all. Warmup   Practice drawing different vase shapes by thinking of how the cross-section looks in perspective. All a vase is (if you’re thinking about how to draw it) is a stack of ellipses, and those ellipses will of course, appear different depending on their position relative to the horizon line....

We often hear about the benefits of learning human anatomy to draw people more accurately, so why not apply the same principle to drawing animals? Jun Pierre Shiozawa has a thorough 90-minute Etchr Studio class where he explains the anatomy of birds. Birds are more simply shaped than other animals, so this is a great place to learn animal anatomy. Let's follow his advice and see what we make!  Basic Shapes   Bird anatomy can be reduced to an egg shape, a sphere for the head, little circles where the feet wrap around the perch, and approximate lines for everything else....

If you’ve ever wanted to paint a seascape in gouache but have no idea where to start, artist Sergio Lopez has your back! In this workshop, he shows clear steps on how to progress from blocking in shapes to adding details for a cohesive and strong seaside composition. Step 1: Preparations To follow along, you’ll need" a cold press A4 watercolour sketchbook, gouache paints, a palette, a ¾”, ½”, and ¼” flat brush, a size 3 round brush, a ¾” Grainer brush, 2 containers of water, and paper towels. You should also use artist’s tape to tape the edges of your sketchbook...

Gold watercolours behave quite differently from regular watercolours, but it doesn’t take long to figure them out once you know a few tricks. Once you master gold watercolours, the question is: How best to use them? Painting as usual and then adding gold sparkles here and there might look a bit tacky, so you want to plan to include the metallic paints. Jill Gustavis explores the world of metallic paint in her excellent 90-minute class, and we’re going to take a little preview right now to see how it all works. Before we begin, let’s briefly discuss how gold watercolour...