CATEGORIES
Painting FROM PHOTOS
Former BP Travel Award winner EDWARD SUTCLIFFE shares his simple seven-step plan for making striking realist paintings from your source pictures
Sketchbook STRATEGY
Although you only tend to see finished work, a sketchbook is often a key part of the process. We asked seven top artists to open their books and share their methods
Expressive FIGURES
Royal Institute of Oil Painters member LUIS MORRIS shows how working from a sketch and mixing up a range of colours early can allow a more creative, painterly finish
Painting from memory
After a year in lockdown, our visual memories are more important than ever. ROB DUDLEY shares a method that will help you utilise them to create more artistic paintings
Fresh Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
David Hockney
Writing exclusively for Artists & Illustrators, author and art critic MARTIN GAYFORD speaks to the great Yorkshire artist about the joys of spring, his enduring inspirations, and how his latest French studio has given him a new lease of life – and cured his limp!
1. COLOUR LANGUAGE
JAKE SPICER begins a new four-part series on understanding colour by showing us how the use of more accurate descriptions can help us better identify and replicate hues
Painting POETRY
Ignoring textbooks and making up her own rules has garnered landscape painter MARY ANNE AYTOUNELLIS many fans, including Prince Charles, as REBECCA BRADBURY finds out Poetry
PREPARATORY STUDIES
Tempted to just get started on a final painting straight away? ROB WAREING shows you why completing a single-session study first can enhance the finished work
The Working Artist
Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL was inspired by an ex-student, who reminded her that the journey is more important than the destination
WOODCUT Prints
Our regular columnist (and leading printmaker) LAURA BOSWELL guides you through all the tools and techniques required to make a simple two-block woodcut print
WASSILY KANDINSKY
The Russian painter was one of the first true abstract artists, using music as a basis for his instinctive paintings. STEVE PILL explores his colourful responses to the world
Rita ISSAC
The multi-media artist on her new book, journaling and keeping motivated. Interview: REBECCA BRADBURY
Mixing Orange
GRAHAME BOOTH ’s new series focuses in turn on the secondary colours. Starting with orange, he will show you how to mix perfect hues for every occasion
ELISE ANSEL
By striking up a conversation with the Old Mistresses of art history, this American oil painter has brought their stories to life via her fresh and abstracted style
2. STILL LIFE painting
Continuing his new series on composing pictures, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ chair of painting AL GURY talks us through humble still life traditions
1 REMBRANDT
Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor and artist LAURA SMITH looks to the work of the Old Masters and sets a series of exercises that will improve your composition skills
Mary Newcomb
This self-confessed “country artist” developed a cult following for her post-war paintings of everyday life. KATIE MCCABE revisits the inspirations behind her art
Mark Entwisle
The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition winner talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about being a frustrated oil painter and working in his “man cave” garden studio
LANDSCAPE painting
In the first of a three-part series on composing paintings, AL GURY begins by introducing a more responsive approach to landscapes with his 15-step guide to success
Reflections
Shiny and see-through surfaces are a daunting challenge to replicate, so the Pastel Society’s LIZ BALKWILL has set an exercise that will help you simplify the process
Masters at work
Exploring the workspaces of Old Masters and modern artists is a great way to learn about their lives and their craft. We picked out 12 of the best that you can visit
Fresh Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
Drawing Fur
Wildlife artist JASON MORGAN has spent more than 20 years perfecting his technique for rendering animal fur. Discover his simple, three-stage approach with stunning results
Light and Shade
Finding variety in repeated forms is the key to creating interesting pictures.FABIO CEMBRANELLI shows you how with a gorgeous wisteria-covered doorway in France
FFIONA LEWIS
A new studio has brought new challenges and big opportunities for this architectturned-artist as she scales up to make her largest and most ambitious paintings yet
Back to DEMO future
Short of inspiration during lockdown, MATT JEANES needed a new challenge. He turned to vintage photographs and tried to add some fresh colour to forgotten images of the past
21 For 2021
To kickstart the new year in inspiring fashion, we’ve curated a selection of 21 emerging painters who are doing fresh and exciting things within the traditions of figurative art
Go To Work On An Egg!
Liz Balkwill challenges you to think conceptually in still life
Four-Colour Experiment
Paint a self-portrait with a limited palette to really get to know your colours, says James Bland