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February 2019 Issue

Articles, Tips & Videos How to Substitute Colours That You Don't Have This is one of the most important blog posts we've published. If you struggle with colour mixing or following with a lesson where you don't have exactly the same colours, this is a must read. How to Use Negative Space in Figure Drawing This is the ONE and ONLY time that you are allowed to be negative about your drawings. This quick video from artist Jane Lazenby talks about how to get your eyes to recognise negative shapes. It's a really useful skill for any artist to have. How to Paint Florals in Pastel A lovely, simple look at how to blend and layer pastels to create a pretty in pink floral still life. With artist Michael Howley. Acrylic Palettes & Accessories As with all painting media, there are a number of accessories available that can make your acrylic painting experience easier more enjoyable. In this blog, Bob considers which are the must-haves to help get you started. Acrylic Mediums & Additives Using mediums and additives to change the properties of your acrylic paint can be exciting but also daunting. Bob takes a look at the most common types of products on offer and offers suggestions on what to buy.

Reader Poll: What style of artwork do you prefer? In last month's poll, we asked where you make most of your art. Here were the top 5 answers from over 2000 artists: Spare/guest bedroom: 23% Dedicated art room/studio: 22% Dining room: 17% Kitchen: 13% Home office: 11% In this week's poll, let's find out whether most people are attracted to very loose and impressionistic art or photo-realism or something in-between. There's definitely a bias towards photo-realism in non-artists. Let's see if that holds true for people who make art and by how much...

Cast Your Vote

"Sofia" by Collette - Acrylics on canvas Member Artwork Showcase This is 'Sofia' by ArtTutor member Collette - a beautiful portrait painting with a very unique and eye-catching style. You have to admire those colours and textures! It's a great example of how you can get a little bit crazy with your colour palette and yet retain a very believable and recognisable outcome. You and I may not know who 'Sofia' is but we can tell it's a very strong portrait, with excellent proportion and placement of the facial features.    So how, on a practical level, can you play about with your own style without simply ending up making a mess? Here are two tips that I think can help... 1. Get your drawing right. If your underdrawing is out of proportion - if it's poorly observed - it won't matter how refined your shading, blocking-in or blending is. You can obsess over perfect colour matches all you like but the final result will still jar the observer's eye. Yes, you can trace or use a grid to get a solid outline. And many top artists do that for speed. But if you lack the observational awareness to retain good proportion and good shape as you paint over your lines, that initial tracing or grid drawing won't save you.      So get your outline drawing right - take as long as it needs - and then constantly review it throughout the painting or shading in process. Nothing will have a bigger impact on the final outcome, regardless of style. 2. Good tonal value makes colour choice (largely) irrelevant. When most hobby artists look at the portrait above (or this one of Daniel Craig) they assume it's the choice of colour that gives it the wow factor. And it is. But only because the underlying tonal values have been carefully retained. 'Value' simply refers to how light or how dark a colour is. Two completely different colours, like red and blue, can be equally as dark or light as each other. As long as you can observe the underlying value, you can swap, say a flesh tone, for a green or a purple or luminous yellow, or any other colour like... and you'll retain that sense of solidity and depth. To make this easier, convert your reference photo to black and white. This stops you from being distracted or influenced by existing colours. Plus, it lets you see the tonal values much more easily.   All you have to do then is mix a colour (go crazy!), squint your eyes as you look at it, and try to match the lightness or darkness to the grey tone on your reference. Easier said than done I know, but give it a go. Oh, and here's Collette's painting in black and white. Looking at it, you have no idea that an eclectic colour palette has been used. And that's because colour is largely irrelevant in the presence of good tonal values. Phil Davies.

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