Winter is most definitely upon us and as the nights draw in and the days grow cold it’s ever so tempting to slump in to the sofa and hibernate until the daffs come out in March. But it’s undeniable that the early morning frost, icicles, and low lying sun can bring a whole new dimension to the most everyday of surroundings. Bare branched trees offer rare opportunities to capture wildlife in the fold, weather pushes the rivers to their brinks and a single snow flurry can completely transform any landscape into a veritable feast of imagery for keen photographers.
Guy Edwardes' Snow Drops
1. 100 Ways to Take Better Nature & Wildlife Photographs
Joe Francis Dowden free tips - read the full post to view the free tips.
As the days grow longer and spring starts to warm up the days it’s time to think about getting out and about, drawing and painting. Joe Francis Dowden’s book, The Landscape Painter’s Essential Handbook, is packed with 50 projects on how to paint beautiful landscapes in watercolour.
To celebrate spring being just around the corner and giving us more chance to get out and paint, below is the first of a few new free projects.
Joe Francis Dowden shows us some great tips on how to paint a shingle beach. As Joe mentions in his opening line for these tips, “A million pebbles on a beach, jumbled one on top of the other, all different colours, all in perspective”, if you are like me you will be thinking where do I start, but these great tips will guide you in the right direction.
A quick post today as I could not help but highlight this video clip I came across on the net. The clip shows John Baxter painting a great watercolour landscape scene. If you want to learn a technique or wonder how an artist creates their paintings, then there is nothing better than watching them in action.
This clip is like standing over the shoulder of watercolour artist John Baxter, as he creates this wonderful painting. Watch the painting unfold and enjoy!
There is so much information on the internet it’s hard to know where to start. This weekends trawl of the internet has thrown up this video clip that I wanted to highlight. Terry Harrison shows us how to paint simple trees in acrylic with great effect and I particular like this method as it’s a similar method of painting that I use. Building up the layers of paint, both wet and dry, can produce some great effects and using those old brushes for extra textures adds another dimension.
Enjoy the video clip and feel free to let us know what you think.
This weeks trawl of the net has thrown up this demonstration by artist Maxim Grunin which I wanted to highlight to you. Using Acrylic paints myself, I found this clip really interesting as I like the end result and especially the sheer scale of the piece, along with the apparent ease in which Maxim produces the piece.
If you have any interesting video clips or have come across any clips on the internet, let us know, as we would be interested to take a look.
As we celebrate the launch of the new look RUBooks web site we have some free projects for our artists and photographers. The second FREE art project, which you can view or download and take away with you by opening and reading the full post. We hope you enjoy it but let us know what you think, plus, if you have any ideas on the projects you would like to see, just leave us a comment and let us know.
In this great little project, artist Joe Francis Dowden shows us tips for painting surf breaking over rocks, the colour palette used and some steps to help create a wonderful watercolour image. The project itself is taken from the book, The Landscape Painter’s Essential Handbook, which shows you how to paint 50 beautiful landscapes in watercolour.
As we celebrate the launch of the new look RUBooks web site we have some free projects for our artists and photographers. Here’s the second FREE photography project, which you can view or download and take away with you by opening and reading the full post. We hope you enjoy it but let us know what you think, plus, if you have any ideas on the projects you would like to see, just leave us a comment and let us know.
This project is taken from the book ‘The Digital SLR Experts Landscape’. This practical book has step-by-step examples and invaluable secrets from five leading professional photographers who show you how to use your digital SLR to its full potential.
To celebrate the launch of the new look RUBooks web site we have some free projects for our artists and photographers. Here’s the art project, which you can view or download and take away with you, but keep checking back for more to follow. We hope you enjoy them and let us know what you think, plus, if you have any ideas on the projects you would like to see, just leave us a comment and let us know.
Joe Francis Dowden, watercolour artist, reveals some of his painting techniques in this project, where he shows us tips on painting the water in a stream in full flow. I find watercolours like this really hard to master especially when trying to paint water itself, as the thicker acrylic style of painting is more my style.
In this project Joe Francis Dowden highlights the palette he uses and 6 steps to help paint a stream in full flow. This FREE project is one of many tips and projects from his book, The Landscape Painter’s Essential Handbook from David & Charles. The book itself covers projects from snow-covered mountains to tranquil meadows, a unique artist’s reference that will show you how to paint 50 glorious landscapes in watercolour.
I always have trouble when thinking about painting snow but with winter approaching snow could be on the agenda for one of your next paintings. The David and Charles book Acrylic Landscapes in a weekend, by Keith Fenwick has a great tip for painting snow, see below…
Painting Snow
You need to plan ahead when painting a snow scene, as the most important thing is to leave the white of the paper uncovered to represent the snow. However, snow does not always appear uniformly white. There will be cloud shadows and shadows or reflections from surrounding objects.
Don’t forget, you can print this tip by clicking the printer icon at the top of this post.
This week’s trawl of the net I came up with this little gem showing Terry Harrison painting with Acrylics. As a painter, I love the use of really old paint brushes that give you great textures and marks and no matter how old the brushes get I always keep them handy.
Terry Harrison uses an everyday sponge to great effect when painting the trees and bushing in his painting. The grass effect Terry gets when he lightly drags the sponge down has a lovely painterly feel and I will certainly give this technique a go in my traditional paintings in the future. Terry has produced a number of great books to help the budding artist, but enjoy this clip and watch out for other great clips to follow.
I always have trouble when thinking about painting snow but with winter approaching snow could be on the agenda for one of your next paintings. The David and Charles book Acrylic Landscapes in a weekend, by Keith Fenwick has a great tip for painting snow, see below…