Three beautiful oil paintings today by student Mahua Pal who is studying on our Oil painting Course. The oils course is fairly open in that you can paint any subject within the guidelines of each assignment. So if you want to specialise for instance in street scenes or flowers, the choice is yours. We love the bright colours and bold strokes of paint that Mahua has used here, creating three very inviting scenes.

Don’t forget with modern day paints you have the option to purchase paints with little or no odour and easy clean up. So theres no excuse to learn to paint in oils. If you would like to check out what our online art course entails, visit our website to find out more – Oil Painting Course.

 

Shelby Bledsoe has drawn some wonderful studies in preparation for her colour work on our Life Drawing and Painting Course. We love the way that Shelby has shaded the background around her subjects and studies, allowing us to place the subject or help to add shadows on the ground around the studies.

There are many different ways of drawing subjects if you don’t have anyone to sit for you. Other than drawing a portrait of yourself in a mirror, one idea is to use YouTube for video poses. The Royal Academy have videoed a life drawing class with a life model holding poses for around 5 minutes and moving onto the next. This gives students to opportunity to draw short timed studies plus hit the pause button and draw more detailed poses for a longer amount of time. Make sure the video is set to 1080p in the settings on YouTube (cog on the bottom right of video) this will give you high definition film. Working from a tablet propped up in front of you, or a computer screen and a sketchbook, will help you improve your observational skills, pencil techniques and understanding of the human body. Good luck, have fun and let us know how you get on!

When you think about painting a landscape you tend to think about rolling hills and trees and looking as far as they eye can see. Representing the landscape with all of it’s beauty is important. However how many of you have realised that only half of it? The sky makes up a huge section of a landscape and it is very important to know how to paint it.

The ever changing light, the weather conditions, the shape of clouds in their many forms to knowing how to paint sky receding away from you adding depth and perspective to your scene is important. These are just a few things to overcome. Thats why on our Landscape painting course we study sky, clouds and their colours in all weather conditions. From painting from photos or if you want to brave the elements and paint ‘En plein air’ we will be there to guide you at every step.

Student Jackie Davies has done just that while working on our Landscape Painting Course as you can see below. Her sky studies are absolutely superb and we are very excited to see full paintings from Jackie in the coming weeks.

Today’s Spooky Saturday illustration is by student Diana Farmilo. Watch out if you are scared of spiders…this one might make you squeal!!

Have we got any Chinese Brush Painters among us? Perhaps you have always wanted to have a go and would like some guidance in doing so? London Art College student Senur Bicer has been doing just that working on our Brush Painting course experimenting with her inks and paints.  She has created some beautifully stunning piece which you can see below.

Senur has painted on exquisitely delicate papers including marbled paper which really lends itself to painting leaves with inks and fine brushes. Her butterfly painting which you can see below with the red border is simply stunning. We hope you find Senur’s paintings as inspiring as we do.

If you would like to have a go yourself, why not pop over to our website and take a look at our Chinese Brush Painting Course. We know that you will enjoy every minute of it!

Some of our readers might not be aware that we offer two lovely courses for the young artists amongst us from ages 7 to 14.  Talitha Young has completed our Drawing for Children’s courses 1 and 2 recently and here are just a few of the images she created whilst on the course. We love the ingenious characters Talitha has come up with on the course. Aren’t they fantastic! Beware anyone who dares to sit in Talitha’s green chair as it looks as though it comes to life with eyes, hands and a scary mouth!!

If you have a creative youngster in your home who loves drawing, why not enroll them on one of our courses to keep them occupied with in their spare time. Our course works easily around school work and home life and if you are home schooling your child – its the perfect accompaniment to your art lessons. Drawing for Children ….

 

Our Drawing and Painting Diploma Course is one of our most popular courses. It is a perfect course for the beginner to be introduced to the world of drawing and painting and its even great for intermediate artists to brush up on their skills. All with guidance from their personal tutor.

Student Cindy Jeyaretnam has created a wonderful pencil drawing, covering the entire paper with graphite and tonal ranges. This has enabled Cindy to really bring out the highlights on the objects and help create their solidity and three dimensional form. Each object has been carefully observed and shaded, each interacting with the object next to it with shadows from one to the other. This is absolutely superb as it helps create the placement of each object. Cindy should be really thrilled with this drawing and I hope you all find it inspiring too! Head on over to our Drawing and Painting Diploma Course to find out if its the right course for you….

Student Chew Mei Hui completed these two superb designs whilst studying our Graphic Design Art Course with tutor Vanessa Weaver. Our graphic design course is suitable for all levels of experience and can really help students to improve their creative skills and learn new design techniques. Whether using traditional or digital media, our course can help you develop and expand on your skills. As you can see below Chew Mei Hui has been experimenting and designing posters and book jackets for one of her assignments. If you are interested in improving your design skills, why not visit our website for more detail on our Graphic Design Art Course.

Welcome to our blog post announcing the new tutor of our Illustration Diploma Course!

Steven Hersey taught art for many years in a secondary school. Since his retirement from teaching  Steven has been delivering workshops and demonstrations at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Walker Art Gallery.

He has also been tutoring students on a one-to-one basis, in order to help them develop and improve their skills.  Several of his students have gone on to have their own exhibitions and have been very successful.  He also regularly leads workshops and demonstrations for local art groups.

A fine art background enabled Steven to explore a range of materials and techniques including oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastel, pen, pencil and crayon.  His own art college education involved sculpture and printing as well as drawing and painting, developing his work through etching, screenprint and lithography.

Commissions have been welcome in the last few years.  The challenges and pressures of a commission drive  Steven to explore a new territory with each piece of work.  Tailoring it to fit the client’s particular need is an exciting challenge.  It is very good training for the artist!

Steven believes his style of teaching and guidance enables students to discover for  themselves their strengths and areas for further development.  Encouragement, patience and getting to know a student’s abilities and aims all help in this process.

You can view a wide range of Steven’s artwork below. We hope that our student’s enjoy working with Steven and learn a lot under his guidance!

 

    

Today’s Spooky Saturday artwork is by Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma student Charley Muhren.