 Do you love visiting the beach? Summer holidays, wild winter walks along the sand dunes, sunrise or sunset along golden sands. All your senses engaged in the sounds, sights and smells of the beach and sea. It is special alright. For the artist there are subjects to paint galore. But tricky as well if you want to describe the light accurately. Mixing the color of sand, for example, is important since it is, well … the beach!
In this article I take a closer look at painting the colors of the beach. Grab your sand-board and let’s get started. 
Color mixing remains a constant challenge for artists. Most of the questions that I get from students is how to mix certain colors. Of these many relate to mixing flesh colors. This is understandable when you consider the colors used by masters like Rembrandt. Look at the portrait of Rembrandt above. The variety of colors used are astonishing. A magnificent achievement. How can our paltry color mixes come close to this?
In this article I will give you the exact process that you can follow to get better at mixing flesh tones. 
What is gouache you may be asking? Well you will feel familiar with gouache if you try it out. It instantly reminded me of painting in primary school. Remember that powder paint mixed in water back in the day? Ah…good times! Except that school paint was horrible. But proper artists gouache is brilliant for painting with. Let me tell you more about it in this article.
Imagine if artists put their books and courses into a giant digital bundle and sold it at a big discount. Sounds like a good deal right? That is exactly what John Bardos of Bundles for Good is doing. As a result John helps artists, but also makes a massive contribution to charity. Find out more about how you can get involved in my interview with John Bardos.  The Painterly Workshop is an extensive online learning experience for artists. It is also the foundation of my art coaching program that has been running for three years now. Due to the growth of the coaching program and requests for alternative access to the learning materials I have created two further options for artists.
Do you love to try out art materials? Sure you do and I am no different. It is exciting to see the new art kit coming out on the market. Not to mention the classic fine art materials that we all covet. Now why don’t I do a monthly Art Materials Review article to share those goodies with you? Brilliant idea if I do say so myself. So lets tuck into this months goodies. What are we going to look at this month? Rembrandt artist’s paints, Krylon Quick Dry Spray and Spray Gesso, Pan Pastels and Van Gogh soft pastels. Find out how they did: 
Many artists worry about painting with oils over acrylics. It is a question I receive very often. Also whether you can paint with oils on paper. See more of that here. But I digress. Oil paint will happily adhere to dried acrylic paint. But do not paint with acrylics over oils. In order to answer this question thoroughly I have a demonstration for you. I am using the old master approach of a monochrome grisaille. Except I am going to use very modern acrylics. Lets dive in!
Do you have painting goals? For some artists simply getting a chance to paint among many other demands is a miracle in itself. For others painting is a compulsion that consumes their free time. A need to create increasingly better paintings is standard procedure for these enthusiasts. If you are constantly searching for that new approach, technique or color mix then you may find this article useful. This article is about the beauty of a creative process that delivers results. Not a magic wand. Rather a process that will reward the enthusiastic painter. 
Do you want to see your painting skills progress over time? Sure you do and so will anyone who loves painting. Practice plays a big part. Nothing beats time spent actually painting. But learning new techniques to add to your experience is vital too. You know the old adage about doing the same thing and expecting different results right? Not going to happen. I have covered beginners tips on acrylic painting before. In this article and video I am going to show you a few more advanced tips.
Ready to learn more about acrylic painting?  What does a fox, an author and spooky stories have in common? Find out in this first Q&A article where I interview an emerging author about his inspiration for writing. Every artist struggles with inspiration at times. Procrastination more often I would think. Even when inspired there are distractions, fears and chores that beckon. To my mind authors must have the worst of this. Writing is fearfully solitary and minimalist. At least a painter has tubes of paint, brushes and many colorful things to entice and lure one to the canvas. An author has a keyboard or typewriter (there are a few left). The most hardcore only have a few pencils and writing pads. How about an author that is writing one short story a day for three hundred and sixty five days? That must take commitment and discipline. Let’s meet this young author and find out more. |
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AuthorMalcolm Dewey: Artist. Country: South Africa 
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