I have students who email me saying they’ve painted in the past, but are taking a break.
They still read and enjoy the tutorials, but don’t feel like they could give them a go. They don’t feel they could start again because they’re back at ground zero.
But I want you to know that hesitancy to start painting again has nothing to do with your skills.
You know how to mix colours, and you’ve got an empty canvas ready to go!
What’s gone is your belief that it’ll be good.
This January, I’ve had tons of household stuff to catch up on and new courses I’m researching, but alongside all that, I’ve been putting time aside to paint daily.
But what happens when the day doesn’t go to plan?
You miss one or two days, and it doesn’t change much.
But when you’ve missed a week, something begins to shift.
What about a month? A decade?
What I’ve discovered through my own practice is that the barrier to returning to painting isn’t lost skill—it’s lost confidence.
The Forgetting Curve and the Confidence Gap
We’ve previously looked at the forgetting curve, which shows us that we forget new knowledge at a surprisingly quick rate.
But this is something different.
The longer you wait, the more the psychological pressure builds.
It’s irrational.
Anxiety builds to such a point that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Procrastinating Painter
Timothy A. Pychyl, PhD, author of ‘Solving the Procrastination Puzzle’, is a procrastination researcher.
Through his research, he’s found that putting things off isn’t really about not having the time to do them, but about avoiding the perceived negative emotions that will come with the thing you’re procrastinating on.
“Procrastination isn’t a time management problem; it’s an emotional management problem. We have negative emotions attached to some tasks….we feel frustration, boredom, resentment or anxiety. By putting off the task, we put off those emotions, and that’s the crazy self-defeating nature of it all.”
We’re avoiding the negative emotion that we’ve suddenly become terrible artists!
Miss one day and you’re a painter who took a break.
Miss a month, and you become someone who used to paint.
Build Evidence, Not Motivation
Keeping a record of your past work matters.
It can be a quick snap on your phone (Here’s how to take better iPhone shots of your paintings) or one of the pieces you’re most proud of displayed where you can see it.
When doubt creeps in after a break, you need something tangible to look back on, proof that you were once in that zone, that you did create something you were proud of.
And this leans into another strange thing that happens with creative work: when you finish a painting, you immediately see only the flaws. Every wrong mix, every misaligned feature. You’re intensely critical.
So it makes it even harder to come back to your paintings after a break, because alongside the doubt, you will see the work more harshly when you’ve first finished it.
However, come back a week later, you’ll look at the same piece and think, “Who painted that?” You’re genuinely surprised by its quality.
This happens to all artists.
How to beat procrastination with Procatalepsis
Procatalepsis comes from the Greek: pro (before) + katalepsis (seizing or grasping).
When debating a point, it’s a way of highlighting your own shortcomings before your opponent can voice them towards you.
You’re doing the same thing, except the opponent is your own resistance.
This is particularly effective against procrastination because procrastination often disguises itself as legitimate concern. Your brain says, “I should wait until I’m more prepared” or “Maybe tomorrow when I’m fresher”, and these sound reasonable.
Here’s how you might use it for returning to portrait painting:
“I know the proportions are going to feel off in the first few attempts. The eyes won’t sit right, the nose will be too long, or the mouth too small. That’s not me forgetting how to paint, that’s my eye being sharper than my hand right now, which means my eye still works. The hand will catch up.”
You’re facing the fact that, of course, this won’t be your most accurate painting ever, how could it be!
By anticipating both your artistic doubts and your delay tactics, you can move forward.
Confidence Comes From the Work Itself
If you’re in the midst of an artist block, the answer isn’t to think harder about what you’ve lost or to wait to be inspired. It’s to reduce the friction of starting again.
Pick up the brush.
Copy something simple.
Let your hands remember what your mind has temporarily forgotten.
You’re not just practising the skill. You’re practising the courage to show up again, even when the distance to where you want to be feels insurmountable.
Your painting skills aren’t lost; you just need the evidence to believe in them again.
Left: The Jester Don John of Austria, Diego Velázquez. 1632–1633.
Right: Buffoon Don Juan of Austria, John Singer Sargent. 1879.
You’re six months into painting, with a couple of decent Monet studies under your belt, and you’re starting to experiment with Van Gogh’s impasto brush strokes.
A friend walks by your easel: “Oh, you’re copying again?”
That word, copying, lands like an accusation.
It doesn’t feel like “real painting,” does it? Real painters have an original vision. Real painters have their own unique style. Real painters don’t spend Tuesday afternoons recreating someone else’s portrait from 1885.
Last week, I sat down to write new goals for the year ahead.
Eating healthier, moving more (that came up a lot!), and I noticed myself saying something I’ve said many times before. “This year I’m going to paint more plein air.”
It sounds reasonable. But I’ve learnt that with painting and drawing, more isn’t the thing that moves you forward. Focus is.
Alignment over Inspiration
If you want to reach your art goals in 2026, you need better art alignment.
But when you have a specific goal, it helps to be specific with your practice too.
If portraits are your goal, you don’t need to “earn” your way there by painting still lives first. Even a small, focused study, like an ear, can move you closer to where you want to be.
I made the mistake of telling my sister about my resolutions, and she phoned yesterday to check up on me! I made a fumbled excuse about it being too cold to go outside to paint (I know some readers will laugh who are in -25 degrees, so appreciate my excuse is unfounded!)
So today I’ve propped an easel in the kitchen warmth, looking out the window. Heating on and tea by my side.
It’s a small move towards plein air.
Reading an article, watching a video, or reading a book counts as research, but it isn’t the same as actually practising drawing or painting.
Time under Tension
Instead of asking whether you’ll paint more portraits this year, try planning the kind of day that, repeated often enough, would make improvement inevitable.
It’s usually not a matter of finding the time, but of doing the thing you said you wanted to do in the time you set aside for it, without letting yourself drift into something else.
As the year unfolds, check for alignment. Treat new methods as learning, not success or failure. Create in ways that energise you. And be kinder to your artistic self.
Like drawing a portrait, a slight adjustment in direction can change everything.
As the pace softens and the new year comes into view, there’s often a quiet sense of possibility in the air.
It’s like a mirror has been held up to what you’d promise yourself you’d do – if only you had the time.
This is when expectations and comparison creeps in.
Goals grow too big too fast, and before you know it, the idea of making this your “best art year ever” quietly freezes you in place.
So what do you do next?
Experiment without expectation.
Painting a wall is better than waiting for your next masterpiece. One colour on the page is better than agonising over the perfect nineteenth-century palette.
Doodle, draw, paint, make. If you are putting a mark to a page, you are creating.
Confidence does not arrive first. It follows the work.
Small, regular creative acts keep the wheels turning. Most breakthroughs happen while you are simply showing up, not forcing results.
A rough value study counts.
A colour swatch counts.
An unfinished sketch counts.
Four words that help
“I’ll try it anyway.”
I can’t draw an accurate portrait. “I’ll try it anyway.”
I don’t have all the colours for the lesson. “I’ll try it anyway.”
I feel uneasy sketching outside. “I’ll try it anyway.”
The tries become marks, and the marks become evidence.
Every sketch, every mix, every imperfect attempt quietly proves you are becoming the artist you want to be.
Picture yourself a year from now with a thousand small pieces of ‘artistic evidence’ behind you. Growth becomes unavoidable.
So step into that uneasy space before the new year. This is where artistic confidence is made.
It has been a brilliant couple of months across October and November. I’ve loved seeing all the paintings, sketches and studies that have been shared recently.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post their pieces. The creativity and progress on show over these weeks has been a real highlight.
What an incredible start to the Autumn it’s been! So proud to showcase a roundup of recent work from the students and artists following the courses and free lessons!
Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their beautiful work over the last couple of months.
“The pictures they created convinced me that anyone and everyone could use a few clear principles to build powerful visual statements: emotionally charged arrangements of shapes on a page.” – Molly Bang, Picture This: How Pictures Work
When you’re surrounded by hundreds of reference photos or standing in a beautiful location, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Every scene seems to have potential for a painting, but nothing quite clicks. You find yourself thinking, “Would this work?Will that look good?” without ever feeling confident in your choices.
This is where ‘compositional categories’ can really help organise your imagery and give you a starting point to check your compositions against.
Not by limiting your creativity, but by giving you a clear lens through which to view your options.
For this step-by-step tutorial, we’re focusing entirely on staying within the yellow family of colours.
We’ll move from a bright, saturated Cadmium Yellow Light through to a darker, earthy Raw Umber, and see how much of a painting we can create just within that colour family.
The perceived limitation of the palette actually becomes a strength. It forces you to examine form, composition, light, and the interaction between objects.
But the main thing it helps with is colour mixing.
Once you have the colour scale, you can adjust the colours by moving up or down it without veering too far off course.
Set in the heart of Copenhagen, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek building is a masterpiece.
The highly decorative red-brick façade leads you into the entrance hall (the oldest part of the museum, designed by Dahlerup), which initially has that familiar grandeur of other classically inspired museums.
Subdued light, intricate tiled floors, decorative ceilings and sweeping staircases stretching out to all sides.
Only after walking a few feet do you spot an archway and double doors that seem to lure you forward.
It keeps opening up, opening up, until you find yourself standing in a super-bright, glass-domed oasis.
I’m back in the studio, knee deep in a series of oil paintings.
And I’m really enjoying working with the fantastic malleability of oil paint. You can push it around, layer it thickly, and enjoy a long working time and soft, smoky blends.
But.
Even as a seasoned oil painter, when I’m sorting out my brushes, choosing paints and deciding on mediums, the sharp reality hits. Lack of preparation, a few poor habits, and rose-tinted expectations could easily counteract your efforts and enthusiasm.
Here are 7 Oil Painting Truths, so if you encounter any of them, you can smile and dust yourself down instead of letting them derail you.
1. You will get messy, drop paint, and get oil paint in areas you never realised you could.
I’ve found that no matter how careful you are, you will undoubtedly get oil paint on your hands, your brush handle and then get it on your top!
Wearing rubber gloves can improve your clean-up process, and I’d advise wearing an apron or an old shirt. Knowing that you will get it somewhere and being prepared for that.
Also, make sure not to eat or drink in that area, just because the oil paint will turn up where you least expect it. So the more dedicated space you have, the better.
2. You will get overwhelmed by the range of oil colours and different brushes for different techniques.
A small selection of my brushes! why do I still order more?
Every time I open an art magazine, there seems to be another new paint from a manufacturer.
“Is this the colour I’ve been missing?”
But honestly, the simpler you keep your colour mixing, the better. Just start with a few key colours and maybe a couple of dark earth tones. Those darker colours are great for underpainting or dropping the chromatic intensity. If you choose them well, you can do a huge number of paintings with just two or three colours.
I recently had a bit of a shock when it comes to brushes. I looked through mine and realised I had hundreds. But when I actually paid attention, I noticed I’d been buying the same two or three types over and over again. It turns out those are the ones I keep reaching for.
With oil paint, the biggest difference compared to acrylics is how many brushes you need. With acrylics, you can often get away with using one brush, rinsing it in water, and moving on. But with oils, especially if you want to avoid using lots of solvents, it’s much easier to just have extra brushes ready to go.
You should set aside a few for your darks, a few for your mids, and a few for your lights.
That way, you’re not constantly cleaning, and you reduce the risk of muddy colours from brush contamination. It’s one of the easiest ways to keep your painting clean and your process flowing.
3. You will try to put out too little paint to save money – this is a false economy
With oils, you can squeeze out a blob of paint, and it will last for days, sometimes even weeks. So don’t be afraid to put out more than you think you’ll need and mix more generously. It won’t go to waste like acrylics, where once it dries, it’s gone.
When you’re just starting out, using a student grade white can be a really smart move. Something like Winsor & Newton Winton Titanium White is great value. ( There is an offer on at Cass Arts for £14.50 for two 200 ml tubes)
In this case, unlike acrylics, artist-quality white isn’t as important.
That’s because with oils, to get a clean colour application on top of your existing wet colours, you usually need to paint thicker and then leave the brushstroke alone.
With acrylics, the opposite is true. You can use thinner layers and still get solid coverage, as long as the paint is high quality and opaque. So with acrylics, I’d always recommend getting the best artist-grade white you can (I like Golden Brand Titanium white). But with oils, a good student white will do the job and actually encourages you to be more generous with your paint, which really helps when you’re learning.
4. You will compare yourself to an artist in a museum. Even one of the best over the last 400 years, against their best work, trained since 11 and drawn every day
Give yourself a break.
I was reading something today about the idea of making a hundred bad paintings. I think it originally came from a film director who said you should make a hundred bad movies. The idea is that if you approach painting with that mindset, you won’t get so precious, and it takes the pressure off.
When you’re starting out, it’s easy to think you’re going to make one incredible painting and that will be it. But usually, that’s not how it works. It might be pretty good, but the real progress comes when you stop comparing your work to other people’s and start comparing it to your own.
Take inspiration from others, of course, but ideally, you want to be able to look back at a painting you did three months ago and think, “I can’t believe I thought that was good at the time.” That’s how you know you’re improving.
You’re becoming your own reference point.
It’s also worth remembering that when you go to a gallery or an exhibition, the work you see is surrounded by so much extra context.
There’s the grandeur of the museum space, the history of the artist, and even the fact that you may have seen the image before, all of which add to its impact. In his 1935 Essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin introduced the concept of “aura,” the unique presence and authenticity of an original artwork that stems from its particular history, location, and singular existence.
Benjamin argued that an artwork’s aura is tied to its “here and now”. Imagine your painting being shown on television or displayed in a gallery. It would feel different, too, simply because of the way it’s presented.
5. You will learn more at the easel in 30 minutes than you will from 30 hrs of YouTube videos
It’s so easy, especially with all the content available these days, to fall into the trap of thinking that if you just watch one more video or learn one more thing, then you’ll finally be ready to start painting. But often, that just becomes another form of procrastination.
The truth is, if you pick the simplest subject, one brush, and one tube of oil paint, you will learn so much more by actually painting for an hour than by watching videos for days. Everything that goes wrong and everything that goes right in that session will teach you far more than you expect.
Oils are great for this because the paint stays wet the whole time. You can keep adjusting, softening edges, layering colours, and really exploring how it moves. You’ll learn what kind of brush feels right, how much medium you enjoy using, what colours you naturally reach for, and even what frustrates you.
All of that only comes from doing. The act of painting is the best teacher.
You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just one hour, even if it doesn’t feel perfect. That hands-on time builds your skills and confidence far more than waiting to feel “ready.”
6. You will feel exhilarated, then deeply depressed, all within the same painting
Painting can really feel like a rollercoaster. When you first start blocking in or sketching out the composition, there’s a rush of excitement. You feel like this could be the one. This painting might turn out amazingly well! And that initial energy is such a great boost.
But as the painting starts to develop, doubts often creep in.
You might start to wonder if you chose the right subject, if your colours are working, or why the paint isn’t handling the way you expected. You start questioning yourself. That’s when the energy can drop, and it’s easy to hit a low point where you think, “This is rubbish, why am I even doing this?”
Then, often out of nowhere, you’ll paint one little section that surprises you. It turns out better than you thought it would. That small win can give you just enough encouragement to keep going.
That’s why taking regular breaks is so helpful.
Step back from the easel.
Squint down at the painting.
Look at it with fresh eyes.
That reset in perspective can really shift how you feel and help you make decisions more clearly. And often, it’s in those final moments that the magic happens. The last highlight, a sharper edge, or a touch of contrast, those small finishing touches can transform the whole piece.
So, the key is to stay with it, ride the ups and downs, and trust that each stage is part of the process. Keep going.
7. You will judge, question, challenge and rebel against the process
When you’re following a tutorial or trying out a new technique, especially if someone has already laid out a process that works, it’s really tempting to think you know better. I found that when I was first starting to paint, even if I was following someone to get specific results, I would still start questioning the steps. I’d think, “This can’t work,” or “Why am I doing it this way?”
For example, if you’re painting on a coloured ground for the first time, it might feel pointless. You might wonder why you’re not just starting on white. Or if you’re asked to work from the negative space first to reveal the positive forms, that can feel really counterintuitive. (this tutorial of drawing the negative of a bike is a good example)
But these techniques often make a lot more sense once you’ve seen them through.
It’s a bit like following a recipe. I think people tend to fall into two camps.
One group follows the instructions closely, measuring everything precisely. The other group wings it, adding a bit of this or that and hoping it all comes together. Both can end up with a cake, but the results can vary.
When you’re first learning, it really helps to be in that first group. Just follow the steps. Try the full process as it’s laid out, even if it doesn’t make perfect sense yet. That way, you get to experience how these techniques work in practice, and you’ll start to build a foundation you can later adapt to suit your own style.
For students wanting to make the leap from acrylics to Oils, many of the techniques throughout the teaching on the site stem from my training in classical oil painting. So if you’ve been working through the tutorials, you’ve been developing oil painting skills by stealth!
Disclaimer: I’m an artist, not a copyright attorney; everything here is shared for general educational purposes only.
Morning class, I get lots of emails from students who want to pick up a paintbrush but find the first stumbling block is what to paint! It’s easy to find yourself at a loss when looking for a good reference image for the simple reason of copyright.
Most published photos in books, magazines, and online are copyrighted. That means you typically need permission from the photographer or rights holder to use them as a reference for your paintings, especially if you intend to sell or publicly display the artwork.
However, if you’re simply using them for practice at home and not sharing the work commercially, or if they are being used for educational purposes, it’s usually okay. You can also look for images that are under Creative Commons. This is where an image can be used, and if displayed or sold, the original creator must be credited.
The best free reference images for artists are your own.
You can tweak, light, and design them to be unique. But when you’re starting out and want to practice different subjects, high-quality, royalty-free images can be super helpful.
When it comes to finding the perfect reference image for your artwork, not all sources are created equal. Knowing where to look and understanding the rules around usage can save you from the gut-wrenching moment of realising your beautifully finished piece is based on an image you didn’t have the right to use.
So I’ve put this article together to give you confidence in finding great resources, knowing your work is legally protected and ethically sourced.
There are three main categories of reference images that artists commonly use:
Museum and Library Archives
Museums and libraries hold vast collections of historical artworks, drawings, etchings, artefacts, and patterns. Many of these works are old enough to be in the public domain, meaning you can use them, even commercially, without restriction. This makes them super helpful for finding inspiration and creating master copies of artworks.
Free Photography Sites (Unsplash, Pexels, etc.)
These platforms offer high-quality images taken by living photographers. You’re free to reference these photos for your artwork and sell your painting or drawing based on them. However, you can’t just sell the original photo as is. Some of these sites have usage requirements like Creative Commons licensing or simple attribution to the photographer, so it’s important to double-check the terms before using them.
Artist-Curated Collections
These are specially curated for painters and illustrators. Unlike typical photography, these images often focus on strong light, simple shapes, and clear values making them perfect for translating into paint. Some of these collections come with zero copyright restrictions, while others may require simple attribution. They are designed with artists in mind, making it easier to spot key elements like shadows, contrasts, and composition that work well in a painting.
What Are Royalty-Free Reference Images?
A royalty is a recurring payment made for the use of someone else’s asset, like a song, book, or artwork.
For example, if a radio station plays your song, you receive a royalty each time it’s played. If a publisher sells your book, you earn a percentage of each sale.
“A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalty_payment – Wikepidia
‘Royalty-free’ works differently. It isn’t always free, you pay once to use the image or asset, with no additional fees each time you use it.
For free reference images, we don’t necessarily want a ‘royalty-free image, we want a ‘free-free’ image!
Thank you to all the students who shared their beautiful paintings from the last couple of months. So delighted to showcase a recent roundup of work from the students and artists following the blog.
