painting tutorials, courses, tips & techniques

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.

Except they do. They did. They all did.

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.

Last week, we talked about how any mark you make is progress. That still stands.

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.

Wishing you a calm, creative New Year ahead.

Will

Winter Walk, December 2025

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.

Wishing you a fantastic, creative new year ahead,

Will

Morning class!

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.

Great job!

Morning class!

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.

Amazing work!

The secret to realistic depth in a landscape isn’t just simplifying forms and loosening brushwork; it’s knowing what to hold back on.

In fact, the real magic happens when you begin to reduce something most artists overlook.

Contrast.

Value Grouping: How Light and Dark Shapes Create Depth.

But isn’t contrast good?

Yes, contrast is important. But in landscapes, too much of it destroys the illusion of distance.

Creating depth means understanding how values shift as they recede. More specifically, how the light-and-dark relationships change from near to far.

Morning Class,

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.

Morning class!

What an incredible Summer it’s been for students following the courses and lessons!

From new experiences with Urban Sketching, breakthroughs in portraits, to a Still Life in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition! Amazing work.

Morning class,

From failed ink replacement, new brushpens to an early morning adventure along the cobbled lanes of St Ives.

Here are a few of my sketches from this week.

Fishing Boat in Porthleven

Out and about in Porthleven, Cornwall for the day, and saw this little fishing boat just waiting to be drawn!

Here’s an Urban Sketch using Micro, Muji & Tombow Pens.