Monkeying around

DRAWING IS GENERALLY where your practical artistic journey begins. A pencil or pen and a sheet of paper is all you need to doodle away. Outlines clarify information, making it easy to access the infor

Painting a street scene in acrylics can be tricky, as you contend with rapid drying times and trying to capture too much detail. If your pictures look flat or confused, try to remember that acrylic su

Avoid leaving tubes of acrylic or a loaded palette in direct sunlight or next to a radiator: the paint will harden rapidly. This also goes for canvases, which can warp. The quickest way to ruin brushe

It’s hard to define what it is about a subject that makes you chose it as a starting point. This painting of a cat is an interesting example. Animals are not my usual subject matter but as soon as I s

I once painted at a local primary school to demonstrate how an artist works. One little girl, aged eight, watched me, glued to my side Towards the end, she said: “I get it. First you do it all roughly

I want to pass on my expressive approach to painting still lifes from observation using mixed media. I find this way of working freeing and fun. When a painting is started with an attitude of freedom