Painting FROM PHOTOS

Former BP Travel Award winner EDWARD SUTCLIFFE shares his simple seven-step plan for making striking realist paintings from your source pictures

Sketchbook STRATEGY

Although you only tend to see finished work, a sketchbook is often a key part of the process. We asked seven top artists to open their books and share their methods

Expressive FIGURES

Royal Institute of Oil Painters member LUIS MORRIS shows how working from a sketch and mixing up a range of colours early can allow a more creative, painterly finish

Painting from memory

After a year in lockdown, our visual memories are more important than ever. ROB DUDLEY shares a method that will help you utilise them to create more artistic paintings

Fresh Paint

Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

David Hockney

Writing exclusively for Artists & Illustrators, author and art critic MARTIN GAYFORD speaks to the great Yorkshire artist about the joys of spring, his enduring inspirations, and how his latest French studio has given him a new lease of life – and cured his limp!

1. COLOUR LANGUAGE

JAKE SPICER begins a new four-part series on understanding colour by showing us how the use of more accurate descriptions can help us better identify and replicate hues

Painting POETRY

Ignoring textbooks and making up her own rules has garnered landscape painter MARY ANNE AYTOUNELLIS many fans, including Prince Charles, as REBECCA BRADBURY finds out Poetry

PREPARATORY STUDIES

Tempted to just get started on a final painting straight away? ROB WAREING shows you why completing a single-session study first can enhance the finished work

The Working Artist

Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL was inspired by an ex-student, who reminded her that the journey is more important than the destination

WOODCUT Prints

Our regular columnist (and leading printmaker) LAURA BOSWELL guides you through all the tools and techniques required to make a simple two-block woodcut print

WASSILY KANDINSKY

The Russian painter was one of the first true abstract artists, using music as a basis for his instinctive paintings. STEVE PILL explores his colourful responses to the world

Rita ISSAC

The multi-media artist on her new book, journaling and keeping motivated. Interview: REBECCA BRADBURY

Mixing Orange

GRAHAME BOOTH ’s new series focuses in turn on the secondary colours. Starting with orange, he will show you how to mix perfect hues for every occasion

ELISE ANSEL

By striking up a conversation with the Old Mistresses of art history, this American oil painter has brought their stories to life via her fresh and abstracted style

2. STILL LIFE painting

Continuing his new series on composing pictures, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ chair of painting AL GURY talks us through humble still life traditions

1 REMBRANDT

Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor and artist LAURA SMITH looks to the work of the Old Masters and sets a series of exercises that will improve your composition skills

Mary Newcomb

This self-confessed “country artist” developed a cult following for her post-war paintings of everyday life. KATIE MCCABE revisits the inspirations behind her art

Mark Entwisle

The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition winner talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about being a frustrated oil painter and working in his “man cave” garden studio

LANDSCAPE painting

In the first of a three-part series on composing paintings, AL GURY begins by introducing a more responsive approach to landscapes with his 15-step guide to success

Reflections

Shiny and see-through surfaces are a daunting challenge to replicate, so the Pastel Society’s LIZ BALKWILL has set an exercise that will help you simplify the process

Masters at work

Exploring the workspaces of Old Masters and modern artists is a great way to learn about their lives and their craft. We picked out 12 of the best that you can visit

Fresh Paint

Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

Drawing Fur

Wildlife artist JASON MORGAN has spent more than 20 years perfecting his technique for rendering animal fur. Discover his simple, three-stage approach with stunning results

Light and Shade

Finding variety in repeated forms is the key to creating interesting pictures.FABIO CEMBRANELLI shows you how with a gorgeous wisteria-covered doorway in France

FFIONA LEWIS

A new studio has brought new challenges and big opportunities for this architectturned-artist as she scales up to make her largest and most ambitious paintings yet

Back to DEMO future

Short of inspiration during lockdown, MATT JEANES needed a new challenge. He turned to vintage photographs and tried to add some fresh colour to forgotten images of the past

21 For 2021

To kickstart the new year in inspiring fashion, we’ve curated a selection of 21 emerging painters who are doing fresh and exciting things within the traditions of figurative art

Go To Work On An Egg!

Liz Balkwill challenges you to think conceptually in still life

Four-Colour Experiment

Paint a self-portrait with a limited palette to really get to know your colours, says James Bland