Whenever Paul Wright is struggling in the studio, he always returns to faces. For almost 20 years now, the human head has been integral to his practice and his paintings have featured at the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of Portrait

Elise Ansel was born in New York City in 1961. She studied a BA at Rhode Island’s Brown University, where she later returned as a visiting artist and lecturer. An MFA in Visual Art followed at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Her paintings are

Wish you could turn your hand to any subject? One man reputed to be able to do just that was the Scottish artist Thomas Stuart Smith. His legacy doesn’t end there, however. Born in 1814, he was also an avid collector and is the reason why the Stirlin

Woodblock is a type of relief printing. In woodblock prints, the surface of the material is used to make the print and the cut-away areas do not register. Below is a simple, two block project that is a good starting point for anyone who wants to expl

Apart from being a surface on which to mix, an artist’s palette is also simply a collection of colours that they’ve chosen to use. Some artists’ palettes can appear to be an almost random selection but generally most will be based on a range of cool

This project will walk you through painting a preparatory study – that is, a painting to prepare you for a more complete painting. This study is what I would typically aim to produce in a single sitting and will provide many valuable lessons. If you’

I really enjoyed writing about Wassily Kandinsky for this issue because he and I have something (almost) in common – and sadly, it’s not that I’m also a successful Russian abstract painter whose works sell for billions of rubles. No, it’s that Kandin

From being whisked away on a private jet to draw a buffalo jump in the foothills of Canada’s Saskatchewan Mountains to meeting indigenous Amerindians while painting waterfalls in the Guyanese rainforest, Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis had some extraordinary

Picture this: you want to draw a figure. An exciting composition comes to mind, so you grab a pencil, or a piece of charcoal, and... nothing looks right. Do you recognise that feeling? Figures are one of the biggest challenges to draw from one’s imag

Wassily Kandinsky wasn’t the first artist to embrace music in his painting, but he was possibly the first to do so in such an immersive and comprehensive way. Music for the Russian artist didn’t simply mean a radio on in the studio; it was a source o

Recently an ex-student of mine, Bill, came to my studio to collect a print. He told me that during the Covid-19 restrictions he’d been working on his printmaking and trying to improve his technique. I was impressed by his prints, but the thing that r

In this three-part series, we will look closely at a few paintings in terms of how they have been composed. I teach a class at The Heatherley School of Fine Art called “Drawing from Paintings in London Collections”, which normally involves a group of

Artists & Illustrators is proud to support The British Art Prize 2021, in association with Viking, the award-winning cruise line. This major new national open art competition will provide artists of all ages and abilities with a platform to gain exp

I www.jakespicerart.co.uk •Coloured Pencils Mars Violet, Black and Plum, all Derwent Procolour pencils; Dark Orange, Amber Gold, Natural Brown, Wild Lavender, Mid Ultramarine, Turquoise Green, Strawberry, Flame, Moonstone, Oyster and Flesh Pink

Still life painting in the west appeared as early as 3,500 years ago in Egypt. Images of mundane objects useful in a good afterlife adorn murals of daily life in Egyptian frescoes and tomb paintings. They were commonly interwoven with images of worke

1 Wrap a clean rag or paper towel around the ferrule (the metal bit of the brush) and wipe away from the handle – you want to avoid pigment getting down the ferrule. Repeat as necessary. 2 Dip the brush head in a jar of odourless thinners (a safer a

I will always jump into any water that presents itself to me,” says painter Emily Ponsonby, with a vigour that translates to the oil-and-beeswax scenes of nude figures submerged in water that feature in her work. Although she rather accurately descri

The painting techniques of the world’s best artists Elpis, Jenny Saville’s recent exhibition at New York’s Gagosian Gallery, continues her claims to being the finest British figurative artist of her generation. Though the surface of a portrait such

Sprawling across northern Lancashire into the western edges of Yorkshire, The Forest of Bowland is a rather forgotten landscape to all except the more adventurous locals. The name is rather misleading too, as much of this designated Area of Outstandi

A“composition” is an arrangement of the formal and informal visual elements of art within a pictorial frame. The formal elements include shape, line, form, value, colour, texture, geometry and movement. The informal (or subjective) elements refer to