It’s been a couple of years since I picked up three Daniel Smith Primatek colours for Christmas and I'm ready now to discuss their future. First...
Posts that are not about paintings
Human Figure Drawing, Daniela Brambilla – Book Review
On to the last of my Christmas books. I've been looking forward to this one as it's an absolute monster. It's nit just hardback, it's not just...
More Coloured Pencil Solvent Testing
After yesterday's late night fun, I kicked off today with three more experiments with coloured pencil solvents. First, I had an overnight thought...
Testing Coloured Pencil Solvent On Neil McCarthy
It's been a day for experimentation today. After reading the Alyona Nickelsen book, I thought I really should give solvents a go with coloured...
Ronnie Wood
After John Lydon went so well the other day, I thought I'd have another go with the oil pastels. And because John came out looking old and battle...
Colored Pencil Painting Portraits, Alyona Nickelsen – Book Review
Time for another book review and today it's this one by Alyona Nickelsen. It's a 184 page paperback. I'll say right from the off that this isn't...
Painting Watercolour Outdoors, Geoff Hunt – Book Review
Time for another book review. This one's only been in the shops for a couple of months. It's a 128 page paperback on plein air watercolour. The...
Drawing Architecture, Richard Taylor – Book Review
It's been a busy day as I've been making notes on this book that I finished reading yesterday and am now ready to write up a review. Landscape...
2023: Year Of The Portrait
So that was 2023. I think I can safely say 2023 was the year of the portrait. After reading the Bill Maughan book in March, something clicked big...
Japanese Style Watercolor Portraits, Hiroko Shibasaki – Book Review
I wasn't expecting to be doing a book review today. The only job I had on my list was to update my swatch reference sketchbook with notes on my...
Glazed Balls
My year end painting hiatus is still on but swatching doesn't count as painting in my book and there's an experiment that I've been meaning to try...
How To Draw Portraits In Charcoal, Nathan Fowkes – Book Review
It's only the 28th of December and I've finished another of my new art books. I need to slow down and read a novel or two on the kindle before...
The Easy Guide To Painting Skies In Watercolour, Stephen Coates – Book Review
There seem to be quite a few books around on watercolour skies at the moment, all of them looking like they might include some interesting ideas....
New Books
Happy Christmas everybody. Unwrapping is over. I'm now making my way through my job list: - squash up all the wrapping paper and put it in the...
Portrait Artist Of The Year 2024 Entry
I've entered for Portrait Artist Of The Year again but this year I'm going for it as a watercolourist. I've included these three paintings in my...
The 2023 Artistic Actuary Video
The 2023 Artistic Actuary video is now ready. It's too big to load up onto this website but you can see it at https://youtu.be/96MxHz6CDJo Almost...
Artist Assist App
I discovered something new today, thanks to Liron Yankonsky's YouTube channel. It's the Artist Assist App. It seems to be a website at the moment...
H2 2023 Poll Results
Well, I've had 17 responses to the latest poll and I think responses have dried up. I'll leave it open, along with all my previous polls but I'm...
Life Drawing In Charcoal, Douglas R. Graves – Book Review
Time for another book review. I've been holding back from figure drawing in charcoal because I wanted to read this book first. Well, I don't have...
H2 Artistic Actuary Poll
It's time for my next art poll. After eliminating a load of clunkers from my last six months of output I'm left with 51 works, which is about the...