I really do need to finish my collection of planet paintings at some point so I'm back on the case today with Saturn. For a while my plan had been...
Latest posts
MikaM, Watching Ross Kemp’s Bridge Of Lies
After yesterday's sterling efforts, I thought I'd take it easy today and do an Inktense pencil figure drawing. It's been a long eleven weeks since...
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan
My year end painting hiatus is over and I’m back in the studio. After thing breaks I tend to work my way back in slowly with low pressure works...
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...
Annual Awards 2023
<This post was written on June 24 2025 and has been backdated to a more appropriate date> We're on to the 2023 awards and decisions are going...
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...
The Shard
It feels as if the big year end winddown has started. This will be my final painting of the year but probably not my final post. It's based on a...
Tracey
This is Tracey, a friend of the family. She dabbles in painting herself and gave us. Painting of our dog Ruby last Christmas and it's been at the...
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...
Annual Self Portrait 2024
So at last I've finally done a self portrait in watercolour. I was in the mood for supergranulators today and picked out the tundra set. I...
The Under The Desk Collection
Well, I can tell you that I will definitely be entering for Portrait Artist Of The Year again this time around. Because, even if I don't have any...
Under The Desk IV
And that's the Under The Desk collection completed. For the colour scheme I chose the grey markers, putting down some vague value shapes and then...
Under The Desk III
Here's the third in the under the desk collection. Today The main two colours were my light and dark green. Just as with the previous two...
Under The Desk II
Look, I'm allowed to change my mind, OK? Yesterday's portrait grew on me and Monday tends to be a short day, so I thought I'd continue with the...