You’ve probably heard that it’s best to paint “from dark to light” but what does it really mean? Starting with your shadows is never mandatory but it helps in multiple ways. It’s a framework that makes everything else much smoother. Let’s break it down today. Why You Should Paint Shadows First Keying Your Values Setting your value key means establishing the range of darks and lights the painting will live in. When you begin with the darkest dark (=the key), you immediately define the darkest...
20 days ago • 3 min read
This is the story of a funeral: the funeral of a tube of paint! Warning: We'll talk about corpses and mummies in the context of history of arts (seriously), fainted hearts beware! In the mid-19th century, the British painter Edward Burne-Jones, a central figure of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was using a popular pigment known as "Mummy Brown". He received the visit of another painter, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema who mentioned what it was actually made of. Burne-Jones jumped in horror when he...
27 days ago • 5 min read
A perfectly symmetrical composition feels calm, centered, and that’s great… but one might say “it’s also a little dull!”. When both sides of the canvas carry the same weight, the eye stops moving. There’s no tension, no curiosity. So how do painters achieve a sense of harmony without falling into monotony? The answer lies in a beautiful and ancient idea: the Steelyard Composition. It’s named after the Roman “steelyard” balance scale, a simple tool that weighed objects by balancing unequal...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
What exactly are all these mediums for? Linseed, stand oil, turpentine, OMS, alkyd… it feels like alchemy to a beginner. It’s actually pretty simple: A painting medium is just what you add to your paint to change the way it behaves — how it flows, dries, and shines and how fast it dries. Everything You Need to Know About Oil Painting Mediums What is a Medium Exactly? A medium is any additive that modifies the consistency or drying speed of oil paint. The paint straight from the tube is...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Every artist who has considered painting a still life inevitably asks: How to avoid making it boring? It’s not enough to just place some objects on a table and paint them as they are. A truly great still life goes beyond objects—it tells a story. It becomes a stage where shapes, textures, and light create meaning.Chardin was a master of this. In his painting Still Life with Attributes of the Arts (1766), he shows us how inanimate objects can carry weight, presence, and even narrative. Still...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Artists often rely on color names like olive, salmon, or cream, what are you trying do with all that?... a gourmet dish? Despite the fact that it is silly, those color names are vague, imprecise, and subjective. What one person calls “olive,” another might call “khaki.” Instead of describing colors through comparisons or arbitrary names, wouldn’t it be better to have a system that is objective, measurable, and universal? Albert H. Munsell (American, 1858-1918) That’s exactly what Albert H....
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hands are every painter’s nightmare. Too many tiny things to get perfectly right—it feels impossible and people can immediately spot when it looks goofy. Practice makes perfect, so this week we practice painting hands. With a structured approach, you can actually enjoy painting them (yes, really). Let’s break it down into a few steps that simplify the process while keeping your work realistic. How to Paint Hands Without Losing Your Mind See What the Hand is Doing The first trap most beginners...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Last week, we broke down the chaos of color mixing into a simple, practical formula: Base + Tone + Nuance. With that approach, even beginners can achieve precision and avoid the muddy, frustrating results that come from guessing with pigments. Download last week's BASE-TONE-NUANCE Resource Sheet But as with all artistic methods, once you’ve mastered the basics, there’s always a deeper level. In today’s article, we’ll explore three advanced ideas that build on the Base–Tone–Nuance method....
2 months ago • 4 min read
One of the most frustrating challenges for beginners is color mixing. The problem is that most people mix randomly, adding one pigment after another without a clear method. Stop Guessing with Pigments Mix Any Color with my “Base + Tone + Nuance” Formula The solution I want to share with you today is what I call the “Base + Tone + Nuance” method—a practical way to mix colors with precision, every single time. The recipe is simple: Base (60%): the weaker pigment that forms the body of the...
3 months ago • 3 min read