Inspiration can come from objects you live with everyday, and setting up a Still Life to work from can be a brilliant way to practise your skills of composition, drawing and painting. In this two-part workshop first Laura shows how to create a consistent environment for your arrangement, and shares tips and ideas for objects you might choose and how to place them.  

In the second part Linda encourages you to try a ‘back to front’ approach of painting first, drawing second, using a combination of oil pastel, watercolour and soluble pencils. It’s great fun, and a fast and free way to record what you see – perfect for getting to know your still life subject.

Many manufacturers of watercolour paints also make a range of mediums to extend the possibilities of their product. Join Linda to discover how she’s been experimenting with watercolour ground to allow her to paint on a box canvas surface.

Take a look at some of the highlights from the Portrait Artist of the Year exhibition at Compton Verney.

Take a look at some paintings from the British Portraits room at Compton Verney and explore how the artists represent the garments of the sitters with a particular focus on embroidery.

The medium that you use has such a huge effect on the look of the work that you create. In this video Linda shows you how she explores different media in her sketchbook from pencil, to pen and wash and oil pastel resist with watercolour. 

We love making rubbings, they’re a great way to draw without really drawing. But have you ever considered how you can make transfers from your rubbings? In this video workshop Laura shows you how.

Let’s have a look at Indian ink, one of the oldest media in the artist’s toolkit and see how it can be used for a fantastic resist painting technique.

Join Laura as she works on her mixed media landscape paintings. She’s using a base of collage and experimenting with using white to make a photographic collage more painterly. See how she uses different media, including digital painting to achieve the effects she’s after.

For the final stages of her collage panels, Laura uses acrylic glazing to build up colour. Watch how she adds tints of colour to modify and add richness to the base collage using acrylic paint and glaze medium.

Create your own handprinted collage papers, perfect for sketchbook and mixed media painting. Then explore how you can expand your collage and have fun playing with scale.

Join Linda to paint a leaf in watercolour and discover how she creates organic, special effects and finally lifts out fine details. Linda’s leaf shows the first signs of autumn colour and decay – she shows exactly how to achieve that appearance with very simple techniques.

Inspired by collected leaves, Linda’s working in her sketchbook with easy to achieve painterly effects with watercolour and acrylic inks.

Summer is the perfect time for enjoying the garden for all its inspiration. See how Linda’s flower painting in her sketchbook using a layered approach with pen and watercolour to create a beautiful study of lilac. 

Create a collage on a panel or canvas using your saved paper scraps, acrylic skins, even textile fragments. Add a tint of colour with watercolour before adding a final coat of pouring medium to seal and create a slick professional finish.

Add subtle texture and pattern to your paintings or sketchbook pages with acrylic molding paste.

Make your own stay-wet palette for acrylic painting.

You don’t need to purchase all of the paints in the art shop to be able to mix the colours you need. Join Linda to learn how to mix neutral colours perfect for capturing the subtle, rich tones of autumn. Linda will show you how simple it is to mix these colours and how to paint a study of a fallen leaf.

Be inspired by how nature uses green and then learn how to mix your own subtle greens to capture the colour of leaves in your painting. Linda’s working with watercolour, but you can apply these ideas to any paint media or even dyes!

Linda will show you a fantastic method for creating a resist painting using gouache and Indian ink. The results are perfect for when you want to add some drama to your painting or sketchbook work.

Be inspired by museum and gallery collections around the world by investigating video gallery talks. We’ve picked out a few from The National Gallery to get you started.

Add a finishing touch to your poured canvasses with gold painted edges.

Make your poured acrylic painting your own by taking things a step further. In this workshop Linda will use a poured canvas as a background for a painted flower study. Use acrylic paints and a simple trick to place and draw your flower so you can quickly get onto the fun of painting.

Embrace the experimental and join Laura to explore acrylic paint pouring. She’ll share her simple and cost effective paint recipes and favourite method for pouring.

Laura’s been experimenting with Caran D’Ache Neocolor II for the first time. Join her to test them out on different papers, and see how she’s been using them, both wet and dry, in her sketchbook pages.

What are you going to do with all those ATCs? In this workshop Laura will show you several ways to use them including making tiny sketchbooks!

Video Workshop – Linda really enjoyed making a set of ATCs recently and thought they had potential to be scaled up. See how she’s applied similar ideas to a larger mixed media panel to paint stylised portraits using acrylics, collage and stencilling.

Video Workshop – Linda’s working on her collection of ATCs. These mini works of art provide the perfect opportunity to practice your skills. In this workshop Linda will show you how to transfer a motif using tracing, then paint it using acrylics teamed with pens.

Video Workshop – ATCs or Artist Trading Cards are mini works of art! In this workshop Linda demonstrates how you can make beautiful ATCs using rubbings on vintage paper, collage and drawing with stencils.

You might have a portrait drawn with Inktense, or maybe a monoprint worked on fabric with tricky, empty background areas. In this workshop Laura will demonstrate how you can make rubbing plates and take rubbings with Inktense blocks to fill those areas with pattern and colour.

Draw a portrait using Inktense pencils and/or blocks. Join us to see how you can use the exciting Inktense products to work with a free drawing approach that’s loose in style and full of painterly marks. We’re working on fabric with this one, but the techniques will also work on paper too.

Create a layered painting in acrylic with a messy underpainting of bright colour, stencilled pattern and brush marks. Then overpaint with a negative painting of your own hand to make a personalised piece of art that’ll look beautiful in your home. This is an easy painting technique that even a beginner can try, but experienced painters will love too!

Inspired by the still life paintings of Cezanne, Linda sets up her own still life and makes a painting with oil pastel. Oil pastels are a great easy-to-handle alternative to traditional oil paint and Linda will demonstrate how to use them with a medium to blend your marks. 

Using masking fluid can be a versatile method for your watercolour painting both for conventional paintings and in your sketchbook work. In this workshop Linda will show you different ways to apply it for great effect. 

Have you ever started a watercolour painting, but then it didn’t turn out quite as you hoped? Don’t worry! We find that happens all the time, but there are lots of things you can try to rescue your work. In this workshop Linda will guide you through some of the practical solutions she has for fixing those paintings that don’t quite work out first time.

Take a closer look at the painted lace in some beautiful Tudor portraits.

You can stretch your paper to ensure perfectly flat results and easier painting when using watercolour. In this quick demonstration Linda shows you how.

Join Linda for a step-by-step demonstration of painting flowers. She’ll show you how to control washes of watercolour and build layers to paint your subject. See how an underdrawing is successfully integrated into your painting and how to manage the flow of paint and lift out colour where necessary. Even if you’ve never painted with watercolour before, Linda will help you achieve great results.

Birds are such an inspiration to us, whether it’s big black crows in the fields, or the pretty garden birds that visit the feeders outside the studio. In this collection of workshops Linda will show you her methods for painting birds using acrylics on wooden panel and canvas. Suitable for beginners or the more experienced artist, Linda will guide you through, step by step.

Drawing is often the best way to start a watercolour, acrylic or mixed media painting, but what if you you feel your drawing skills aren’t strong, or maybe you just want a fast and effective way to get your image down on paper so you can quickly get started with your painting? In this workshop Linda will demonstrate her technique for creating that drawing which will be the perfect foundation for your painting. 

Learning how to mix colour with confidence will enable you to work with fewer supplies more creatively. Join Laura as she demonstrates the essentials of mixing with primary colours and how those different ingredients affect the outcomes.

Gloriously coloured papers are a joy to use in your collage, mixed media, sketchbook and paper and stitch work. In this workshop Linda will show you how to upcycle basic materials into beautiful painted papers that will be perfect for use in a variety of projects.

Acrylic inks are highly versatile. In this workshop see how Linda uses them with a watercolour painting style to make a study of fruit.

Do you have a set of Derwent Inktense pencils, or blocks? In this collection of videos we’ll demonstrate a diverse approach to using them in your work on paper and fabric. See how to make rubbings, use them to colour fabric, add colour to your altered books and even print with them. There are four workshops in this collection.

In this collection you’ll find a selection of workshops exploring the use of ink. We’ll show you how you can combine acrylic ink and acrylic paint, use gouache as a resist for Indian ink, and make mixed media drawings with watercolour pencils and writing ink.

Join Linda to get a taste of the 2018 BP Portrait Award exhibited at Wolverhampton Art Gallery until November 30th.

Experiment with a range of different media with your drawing approach. Try a painterly style with oil pastels, restrict yourself with a limited range of media for a sketchbook study, and experiment with layering in your drawing using pen, coloured pencil and wash.

Linda’s often asked about her choice of watercolour paints – discover her recommendations for a basic starter palette here.

Try your hand at creating a mixed media painting. Using a wooden panel, canvas or piece of card as a base, build up layers of collage, acrylic paint and drawing to complete your work. Laura will guide you through every step in detail, including how to apply layers of glazes with acrylic paint for richness of colour and luminosity.

Using acrylic skins is a fascinating way to add linear and text detail to your acrylic painting and mixed media projects. Join Laura to see how to trace a linear design, how to form the skin and how to use it. In the second video in this collection she’ll show you how to apply the principle to text based designs.

Explore the potential of combining real paint with digital techniques. In this video collection Laura will guide you through acrylic painting with sgraffito, digital sgraffito using Procreate on the iPad, and working with printed digital paintings adding further layers of paint and detail.

Linda’s talking about the effectiveness of complementary colours in painting or quilts.

Linda’s enjoying more sketchbook drawing and painting today. With spring in the air the garden provides the inspiration.

Are you always nervous about getting started in a new sketchbook? Do the pristine pages scare you? Let me reassure you that you’re not alone! In this collection of three videos you’ll learn how to lose the blank, white page quickly and easily. Laura shows how she gets lots of glorious colour on her pages using water based paints, drawing inks and soluble pastels. She demonstrates step by step how she produces fascinating background effects for her sketchbook and art journaling work and how she constantly evaluates and responds to what she’s created on the page.

In this video collection Linda demonstrates exactly how she uses a combination of acrylic paints and inks to create simple little landscapes on watercolour paper and box canvases before developing the same theme into fabric and thread. She produces several decorative, paintings and panels that would be perfect in your own home or would make great gifts. The videos include everything you need to know to create your own landscapes in a variety of formats.

Laura’s art kit essentials for sketchbook working on the go.

Organise your stuff, make it pretty, use it up!

Find out what Linda’s art essentials are for sketchbook work…

Use your iPad as a design tool. Learn how you can easily digitally trace and paint. Print your digital work to paper and incorporate it into your sketchbook.