Leisure Painter - the number one learn-to-paint magazine featuring practical painting and drawing features from top art tutors. Includes step-by-step tuition and easy-to-follow advice on how to draw and paint.
Editor’s welcome
Leisure Painter
Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition
Spotlight on art • A round-up of events and ideas to enjoy live and online
Acrylics vs Oils: which is right for you? • Weigh up the pros and cons of both oil and acrylic paint and try out this friendly landscape painting demonstration side-by-side in acrylics and oils.
Figure in oils Build confidence with simple shapes • Learn how to approach the human figure in oils, from establishing accurate proportions and mixing convincing skin tones to simplifying complex areas and adding expressive brushwork with Richard Kitson.
Art Books
Using light effectively • Explore the power of light in oil painting as you create a glowing sunset scene inspired by the Cornish coast. Learn how to combine warm and cool primary colours, build harmonious layers and use strong tonal contrasts to make light sing across the sky, sea and wet sand with Naomi Jenkin.
Painting a Big Yellow Eggbeater • Take your watercolours into the hangar and discover how to capture the distinctive shape, colour and character of a helicopter. Tim O’Brien demonstrates how to simplify complex forms, build luminous yellow through layered washes and use tonal contrast to create a striking plein-air painting.
Chasing the sun • Helen Carter focusses on sunlight and top tips on how to create this effectively with your colour pencils
Out of the black ground • Working from a black ground, Mike Rollins demonstrates how to build a loose, atmospheric view of St Paul’s Cathedral using layered acrylics, a limited palette and simplified shapes. Learn how to use darks, highlights and expressive brushwork to capture the mood and movement of an overcast riverside scene without becoming a slave to your reference.
Autumnal woodland • Capture the glow and atmosphere of an autumn woodland using spontaneous wet-in-wet washes, expressive marks and natural sponge textures.
Painting the direction of gaze • Direct the viewer’s eye and capture the atmosphere of a gallery crowd with Ashley Raddon’s step-by-step watercolour guide to simplifying figures, tonal planning, and negative painting.
Autumn trees in watercolour • Capture the golden glow of autumn with Ali Hargreaves as you paint a colourful woodland scene. Learn how to combine soft washes, rich autumn hues and textured techniques to create atmosphere, depth and beautifully expressive trees.
Art clubs • Over to you for the latest news on your club exhibitions and activities.
Art club challenge • We love to see your work! And to share it! In our October edition we asked you to share your oil paintings. Here is a small selection sent in and uploaded to the gallery on Bristle!
Best in show
Pricing your paintings • Once an artist goes public with their work by putting them up for sale, it often presents a problem that we all face. How much is it worth? The question really is… how much will people pay?
Dear Diary • Join us as we sneak a peak into the diary of an artist.
THE ART WORLD • NEWS, INFORMATION AND ONLINE EVENTS IN THE ART WORLD
The EXPRESSIVE potential of oil paint • For expressive landscape painter Louise Balaam, oil is a tactile and intuitive medium, allowing paint, gesture and happy accidents to shape a personal response to place. Discover how drawing outdoors, working wet-in-wet and embracing abstraction help her transform the experience of landscape into energetic, atmospheric paintings.
Painting water in oils • Paula Mitchell ARSMA shares her approach to...