The Artist

The UK’s best practical art magazine for aspiring amateur and professional artists - since 1931. Well-known artists reveal their working practices and techniques, covering all subjects and media, in every issue. Learn how established and up-and-coming artists create their work and use the tips they provide to help you improve your own drawing and painting. Keep up to date with the latest art materials, tried and tested by our trusted panel of expert artists, and keep in touch with the latest art competitions to enter and must-see exhibitions. Learn how other artists make money from their work, join one of our practical workshops/holidays, and don’t miss out on the latest art news and views.

The Artist

Editor’s guest welcome from David Curtis

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS, EMAILS AND COMMENTS

STAR LETTER

THE ART WORLD • NEWS, INFORMATION AND ONLINE EVENTS IN THE ART WORLD

Selected collections that hold Ken Howard’s work

Back to the DRAWING BOARD

Giving salt marshes a voice • Capturing the wildlife of the salt marshes and grasslands near her home has become a lifetime’s passion for woodcut and watercolour artist, Hilary Kington. Susie Hodge finds out more about what drives her to raise awareness of the world around her

Hilary Kington’s SALT MARSHES

Working in harmony • In his final article on oil painting techniques Robert E Wells turns our attention to the limited palette and shows how restricting our colours won’t restrict their impact

CHALLENGE

Feel the texture • Paul Riley shares some of his advanced watercolour techniques and various shortcuts for reproducing texture in still life and fabrics

Paul Riley paints the TEXTURES OF FABRICS

Out of the ordinary • Follow Michele Ashby as she shows how she uses pastel pencils to turn her memories of ordinary objects into extraordinary artworks

MICHELE’S TOP TIPS

MICHELE ASHBY USES COLOURED PENCILS to turn ordinary objects into extraordinary artworks

Layering life drawings • Catherine MacDiarmid takes us to the life room to join a two-hour Conté pastel drawing session

Pure magic • A winter sunset after a fall of snow is the artist’s dream subject. Alan Bickley alerts us to some of the challenges facing the winter plein-air oil painter and shows how watercolour can be a useful aid to speedy sketching

What colours make a sunset?

Useful guide for painting a successful sunset

From sketchbook to painting • Work alongside Paul Weaver as he discusses the value of plein-air sketching as a source of inspiration for studio paintings

MORNING SHADOWS Watercolour demonstration by Paul Weaver

Colour choices • Finding the right colour can be a difficult task, but it can make a world of difference. Catherine Ingleby advises us to start with just a few colours to make a firm foundation upon which to build our palette

MONOCHROME PALETTE • Black, white and red

PRIMARY PALETTE • Red, blue and yellow

TRADITIONAL OR LIMITED PALETTE • Vine/ivory black, zinc white, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, cadmium red and vermilion

CMYK PALETTE • Cyan, magenta, yellow and black

Knowing when to stop • Overworking watercolours is a problem we all are guilty of. To close her watercolour series, Julie Collins shows us how to prevent overworking and offers tips to help us know when it’s time to stop

JULIE’S TIPS

Can you fix it? • Yes, you can. In the conclusion to her three-part series on painting with gouache, Manda Comisari provides some solutions to common problems

NUTCRACKER BEFORE (above) AND NUTCRACKER AFTER (below)

All that glitters • Robert Dutton experiments with metallic and iridescent colours in pastel and acrylic inks and illustrates how they can...