https://www.artjandavies.com/

Painting

My videos, also published on YouTube. This one is very simple, for beginners. More detailed ones below. Thanks for watching.

Also, painting tips for starting in Acrylics and getting your website found in search engines.

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A simple Seascape for beginners in Acrylics. I am using Cobalt blue, Cerulean blue hue,Buff Titanium and Paynes gray. To enhance flow, an acrylic flow improver and a little water. I recommend 300gram paper as this can be wet, without it buckling.

Apologies for the husky voice and occasional throat clearing. At least I won't pass that on to you. Spot my cat in the background.

Demo below is loosely based on a Cornish seascape photo I took, near St Ives

In the photo of the finished painting, you will see that I have made some changes, added just a little light blue to the clouds, to soften them, touched up the detail of the distant land, waves lapping in the rocks and taken them higher up on the right, added just a few more shadows to the rocks and taken the flowers over to the left further. No time to do all that on my Youtube video, and I don't want to keep you hanging about too long in case you get bored.

The finished painting is for sale, special offer of £45, as a thanks for watching.

Ultra Marine blue for the sky

Ultra Marine with a little Cerulean blue hue for the sea

Lemon Yellow mixed in same as above for distant land

Buff Titanium for the foreground rocks, with payne's gray and white to add shadows and highlights.

Same mix for foreground greens, as for distant land,

Permanent Rose and white for the thrift flowers in foreground

Cornish Seascape 20" x 16" £45 inc delivery. Mounted, not framed.

Stage 1 of controlled acrylic pour painting, The Dragon

After enjoying playing around with acrylic pour painting, I wanted to control the flow more. Here I have drawn and cut out a dragon shape., and poured a mix of colours and other additives as described below the YouTube Video.

With the colours White, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Red in separate shot pots, I have added to each pot, a few drops of coconut milk hair serum, approx. a quarter of a teaspoon of book binders glue, a drop of water and enough drops of acrylic Flow Improver, and mixed well, forming a flow like pouring cream.I then pour each colour into one pot, and flip it over inside the dragon stencil.

Should you want to experiment with less expensive products, you can use DW40 oil instead of coconut hair serum,PVA or Elmers Glue and just add more water. These alternatives are cheap to buy, but I have read that the oil smells and can turn yellow, and the cheaper glue can make the picture crack and peel. I like to use professional artist paints, hair serum, book binders glue and flow improver so that my paintings will last for many years, archival, when I sell them.

First stage of sunrise Seascape

Stage one of filling in the background. Sorry, this video ends abruptly, camera ran out of memory.

Stage three. Adding reflections of the sun in the waves,

Stage two, adding the sea. By the way, that should say Sunrise Seascape, and what have I written instead of Seascape in stage one? arrhh!

Stage four, the wildflowers in the foreground

The colours used for this painting are Titanium white, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and Payne's Gray. The under painting, on the canvas, before starting the scene, was painted in the same Lemon Yellow and White. The brush I used most was a Filbert, also, fine soft grip and a fan blender for grass in the foreground. I used Galeria flow improver and just a little water. Finished painting will be shown shortly.

Sunrise Seascape

The finished painting. I have added more wildflowers, a rabbit, and all the edges are now painted. For sale on Seascapes page

Painting tips, starting with beginners in Acrylics.

First, choose your materials. Acrylics can be bought in a range of qualities and thicknesses. If you are just starting out, or perhaps thinking of switching from water colour or oils, you may want to choose student acrylics, or some very cheap alternatives. As you progress I would advise professional artist quality. These won't fade over time and give better results.

Basic starter kits can be bought very cheaply and are sufficient to begin with as you can mix many other colours from them, and it is good to experiment. Have a small sheet of paper, paint a little patch of colour, and write under it what colour you used. Then mix with another colour and paint another patch, writing under that which two colours you used. Keep experimenting, writing down what you used and possibly how much of each, half and half, or what ever. Keep the test paper with you paints.

Next, choose your brushes. I would not advise expensive brushes, or very cheap ones. If you were painting in watercolour, more expensive brushes are worth it. Acrylic will wear them out quickly and there are no advantages, in my opinion. On the other hand, very cheap brushes usually loose hairs. If you want to cover a large area, decorating brushes can save you some money, but again, not the cheapest, unless you want lots of hair texture all over your painting.

Now choose is what surface to paint on. Paper will be the cheapest option, unless you have any pieces of hardboard hanging around. Acrylic can be used on paper, canvas, canvas board, hardboard, pebbles, almost anything. Paper needs to be 300grams, especially if you intend to water down your paint, for washes or to paint in a watercolour style. Thinner paper is said to be suitable for acrylic, on the cover, but you will be disappointed if it buckles.

I like to use a stay wet pallet. I bought a plastic container, approx. 8" x 10" and 3" deep, and line it with 'Sta-Wet' pallet paper. You can buy the Sta-Wet palette, which is larger, but I find these tip over in my art bag when I am off to an art group or to sit out some where and paint. A money saving tip here is to buy Non-stick baking & grease proof paper from a supermarket and cut it into pieces to fit your palette for the top layer. I usually find the top layer is used up sooner than the lower layer. You can use an old plate, or disposable palette paper sheets, but acrylic dries quickly and if you wet the lower layer of the Sta-Wet paper, you paints will stay usable for days, depending on the climate.

So, you have your paints, brushes. palette and a surface to paint on. Most surfaces ready made for acrylics, watercolour and oils are ready to paint on. If you are using hardboard panels from an art shop these are ready to use. You would need to paint both sides of any hardboard panels intended for carpentry and building, with Gesso primer, readily available in artist materials shops. Please watch my YouTube Videos for painting demonstrations and tips.

How to get visitors to your website

Decided to have a website, finding it hard to get visitors? Here are a few things you can do to attract more people to your site.

If you go for a Wix site, you can start off with a free plan. This gives you the oppurtunity to load your images, write good descriptions and get everything looking good. Then, so that you can sell from your site, you will need to upgrade, so that you can add PayPal buttons.

When you add your images, click on the gear icon and fill in the 'Tell Google what this image is about' box. Remember to describe the painting in a way that someone searching for one similar to yours will type in, and hopefully find it. So if you have painted a harbour scene, don't just call it Harbour Scene. Where is it? What special features are in it? Is it a popular tourist area? (These are Long Tail Keywords, Painting Looe harbour, rather than Looe) What made you want to paint it? Done all that, next promote it on, FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest Instagram and any other sites you choose. You have loaded these buttons to your site, haven't you! If not,click on the + simble, click Social, and add the ones you want and add the links.

When using Pinterest, be sure to claim your site. Then anyone who sees one of your images, will also be able to see your web address and visit it. Pin regularly. Update your site regularly. Add links to other sites you use and if they alow it, add a link back to your site.