Leisure Painter & The Artist August 2025

Features - Leisure Painter:

• Six lessons in the landscape: How to take a good reference photo and use it to create quick tonal and colour sketches, make good colour choices and look into the shadows, with David Webb
• Add the sparkle: How to capture the movement and energy of waves using soft-pastel techniques, by Naomi Jenkin
• Buttercups & bluebells: Learn how to use transparent watercolours and the wet-on-dry technique to paint a delicate flower arrangement, with Julie King
• Loosen up your style: Use bubble wrap, newspaper, a knife and a brush to create interesting textures in an acrylic landscape, with Hazel Money
• Coloured-pencil clinic: How to work on Pastelmat using your favourite coloured pencils, with Helen Carter
• Coffee-break inspiration: Use your 20-minute breaks today to create interesting artwork from everyday views, by Tony Underhill 
• Easy days: Pastels make light work of sketching down on the beach - but it doesn't always have to be fast, says Nina Squire
• Tradition and innovation: Nick Stewart test runs a new nan-particle ink by Diamine - Forever Inks - to create vibrant artwork
• Drama in the sky: How to make skies the main event in your paintings. This month learn effective techniques in watercolour, with Colin Joyce
• Impasto alpaca: Practice eight creative techniques to paint an alpaca with acrylic painter, Ali Hargreaves
• Sunlight and shadows: Follow oil painter, Richard Holland, as he paints an early summer landscape en plein air

Features - The Artist

• A day in the life of Karl Terry: Sally Bulgin meets the artist and discovers more about his life and art practice
• Shape, colour, action!: Caroline Saunders talks to Violet Pirlot about her fresh and spontaneous alla prima style
• The presidents' exhibition: Charles Williams takes a closer look at The Presidents' Exhibition, in celebration of the Bankside Gallery's 45th anniversary
• Soft transitions and small details: Amberley Tydesley reviews the new polyester canvases from ACF Canvases
• Learn from the masters: Sarah Edmonds shines a light on lesser-known artworks by artists we know and love. Part 8: Picasso and his animals
• Turning professional: Rodney Kingston shares his experience of his first year as a full-time artist
• Ask an artist: Kimberley Keegan's tips and advice for working artists
• The benefits of a painting series: Mike Barr encourages you to paint the same subject more than once

Practicals - The Artist

• The colour green: Martin Taylor describes how he mixes his perfect greens
• Summer light: Robert Brindley uses gouache to describe summer light and atmosphere
• In the footsteps of Tunnicliffe: Becky Thorley-Fox continues her series painting plein-air through the seasons, this time focusing on wildlife on Anglesey
• Watercolour freed!: In the second of six articles on unlocking the potential of watercolours, Catherine Beale explores the effect of capillary action