Winter warmers and wet-on-wet watercolours.

Hello, everyone, and guess who’s back! It’s me! How was your week? Did you get any painting done? Has it been cold and chilly, like it has been here, or did you get some slightly warmer weather? After the week we’ve had here, you certainly know that winter is well on the way. Mulled wine, presents, and – well. Rain, snow, and all those icy winds as well. Poor little Toby the dog can’t go out without a raincoat these days as it’s so cold, especially in the early mornings.

I’ve been painting a bit more to try and compensate for the fact that the weather is a little too chilly to practice plein-air, so the table in my studio is absolutely covered with loose snowmen and watercolour reindeer – though it certainly adds a festive feel! If you fancy a bit of a paint-a-long tonight, make sure to join us for the Monday night live broadcast, which you can watch here at 8pm GMT. The theme this week is ‘Winter Walk,’ which is exactly what it feels like to take the dog out in the village at the moment.

If you’d rather practice your painting in your own time, there’s a new tutorial available on loosewatercolours.com. Sticking with the Christmas theme, this one is called ‘Pine Cone Friends.’ If you feel like showing off your craft skills this holiday season, it’s a perfect picture for the front of all your greetings cards, so you can spread some festive cheer to all your friends and family (all while showing off your newfound loose watercolour prowess!)

If you want reminders for all of the loose watercolour broadcasts and get notified when there’s a new tutorial, be sure to join the Beginner Loose Watercolours Facebook Group. There’s over two thousand members now, which is absolutely incredible, especially considering the group was only formed in August – and if you’re not a member already, why not join in the fun? It’s an incredibly welcoming community of beginner artists, and there’s lots of helpful tips and tricks to help you improve your painting skills, just like the video below. Interested? Click here to join.

Whether you’re brand new to the loose watercolour method, or you’ve started to build up a bit of confidence in using the wet-on-wet painting style, it never hurts to get some practical advice on equipment and techniques. Here’s a brief introduction on different types of kit and layout to help get you started.

And if you’d like to watch more of these types of videos, you can find them in the Beginners’ Group.

In terms of what I’ve been up to this week, it’s been painting, painting, and more painting as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a quick landscape I’ve named ‘Dusk in the City,’ a reminder of weekend city breaks and summer holidays, where the weather is usually a little bit warmer. I always like to paint loose street scenes, but they can be a bit challenging, especially when you’re just starting out, because of all the details in the architecture.

But don’t worry – you don’t have to be exact with all of the elements – after all, you’re painting the buildings, and not actually trying to build them, so you just need to give the impression of something like the windows and streetlamps. That’s the beauty of the loose style. Again, as with everything in art, it just takes practice, so the more you paint, the better you’ll get!

And as a side note, thank you all for voting last week! Your votes have been heard, and the general consensus seems to be yes, you would like a tutorial based on that train station scene! I’m already working on it, so it’ll be with you all very soon.

That’s all from me this week, as I’m working on some Christmassy-based paintings and such that’ll be heading your way very soon, but in the meantime, I’ll be back in your inboxes this time next week.

For those of you that are paid subscribers, I’ll be with you a little sooner than that – this week, we’ll be looking at the history behind Ultramarine Blue, which might just be the most expensive shade in your paint box. We’ll also be getting a bit more festive this week, with a look at some Christmas paintings to get you feeling the holiday spirit, and of course, it goes without saying that there’ll be some tutorials being released as well.

In the meantime, here’s an exclusive video at the end of this post as an extra special thank you for all your support. After all, it’s your help that keeps this Substack running! With all the lovely smells that come out around Christmastime in the kitchen – cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, especially – it got me thinking about other fragrant-smelling subjects to paint. And after all, what smells nicer than fresh lavender? So this week’s exclusive tutorial is ‘Lavender Twins.’

See you all soon folks! And in the meantime, happy painting!

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