Painting tips and techniques
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A Watercolour Sketching Workshop in Haarlem, 19th-21st July 2019
I was in Porto, Portugal, last year when this year’s Urban Sketching Symposium location was announced. It would take place in Amsterdam. “You should consider...
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Dr. Doodle’s Comics Summer Camp 12th-16th August
This August I would like to invite your child to join me in Ballinderreen, Co. Galway, for a very fun week of learning cartooning.
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Colouring In With Kabuki
PREMIUM: Prints of Japanese Kabuki actors are masterpieces of colour and line and are a great way to practice watercolour techniques. In this article I...
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Let It Glow: Five Watercolour Techniques for Beautiful Painting
PREMIUM. When it comes to bringing out the beauty of watercolour, good timing is of the essence. Five easy techniques, with practice will enable the...
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An ABC of Drawing Directly in Ink: ASK, BUILD, COMPARE
PREMIUM. In the search for a spontaneous line, it's important to walk before we can run. Ditch the pencil and follow the ABC of drawing...
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SeaFest 2018: Sketching An Event Right First Time
PREMIUM - Sometimes when you're sketching you have to get it right first time. Here I share some of the tips I've picked up to...
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Understanding Your Watercolours: A Rembrandt Colour Wheel
PREMIUM A colour wheel is a great way to better understand the variations available in your paint set, as I demonstrate with this Rembrandt Basic...
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How to Draw Accurately (Part 3): Negative Space
PREMIUM In this article I show you how to use negative space to make a strong drawing. It isn't magic, but it is a useful...
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How To Draw Accurately (Part 2): Spiral
PREMIUM Drawing in a spiral is an easy way to keep control of a sketch. With time and practice you'll do it so fast that...
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How to Draw Accurately (Part 1): Mental Grid
PREMIUM: Drawing with confidence is one of the holy grails of sketching. In this article I share the first of three techniques that will get...
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Light and Shade: Making Your Sketch Look “Real”
PREMIUM: Getting light and shade right in a sketch goes a very long way to making a sketch believable, to give a feeling of "being...
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Sketching On Holiday: Now It’s Me Time!
PREMIUM Lots of us would love to capture a few memories on holiday in a sketch, but what do we bring with us, and how...
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How to Sketch the Sky in Watercolour
PREMIUM A beautiful sky is the most effective way to add atmosphere to your sketch; all kinds of cloud conditions can be realistically depicted...
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Planning an Urban Sketch: 10 Tricks for your Toolbox (Parts Two and Three)
PREMIUM The second and final part of my 10 Tricks for your Toolbox. Elements four through ten are some of the things to consider...
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Planning an Urban Sketch: 10 Tricks for your Toolbox (Part One)
PREMIUM It's good to do some advance planning before you put pen to paper. Far from removing spontaneity, it gives you freedom to express yourself,...
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Urban Sketching Kit 1: Watercolours
PREMIUM With an almost endless choice of watercolours to choose from, it can feel daunting to choose just a handful for your urban sketching paintbox....
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Making Colours Pop – As Easy as 1, 2, 3
PREMIUM Sketchers often wonder why their watercolours don't "pop" with bright, clear colour. The solution is really easy, and I describe it in this article...
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Know Your Values: Speed and Light with Versatile Indigo
PREMIUM article. Light and shadow can be effectively conveyed with the use of just one colour added to an ink line. Here the colour used...
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Only Human, After All: 10 Dos and Don’ts When Drawing People
PREMIUM article. While it's potentially very rewarding, drawing people is one of the biggest challenges you'll face as a sketcher. Get the inside track of...
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The Colours In My Paintbox: How They Earn Their Place
PREMIUM article. Finding you're missing a crucial colour can be annoying at best..but choosing just twelve colours for your paintbox is hard. Here I...
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Sketching People Moving: A Barbershop Quartet
PREMIUM article. Sketching people moving is one of the biggest challenges you'll face as an urban sketcher. But don't despair - there are lots of...
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Cartooning for Kids: Getting Started
PREMIUM post. Children are natural cartoonists. There are a few tips I've learned that will make it easier for children to get more out of...
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Sketching Coconut Harvesting in Mauritius
The Coconut harvesters of Mauritius risk their lives to bring us their bounty - and to let Róisín sketch them at their work.
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Sketching Everyday Life
PREMIUM. Sketching everyday life may not be glamorous, but drawing the objects around your home can be just as satisfying and rewarding as more dramatic...
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Painting Reflections in Watercolour
PREMIUM article. Painting reflections in watercolour can be challenging. Getting to know their main forms provides a short cut to learning to look well and...
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Forge an Old Master: The Japanese Art of Ukiyo-e
PREMIUM. You can learn a lot by trying to forge an Old Master: in this article, I offer tutorials to download, based on the beautiful...
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25 Dos and Don’ts When Urban Sketching
Here are 25 urban sketching tips for you to consider when you are out in the field. They include some things you should be doing...
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Accurate drawing and understanding tonal values: Killeenaran Quay, Co. Galway
PREMIUM article. I show how to achieve accuracy when drawing and how to achieve good tonal values in watercolour
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Video: Painting the Giant Lilies in the Pamplemousses Gardens, Mauritius
Painting the giant lilies in the Bassin aux Nénuphars, the Botanical Gardens, Pamplemousses, Mauritius
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No Time to Sketch? So Draw in the Cracks
PREMIUM article. When you think you have no time to sketch, just draw in the cracks!. I explain.
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Painting a Still Life in Watercolour
PREMIUM article. I give a demonstration of painting a bowl of fruit in a still life in watercolour
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Draw Accurately: Why can’t I draw my kids’ faces?
PREMIUM article. I talk about why we should learn to draw accurately and how to approach this
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Urban Sketching: 20 Dos and Don’ts when Getting Out There
Róisín Curé gives her 20 tips for urban sketching
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Video of Róisín Curé painting Tyrone House
Video of Róisín painting Tyrone House, Galway
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Painting in the field: Give it a try
Róisín discusses why it can be difficult to start painting in the field and how to overcome this.
