Vault
Lobster Boat Drawing Study
Explore a lobster boat through graphite, charcoal, and crayon in this video drawing lesson about observation, varied marks, and getting to know your subject.
Robert Joyner
Full time paint-slinger from good ol' Virginia specializing in loose, expressive art.
Mixed Media
How to Start Mixed Media: Crayon, Watercolor, and Your Old Rejects
Wondering how to start mixed media painting? Here’s how I got into it 20 years ago with crayons and watercolor, and how old rejects became my starting point.
Courses
Mixed Media Foundations: Build on What Didn’t Work
You’ve been throwing away your best starting points. Learn how your media behave and mix, then turn failed experiments and old sketches into the foundation for something new.
Courses
Acrylic Progressions: Think With Paint
Most acrylic courses teach you how to finish a painting. This one teaches you how to think with paint. Use structure, value, color, and time to push your acrylics from controlled to loose and expressive.
Courses
Watercolor Progressions: Go Too Far
You’ve been treating watercolor like it’s going to break. It’s not. Start with structure, then progressively let it go until the looseness is earned, not accidental.
Courses
Value & Color: See Light Before Color
Your color work isn’t a color problem. It’s a value problem. Learn to see and control light and dark first, so you can stop chasing the perfect color and make more convincing paintings.
Courses
Design & Composition: Decide Before You Paint
Most painting problems aren’t paint problems. They’re composition decisions you never made. Learn a simple pre-painting system so you know what the painting is about before the brush goes down.
Courses
Draw Loose with Confidence: The Construct to Deconstruct System
You don’t have a drawing problem. You have a thinking problem. Build structure, break it apart with intention, then use time and repetition to draw simpler, looser, and more expressive.
Courses
Drawing Fundamentals - Learn to Construct
Stop sketching, start seeing. Learn to break any subject into simple forms and draw with confidence in 20 lessons. Start of the Deconstruction Lab.
Process
10 Tips for Painting Loose (That Actually Work)
Want to paint loose? Here are 10 tips that work: draw loose, paint on paper, keep it simple, mix media, and stop chasing finished art. Plus a bonus tip.
Watercolor
Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Bananas: A Loose Progression Exercise
Practice loose wet-on-wet watercolor with bananas. Paint four studies, leave the first unfinished, and learn to scrub out and blot when a wash goes wrong.
Mixed Media
How to Paint a Horse Loosely: Acrylic, Charcoal & Mixed Media
Learn how to paint a horse loosely with acrylic, charcoal, and watercolor. Focus on rhythm and movement, then simplify, lose edges, and let the painting breathe.