Robert Joyner

Mixed Media Painting Tutorials

Painterly Mixed Media Flowers with Collage Borders

Learn how to turn a watercolor into a lively mixed media floral still life with collage borders, bold strokes, and vibrant on-surface color mixing.

Watercolor Painting Tutorials

Loose Watercolor Seaside Tutorial

Forget the usual broad washes—this watercolor seaside scene with coastal homes uses an unconventional, block-by-block approach. Loose, expressive, and full of fresh surprises.

Mixed Media Painting Tutorials

Mixed Media Flower Painting with Collage Borders

Paint your flowers in the center. Build the magic around the edges. How I discovered that putting collage around a painting instead of inside it creates instant depth and draws the eye exactly where you want it to go.

Acrylic Painting Tutorials

Paint Still Life with Flowers using Acrylics

This is a how-to guide for painting a still life with flowers in acrylics — but with a twist. No music in the studio, just the rhythm of the brush. Loose, expressive, and very much garage-artist style.

Mixed Media Painting Tutorials

Exploring Mixed Media Landscape and Collage Techniques

A gallery of recent coastal and urban landscapes created by transforming rejected watercolors into layered, expressive mixed media artworks.

Mixed Media Painting Tutorials

Painterly Collage Techniques for Loose, Mixed-Media Flowers

This floral still life started on a recycled “palette paper,” layered with a colorful collage border and painted loosely with acrylics for a fresh, textured finish.

Mixed Media Painting Tutorials

Watercolor and Acrylic Mixed Media Demonstration

This tutorial demonstrates how to enhance existing watercolor paintings through mixed media applications. Using pattern elements and selective acrylic additions, you'll learn approaches to rescuing bad art.

Landscape Painting Tutorials

What Makes an Expressive Landscape Painting?

What makes landscape painting expressive isn't technique - it's genuine connection to place and some emotional confidence.

Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques

What Actually Makes Painting Expressive

Expression isn't something you set out to create. You don't wake up and say 'Today I'm going to paint expressively.' Real expression happens naturally when the right conditions are in place - and those conditions have more to do with confidence than technique.

Color Theory for Artists

The Color Choices That Actually Matter in Expressive Painting

I used to spend twenty minutes arranging my palette and planning 'harmonious schemes' before ever touching brush to canvas. Then everything changed when I stopped choosing colors and started responding to them.

Watercolor Painting Tutorials

Watercolor Coastal Landscape

This tutorial demonstrates a wash-dominated approach to coastal landscape painting, emphasizing how to let watercolor's natural properties drive the construction while maintaining compositional control.

Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques

Four Studio-Tested Ways to Start Loose, Expressive Paintings

I used to freeze in front of blank canvases until I discovered something that changed everything: use your canvas as your mixing palette first. By the end of a painting session, you have spontaneous strokes and random colors - the perfect expressive beginning.