Painting Techniques
Know Your Subjects Before You Paint Them
This video describes how to get to know your subjects before you break out the paint. Take time to explore, doodle and sketch you break the ice.
Painting Techniques
Explore essential painting techniques for all mediums. Learn composition, color, loose and expressive methods, and more with free tutorials and courses for every level.
Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques
Don't Focus on Finished Art, Do This!
Finished art can trap you in safe habits. This loose & expressive lesson shows why exploration, doodling, and playful risk-taking lead to stronger, freer painting.
Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques
You Need the Right Attitude to Paint Loose Art
Loose painting is about mindset, not just technique. Learn how a relaxed grip, quick confident strokes, and the right attitude will free your art from stiffness and perfectionism.
Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques
Avoid This Common Drawing Mistake - Paint Loose
Most beginners fall into the “coloring book” trap — tracing every edge of their subject. Learn how to avoid this mistake and replace it with loose, expressive lines that add life and energy to your drawings.
Acrylic Painting Tutorials
How to Develop Loose Expressive Brushwork
Loose brushwork isn’t about being sloppy — it’s about expression. Learn how to avoid tightening up too soon and develop confident, expressive strokes.
Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques
Three Essential Painting Areas & the Art of Exaggeration
Learn the three painting areas (edge, inside, background) and the art of exaggeration so your work stays loose and expressive. Quick garage drills help you push past the lines, then shape back with confident edges and background passes.
Loose & Expressive Painting Techniques
Two Simple Loose & Expressive Painting Concepts
These two simple loose & expressive painting concepts — loosening up shapes and experimenting with edges — will help you paint with more freedom and confidence.
Painting Techniques
Studio-Tested Techniques for Expressive Painting
Most articles about painting techniques read like art school textbooks - lots of theory, not much real studio experience. After sixteen years of daily painting, I've developed techniques that actually solve problems I encounter in my work, check them out!
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.
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.
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.