The Three Amigos

This is a must see video if you enjoy the work of any of these watercolouring greats, Joseph Zbukvic, Herman Pekel and Alvaro Castagnet. I owe at lot of what I've learned to these artists and their wonderful DVDs.

Learning to watercolour

I received two great DVD's in the post yesterday. Watercolouring by Charles Reid and Alvaro Castagnet. I have watched the Charles Reid film and found it really inspiring, so hopefully you will see a big improvement in my watercolouring very soon! It would be nice to go on a watercolour course with these guys but I could not afford it. I recommend these tutorials to anyone who is interested in improving their skills. Not recommended for beginners. Go here if you would like to see more tutorial videos from APV.

My first SketchCrawl

I'm not getting much time to sketch this week, too much work but I have to pay the bills. On Saturday I go to my first SketchCrawl here in Stockholm, I cannot remember ever doing any urban sketching before so I'm really looking forward having a go. My wish is to try sketching in an impressionistic style, like Henry Arifin, Alvaro Castagnet or Joseph Zbukvic and I am most likely just going to make a expressionistic mess; but hey, I'll have fun doing it. There is the added bonus of getting the chance to meet some new and interesting people who have similar interests.

Craig Young Palette

Charles Reid paints with a Craig Young Palette

At some stage in the future I'd like to own one of these handmade paintboxes by Craig Young. It will set me back £225 pounds though! Two Artists I admire, Alvaro Castagnet and Charles Reid use them, the deep wells look extremly useful.

Water color by Direk Kingnok

Shop on the street by Direk Kingnok. His style is similar to Alvaro Castagnet I think. I had no time myself to do any water colouring this week, I am busy at work so it might be a while before I have some free time on my hands.

More Alvaro Castagnet

Another Alvaro Castagnet video for my blog.

I've started painting again after a break for 25 years!
Well, if I think about it I have never really learned to paint, and therefore have never actually really painted.  I am older now and hopefully a little wiser, I can see that I have shyed away from painting because it was too difficult and that one actually has to make an effort to learn the skill, much like learning to play a musical instrument. It wasn't within me, I did not have the desire, but now I do and I want to learn the art.

So, at the moment I am using water colours and I have used acrylics last weekend, both demand different skills and I am enjoying the challenge of learning to express myself in these mediums. I find Alvaro Castagnet's confident style appealing, I like his fearless, cocky approach to painting in water colours.

Alvaro Castagnet Water colourist with Spanish flare.

I found Alvaro's technique very compelling when I stumbled upon it yesterday on YouTube. He has boundless self-confidence which is probably the most important lesson of all when learning to paint: to be daring and not being scared to make mistakes.
Visit his website here.