The Ready to Paint book series is designed for those who want to learn to paint but cannot rely on their drawing skills. Re-usable A3 (42 x 29.5cm; 16½ x 11¾in) outlines of paintings are provided to pull out from the centre of the book. Clear instructions and step-by-step photographs show how to transfer the outlines onto paper and then how to create beautiful watercolour, acrylic or oil paintings, although the tracings could of course be used as the starting point for painting in any media.

Use this voucher code: READY at the checkout to get the special offer. Offer valid until January 12th.
Click here to go to the Ready to Paint books on the Jackson’s website.

This book series has been very popular- it shows just how many people want to get right to the fun part and enjoy the pleasure of the paint while skipping past the drawing step which for many people is the frustrating bit. This new concept bridges the gap between painting by numbers and conventional art instruction books.

Ready to Paint Books

Presented by well known art teachers the selection is growing fast and more titles are scheduled. At Jackson’s we stock all 31 titles in the series so far.

Click on the links above to go to the items on the Jackson’s website.

As always all books from Jackson’s come with a free sable brush.

Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.

Carbothello Pastel Pencil

A list of the characteristics of the Carbothello Pastel Pencil, the chalk-pastel colouring pencil:
-Wonderfully dry and dusty stroke, just like pastels and charcoal.
-Can be dry mixed and blended or wetted and used as a watercolour.
-Brilliant results on dark backgrounds, too.
-Available in 60 shades, in sets and individually.
-High pigmentation guarantees great luminosity and opacity as well as colour-fastness and colour brilliance.
-Asterisks mark each pencil’s light-fastness.
-The pastel is soft enough to draw perfectly on delicate paper.
-The wooden shaft protects the pastel from breaking.
-Many artists enjoy the cleaner use of a pastel pencil compared to a regular pastel.

Click on the link above to go to the offer on the Jackson’s Art website.

Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.

Tip for sketchbooks: if outdoors use an elastic band, paperclip or similar to stop pages flapping in the breeze.

To get straight lines in paint try brushruling. Steady a ruler with one long side on the surface and one tilted up in the air with your fingers curled under it. Run your paintbrush ferrule along the edge.

Shadows do not have to be plain grey. Try chromatic greys in complimentary colours to the object. A lemon could have a violet-grey shadow.

If you find your work too fiddly and tight then as you progress through the painting from large brushes to smaller brushes, try staying with the large brushes for longer and only using the smallest brushes at the very last.

There was also a “have a go” area for trying some drawing, reproduction prints for sale and in a silent auction, books and materials for sale, and a display of pencils and the company history from Faber-Castell a sponsor of the exhibition. During the rest of the exhibition there will be a large selection of workshops from well-known artists. The exhibition and workshops continue until October 1st.

Here are two quick snaps we took:

A Celebration of Creative Art exhibition

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A chair made of pencils, part of the Faber-Castell display.

Drawing Crowds is an exhibition which focuses on exploratory drawing. They are calling for submissions from artists from any background and from any country to produce work on the theme of ‘Journey’. The theme is open to interpretation as you see fit but the main focus of your work should be exploration and discovery through some method of drawing.

Read more on their website.

Jackson’s is providing a £100 voucher as the prize to the winning finalist.

Watercolour Paper
Watercolour paper has a “hard size” on top of the paper that allows the water to penetrate and the pigment to remain on the surface. This gives the painting its brilliance and also allows for corrections.
Watercolour paper comes in different textures. Hot Press (HP) is the smoothest. Not (also called cold pressed) has a medium textured surface and is the most popular finish, it is especially good for beginners. Rough is highly textured paper.
The weights of the papers range from 90 lb to 400 lb. The heavier the weight of the watercolour paper the less the paper will buckle when wet. For lighter weight papers (140lb and below) the paper is usually wetted and laid out on a board and taped down with gum-strip tape. Alternatively you can use a specially designed paper stretcher device like the Keba Artmate.
Watercolour papers come in sheets, pads, rolls, and blocks. Blocks are pads that are glued on all four sides except for a small space on one side. This allows for painting without stretching and when the painting is dry you can remove the top painted sheet by running a butter knife around the edge from the gap in the side.

Drawing Papers
Cartridge paper is a high quality type of heavy paper used for illustration and drawing.
Bristol is a strong and durable, all-purpose drawing paper. It has a very hard surface that is heavily sized, polished, and compressed.
Pastel paper is used for soft and hard pastels and charcoal. It is usually coloured paper, with the colour chosen being very important as it will be a major component of the finished work. It comes in a few different textures. Ingres is a laid paper with a mesh imprint from a screen. Random texture gets its surface from a cloth matt imprint, similar to Not texture watercolour paper. There are a few types with toothy textures from ground cork that are similar to sandpaper. A few come with the colour screenprinted on and some are waterproof for working the pastels with water.
Paper for oil pastels is hard and white and usually comes in a pad with glassine paper interleaving to protect it from smudging.

Oil and Acrylic painting papers
These medium to heavyweight papers are usually canvas textured and primed for painting with either oil or acrylic. The ones prepared for acrylic paint are universally primed to accept both oil and acrylic. Paper must be sealed completely if painting with oil paints because the oil will separate out if the paper is absorbent and it will also rot the paper over time. Although acrylic paint can be used on any paper, this paper is specifically designed to mimic canvas. It is especially useful for taking to classes or using in the field and is an economical choice for making a study or sketch prior to the major work on canvas.
You can also get sheets of primed actual canvas (as opposed to the canvas-textured paper) in pads.

Fine Art Digital papers
Inkjet papers that allow high quality reproductions of your artwork come in a wide variety of textures and weights. They are coated to accept the ink jet inks. They can be sprayed with an inkjet fixative to prevent smudging if that is a problem.

These are free to watch and each short video covers a single art tip or instruction. The videos vary in length from about a minute to almost 10 minutes long. They are made by knowledgeable art materials makers like Winsor & Newton, Liquitex, Golden Acrylics, Faber-Castell, Schmincke, Sennelier, Marabu, Derwent, and Daler-Rowney and cover topics like varnishing a painting, creating texture with acrylics and botanical illustration with coloured pencils as well as showing how to use speciality products by the manufacturer.

There is a very short video on how to best sharpen a pencil, videos that answer common questions about popular techniques such as using acrylic medium to transfer an image and making acrylics look like encaustics and videos from brush manufacturers Escoda and Da Vinci that show how to create effects with brushes.

Go take a look and see what all there is to learn about!

Here is a demo showing ways to use the new Derwent Inktense Blocks:

Drawing Day 2011

Draw on June 4th and then upload your drawings to the Drawing Day page and to the Jackson’s Art Facebook page.

There will also be a 2011 Drawing Day book.

Drawing Day 2011