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Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
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A friendly place to learn at your own pace.
with Richard Robinson
There's something sooo nice about settling in to paint a simple still life. Meditative. Refreshing. Calming. Eye opening!
I dug down deep in this lesson and I'm pretty sure there's at least 5 useful tips in here you didn't know you didn't know.
Ooooh, learning new stuff! Nooiiice.
Choosing objects, and getting the best placement, viewing angles, environment and lighting to bring the best out of a simple subject.
3 Tips to get the best from your phone camera.
9 drawing techniques to improve your accuracy instantly.
Make beautifully 3 dimensional objects with just 5 values.
How to maximise vibrant colour in your paintings.
Brush techniques to take your painting from ho-hum to Oh Yum!
Follow me one brushstroke at a time as I take you through the full process of painting a simple still life in oils or acrylics in just over 1.5 hours. Enjoy!
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Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
Hi I’m Richard. I’ve been painting my whole life and back in 2001 I traded my graphic design career for the humble life of a full time artist. I love painting, and as it turns out, I love teaching too.
Nowadays I balance my life between parenting, painting, surfing, travelling and teaching. My work is regularly featured in international art magazines, in galleries in New Zealand and America, on TV and in my Mum’s house.
I give outdoor painting workshops in interesting spots around this beautiful planet of ours and love encouraging people to paint. Two of my favourite artists are John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla.
My painting website: www.nzpainter.com
I’d love to be your new teacher.
Richard is a master artist with an exceptional skill in identifying and communicating key factors to making successful paintings. I have found his video workshops an excellent resource for improving my own work.
Lemon Tea 12x12" Oil on Canvas by Richard Robinson
Photo Resource #1
GareauTosh1
Artist: Liza
Lemon and pot in oil
Artist: Chris Huang
Lemon Tea by Tracy Randell, Adelaide SA.
Artist: Tracy Randell
Lemons and Blue Bowl; oils on canvas paper 30x21cm
Artist: Ian States
Day 15: Lemon Tea, Still Life, in acrylics by Eric Hillmer
Artist: Eric Hillmer
"Lemon Tea",in acrylics, by Eric Hillmer, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Great to see this done in acrylics Eric. Always harder to get that wet-in-wet look but it has it's own benefits too. The colour and drawing are good overall. The base ellipse of the lid is a little too round. Interesting to see it with a brown background. Composition is interesting too - feels like they're staying in the light on the right to avoid whatever is lurking over there in the shadows. The lemon is suspicious. :-) The lemon's cast shadow on the teapot is particularly well done and holds the whole painting together. Some of the highlights within the shadows and halftones of the teapot are not helping to enhance the form - they are actively confusing it. You can keep those for interest, but with less contrast would help. Good job! - Richard
Lemon tea , 13x 12”
Hey Mark, great to see you taking the time to really knuckle down and assess what you're seeing in the forms here. It's a brain workout for sure. Some really nice modelling there in the teapot and cloth. Your lemon could do with darker shadow plains to make it rounder. The button handle on the lid could grow to the right a bit to make it more central and you could try darkening some of the background further to remove the fluffy texture which to me seems to compete a little for attention. Keep up the good work! - Richard
lemon and the pot
Hi Magdalena, it sure is difficult to photograph dark paintings without reflection on them, right!? I had the same problem and ended up photoshopping it to get it right. So, I'm loving the gestural paintwork here, the looseness of the whole thing. I especially love how the lemon came out. Personally I'd like to see a little more care taken with some key parts of the teapot like the end of the spout and the area around the main highlight. That's just a matter of switching gears a little, slowing down and perhaps using a finer brush - not necessarily smaller, but with a crisp end on it. Aside from that, beautiful painterly work! - Richard
Original Bench Top Still Life Photo
Nice subject! - Richard
Bench Top Still Life in Oils
Good work Geoffrey, great attention to detail and subtle shifts in colour. Pretty decent drawing, but paying attention to symmetry around centre lines will help you be more accurate. Looks to me like the shadow sides of your objects are a bit too light, which on the one hand gives a nice glowing appearance, but on the other tends to flatten the 3D form. It's easy enough to check this by editing the photo of your painting on your phone and increasing the darks or the contrast to see what a difference that makes and if you might prefer it. Good job. - Richard
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