How to Paint
If you want to learn to paint or increase your skills, I have some excellent resources that have helped hundreds of my students learn to paint and gain confidence.
All resources on this page are free for you to download and reproduce for personal use.
How to Mix Color Part 1
This 7 minute video explains why "what you think you see" keeps you from drawing and painting realistically. Forget perspective, tricks, and tips and you will be amazed how well you can mix color, draw, and paint.
How to Mix Color Part 2
This 9 minute video demonstrates how to mix any color you can see in nature using just 5 colors and 7 steps. Forget about the color wheel, warm and cool colors and just mix the color you want to match!
How to Mix Color Guide
This is the FREE guide used to mix color shown in the "How to Mix Color Part 2" video. It also includes the typical names found on acrylic and oil paint tubes used in the video.
Colors to Purchase
This document lists the colors used in the Color Mixing Guide and in my video demonstration on mixing colors. The colors listed are popular brands and are readily available.
Acrylic & Oil Painting Material List
If you are taking one of my workshops here are the material lists for Acrylic Painting and Oil Painting.
Quick Guide to Painting
This one page document summarizes the steps required to complete a painting.
Technical Guide
This 4 page document will give you the technical information you need to paint in oil without overburdening you with details.
Intense Modern Palette
The colors included in this palette occupy the most space around the perimeter of the color wheel, giving painters the greatest color mixing potential and intense colors. I would NOT use this until you master the 5 color system.
Studio Lighting Setup
This handout gives you an easy to understand and implement method for getting the proper amount of light on your painting. It also eliminates glare on your painting.
Michael James Smith
Watch Michael James Smith explain AND paint photo-realistic sky, clouds, water, grass, trees, pets, fur, facial hair and so much more.
Draw Mix Paint
Learn to mix and paint in a loose painterly manner at Mark Carder’s drawmixpaint.com. He covers how to complete a painting from start to finish.
Pexels Stock Photos
Pexels is an excellent place to find and download free, royalty free resource photos for your art. No permission needed to use photos.
Unsplash Stock Photos
Unsplash is an excellent place to find and download free, royalty free resource photos for your art. No permission needed to use photos.
Awaken with JP
JP Sears is a comedian that takes an unapologetic stand for freedom, free speech, and encouraging people to live free from fear.
The Art Story
The Art Story is an excellent place to view artwork, learn about the artists that created them, and the general flow of the history of art.