Leisure Painter | January 2025
Welcome to the January 2025 issue of Leisure Painter! This month, we launch new series to inspire your creative journey. Wildlife artist Conor Smith starts a series on creating realistic animal drawings with graphite. In this issue, he discusses his material choices and reference photos, and demonstrates gridding and tracing techniques to help you create accurate outline drawings of an elephant and a tiger's eye. Next month, he’ll cover the indenting technique for realistic fur and skin textures. Conor’s series is ideal for animal lovers and anyone eager to master graphite techniques.
Linda Birch also begins a short winter series with creative exercises, including painting artificial flowers, making a ‘memory still life,’ and experimenting with a linocut-like painting method. Her focus is on playful experimentation rather than perfection.
Additionally, Helen Carter kicks off a yearlong colored-pencil “clinic,” answering readers’ questions on this versatile medium. Leisure Painter is here to support your artistic growth, so feel free to reach out with questions. We hope these features encourage you to explore new techniques and enjoy the creative process.
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Leisure Painter magazine was founded in 1967 and is the UK's most popular art and painting magazine that is published 12 times a year. The award-winning company was created to assist amateur artists of all levels and cover all aspects of painting and drawing including pencils, acrylics, charcoals, oil paints, pastels and watercolours. Not only does Leisure Painter cover a range of materials, but also a huge variety of topics are covered too, including flowers, landscapes, buildings, animals, boats and portraits.
With Leisure Painter magazine, you can gain access to an online community of like-minded artists who share their top tips and advice on how to develop your skills, as well as enter regular competitions including David Bellamy's sketchbook challenge. Plus, you can pour over the exhibition and art events pages to find opportunities to dive further into your hobby with other enthusiasts.
Try your hand at one of the Leisure Painter’s painting projects - for example, “how to capture the character of an old building using watercolours” or “step-by-step guides on how to complete your drawing of distant mountains with charcoal”. Regular projects from our regular contributors are a great way to expand your artistic skill set.
Subscribe today to Leisure Painter Magazine UK and access these regular benefits:
- The latest art exhibitions
- Tip shares
- Suggestions and ideas from readers
- Art bookstore
- ‘Holiday of The Month’ for artists
- Art clubs
- Art club gallery
- Online gallery
- Art offers
- Art Competitions
- The sketchbook challenge
- Master wet-into-wet watercolour tips
- Seasonal features
- Painting projects
You'll receive 12 issues during a 1 year Leisure Painter magazine subscription.
Note: Digital editions do not include the covermount items or supplements you would find with printed copies.
Articles in this issue
Below is a selection of articles in Leisure Painter January 2025.