Watercolour is always a popular and enjoyable medium for the amateur painter. It’s not the easiest kit to master, but its translucent, bright colours and unpredictable nature make it gloriously exciting. You’ll find a variety of techniques in this month’s issue, from how to build up layers of colour and detail to create the illusion of depth in paintings of animals, landscapes and street scenes to quick-and-easy exercises for painting trees and 30-minute flowers. Hazel Soan’s wonderful meercats (pages 36 to 39) require just a few brushstrokes of wet paint (along with plenty of practice, of course), while Paul Hopkinson’s beautiful little harvest mouse (pages 61 to 63) will take hours of brushwork and is perfect for those with a steady hand and a love of detail. We also have exciting acrylic techniques to try, as we introduce Brendan Smith’s lively style (he also explains how he recycles old paintings, pages 12 to 15), while Helen Elliott (pages 32 to 35) takes us through the creation of one of her signature paintings step by step. There are plenty of other media, ideas and inspiration within these pages.
As the reason LP exists is to inspire you to pick up your brushes and paint, we are also featuring three painting competitions for you to enter this month. Our popular monthly anniversary competition (page 6), organised in partnership with GreatArt, nears the end of its year-long run with an invitation for you to paint an autumn scene. Our second painting competition comes from Dutch art materials manufacturer, Royal Talens, which celebrates its participation in the making of a new and innovative film, Loving Vincent (in cinemas from 13 October), by inviting you to paint in the style of Van Gogh (page 68).