Category Archives: Free Tutorials

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Painting Realistic Curly Fur in Oil – 9 Tips

graphic for Curly White Fur article on how to paint realistic curly white fur. 4 images of a painting of a dog with curly white hair. The largest image on the left is finished. The smaller 3 images are in various stages of painting. Text reads "Painting Realistic Curly Fur". Painting by Shelley Hanna.

Painting realistic curly fur is definitely not for the faint of heart. Painting straight white fur is hard enough, but conquering the twists and turns of realistic curly fur is a challenge that can level up your skills as an artist. I’ll share everything I learned while painting this Bichon Frise portrait with all his luscious locks so you can approach your own curly portrait paintings with confidence.

In this painting tutorial, I’ll cover the following topics:

  1. Understanding the Anatomy of Realistic Curly Fur
  2. Choosing the Right Materials
  3. Preparing the Canvas
  4. Sketching the Subject
  5. Laying Down the Base Colors
  6. Building Texture with Layers
  7. Adding Highlights and Shadows
  8. Finishing Touches and Fine Details
  9. Tips on Drying Time

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How to Draw a Realistic Bird in Colored Pencil Step-by-Step

How to draw a realistic bird in color pencil title image with 4 stages of a bird drawn in color pencil

Learning how to draw a realistic bird in color pencil is challenging, but worth the effort. With the right approach and some patience, you can create a stunning piece of art that captures the beauty of these amazing creatures.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw a realistic bird step-by-step in color pencil, from sketching the initial outline to adding the finishing touches. Let’s begin!

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10 Essential Steps For Landscape Painting In Oil

Are you ready to take your landscape painting skills to the next level? In this tutorial, you’ll discover essential techniques and tips that both beginner and experienced artists can use for creating stunning landscape paintings.

In this tutorial, I will go through my 10 step process of painting a landscape in oils, from prepping the canvas to sketching out the composition and adding the finishing touches. So get out your paints and brushes, because we’re about to get creative.

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How To Paint A Realistic Portrait – Avoid These 11 Mistakes!

Realistic portrait painting has always been my favorite thing to do. However, getting a likeness can be a huge challenge due to simple mistakes. I’ll share with you a couple of the mistakes I made painting this portrait. I will also go over other common mistakes and helpful tips. This will help you to avoid some of the pain of painting portraits.

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I’ve drawn and painted portraits of people and pets for as long as I can remember. Fortunately, I’ve been able to capture a likeness with most of my subjects.

The only time I have trouble with a likeness is when I make some basic mistakes. With this realistic portrait of Dr. Claude Pressnell, I started out the painting with an inaccurate drawing. That was my first mistake. I also had

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Painting Wrinkles And Grey Hair – 12 Tips & Tricks

Painting wrinkles and grey hair have their own unique challenges. I’ve loved drawing and painting wrinkles ever since I was a kid. The more wrinkles, the better as far as I was concerned. Wrinkles add a lot of interest and character to a portrait.

painting wrinkles and grey hair article title graphic showing a man with grey hair and grey beard

In my portrait painting tips article, I gave a basic 3 step process for painting wrinkles. In this article, I’ll go over 12 tips for painting wrinkles and grey hair including how to think about wrinkles in a different way. If you are intimidated about painting wrinkles,

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How To Paint A Digital Portrait – Step-By-Step With Pictures

When I got my iPad, painting a realistic digital portrait was the first thing I wanted to try. As a traditional oil painter, I don’t want my digital portraits to look like digital paintings. I wanted them to look like real oil paintings. In this article, I’ll show you how I do it.

Digital portrait painting title card

Procreate was the first program I tried, but I didn’t get the results I wanted. After giving ArtRage a try, I found that painting a realistic digital portrait was much easier for me to achieve. It’s a program that just seemed to work for me. I know many artists that use Procreate and other painting programs with great success.

NOTE: If you don’t have a digital program to paint in, you can still follow along using whatever types of paint you have. The basics are still the same.

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How To Paint A Senior Dog Portrait – Tips & Tricks

A senior dog portrait painting has a few unique challenges. But these sweet older faces are so rewarding to paint for a variety of reasons.

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When painting portraits of older people, you need to take into account how to paint wrinkles, grey hair and changing facial features. When you paint a senior dog portrait, having a plan for painting the white fur on their face as well as the changing skin on their nose can make your portrait a success.

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Can I Make A Digital Painting Look Traditional On The iPad?

Ever since I picked up an iPad and started painting, my number one goal was to make my digital painting look like a traditional oil painting. I wasn’t convinced it was possible and, of course, I can still tell the difference. However, a lot of people that view my work can’t tell the difference between my digital and traditional paintings.

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Yes, it is possible to make a digital painting look like a traditional oil painting. Use the same process that traditional painters and a program that gives a natural application of paint. This will give you a good result. Throughout the rest of this article, I will show you a practice painting I did using

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How To Paint White Fur – Painting A White German Shepherd Step-By-Step

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Knowing how to paint white fur may not seem like that big of a challenge until you try it. The trick is to not paint white fur with white paint – at least not at first.

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In today’s tutorial, I’ll walk you through step-by-step how I painted this beautiful white German Shepherd named Maiden. I’ll go over some of the challenges I had with the lighting of the fur and how to model it. I’ll also talk about how I decided when to

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Impressionist Flower Painting PLUS How To Paint Silver & Fabric

When I set out to do this impressionist flower painting, I wanted to learn more about how to capture the energy and essence of nature’s beauty. Artists have been painting flowers for centuries and I had painted a flower or two in my youth, but I didn’t remember how hard they were to do.

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I decided to do what I thought was a simple still life of a flower. I found a pretty rose, busted out my favorite silver sugar bowl and a piece of canvas for a tablecloth. In my mind, I thought the painting would take me four hours to paint. I have no idea where that delusion came from. My simple still life had some very

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