Beyond the sketch
I found myself getting more and more involved with this object and its strange shapes. I particularly enjoyed seeing how a red object...
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Sebastian Aplin
Painting courses
sebastianaplin
- 3 days ago
- 1 min
Still life sketching
Looking around the studio for another object to sketch I started on this circular saw... and just kept going. I was drawn into ways of...
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sebastianaplin
- 5 days ago
- 1 min
Still life sketching
The oil painting courses at Stapleford Granary start a week today and so I thought you might like a preview of what we will be up to and...
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sebastianaplin
- Aug 30
- 2 min
Painting progress
With so many DIY skills I've been trying my hand at recently, I've been thinking about the process of getting stuff done within my...
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sebastianaplin
- Aug 15
- 2 min
Oil painting courses
Several people have asked me about choosing between the "Principles of oil painting" course (1:30 to 4 pm) or the "Advanced still life...
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sebastianaplin
- Apr 9
- 1 min
Negative shapes
I do go on about these, I know! Here's a Sargent landscape that illustrates this idea nicely. I love the way the shapes of the cloud,...
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sebastianaplin
- Mar 27
- 1 min
Translating ideas into painting (second part)
Although I knew that replicating the colours on the photo would lessen the impact of the painting, I was drawn in to using a broader...
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sebastianaplin
- Mar 26
- 2 min
Translating ideas into painting
In this post I want to go through some of the decisions that I'm making when preparing to paint a landscape, which may resonate with how...
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sebastianaplin
- Feb 4
- 1 min
Figure painting in watercolour
Next Saturday we'll continue exploring how to use the negative space in watercolour by painting some human figures/portraits. We'll do...
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sebastianaplin
- Jan 18
- 1 min
Lucian Freud modelling technique
Next Wednesday we are going to look at how Lucian Freud painted his portraits. We'll be working on a relatively small scale using hog's...
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sebastianaplin
- Nov 24, 2023
- 1 min
Still life composition
For our last meeting of this block we will be looking at composition, and if you type in "Still life composition" into the search box you...
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sebastianaplin
- Nov 17, 2023
- 1 min
Lemons and bananas
There probably hasn't been a more popular fruit for painters over the centuries than lemons. Like all simple spherical forms they are...
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sebastianaplin
- Nov 10, 2023
- 1 min
Visual texture
On Wednesday we'll be looking at visual texture and how it affects the way we "model form" as we have done up to now. Van Gogh's shoes...
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sebastianaplin
- Nov 3, 2023
- 2 min
Mediums for oil painting
First of all, it was great to see you all on Wednesday! The subject of mediums came up a few times and so I'll share what I know about...
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sebastianaplin
- Oct 24, 2023
- 1 min
Subject matter
It's hard to choose subject to paint for a still life, in part because objects seem to be uninteresting and so we look for something...
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sebastianaplin
- Oct 16, 2023
- 1 min
Light and volume
Sketching simple geometric objects is a good way to get used to observing how light reveals form. The main idea is to group together the...
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sebastianaplin
- Oct 10, 2023
- 2 min
Red pepper
Fruit and veg are usually a favourite in a still life painting because of their colour and interesting form. I wanted to go over some of...
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sebastianaplin
- Oct 6, 2023
- 1 min
Decision making process (part 2)
When I leave a painting overnight all the thoughts about where I want my painting style to go in general come to confront me the next...
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sebastianaplin
- Oct 5, 2023
- 2 min
Decision making process (part 1)
I wanted to record some of the thought process when I'm painting a still life. Part of the reason I find painting so fascinating is that...
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sebastianaplin
- Sep 26, 2023
- 1 min
Foreground and background
Painters often feel the objects or people they paint are floating (involuntarily!). In our still life course we will be looking at how...
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