Tag: painting techniques

Video courses

Use the coupon code “FORTY” to get 40% off one class, tutorial. Hurry. This special won’t come back.

Mentorship

Art student mentorship is available. We meet in Zoom to discuss your art, progress, and any questions you might have about drawing or painting. Email communication is available as well. One-hour session is $65, which could be split into two half-hour sessions. To discuss your options and to set up a schedule, please email nika@veronicasart.com. For a limited time, I will provide email feedback for my Colored Pencil Techniques course.

#1 Comprehensive Colored Pencils Techniques Drawing video course

veronica winters colored pencil drawing

Designed for beginners in colored pencil drawing, this video course consists of 18 video lessons. In this video course you study how to draw various objects in colored pencils. Each video lesson builds up in progression, focusing on a single object to draw.

  • Complementary, downloadable pdf file includes line art, color swatches and materials list. For a limited time the artist provides every student with feedback via email. To check out the previews and enroll, click on the image above to follow the link.
donuts by kathy-testimonialocolored pencil techniques video course-veronica winters
This free video explains what’s inside the course.


#2 COLOR CRUSH Course for Colored Pencil Artist, video course

Design your perfect color harmony in colored pencil drawing by taking this course

#3 Portrait drawing: creating emotion in colored pencil, video course

colored pencil portrait drawing by veronica winters
Click on the image to go to this PORTRAIT DRAWING VIDEO COURSE!

Uncover the secrets to portrait drawing in colored pencil! This unique video course builds up in progression to prepare students to see and capture light on a model, and draw portraits in colored pencil from pictures. Even if you don’t draw from the references, you still get plenty of ideas and information how to create vibrant portraits working in colored pencil.

  • The projects consist of lessons- narrated video recordings where the artist draws on various surfaces and explains valuable colored pencil techniques. Some portrait drawing demonstrations include a downloadable reference.
  • This course has downloadable color charts/ color list for every demonstration. Click on the image to see a complete curriculum for this class! Enroll today.

Watch free preview of this course…

#4 Realist oil painting techniques secrets for serious beginners & beyond

oil painting course

This class is available as online video course now! In this class you’ll see me paint a single still life using traditional oil painting techniques, such as:

  • glazing
  • grisaille (indirect painting) and
  • painting in full color.

I’ll walk you through every step of the painting process that includes:

  • prep drawing
  • underpainting
  • using grays to neutralize chroma (tube colors)
  • painting in full color
  • painting textures (in a shell)
  • painting glass (in a blue vase)

I also include a step-by-step guide (pdf file) that complements the videos. Download it! This class is for serious beginners and more advanced students who already have good understanding of drawing in color, and wish to proceed to the next step – oil painting. This class will give you classical approach to realist painting that you can apply to your daily painting process. It took me many years of schooling and practice to learn this classical approach to painting that’s summarized in this video. Take advantage of this opportunity. Start learning today!


# 5 Step-by-step colored pencil drawing tutorials

Direct link to step-by-step demonstrations: https://veronicasart.com/product-category/step-by-step-drawing-tutorials/

Or you can purchase a buddle of all digital art books and demonstrations for one price here: https://veronica-winters-art-school.teachable.com/p/downloads-tutorials-art-books

You will benefit from these colored pencil demonstrations the most, if you’ve already had some experience in pencil drawing. These demonstrations are not made for the absolute beginners in drawing. Every step-by-step demonstration includes the art supplies list, color chart, and images in steps to complete the exercise.

  • The demonstration comes as a digital pdf file that you can save to your computer and work from at your pace. A few demonstrations have drawing videos that are available for download in addition to a pdf file (sold separately).
  • When you complete your payment, an automatic email is sent to your inbox. Please check your spam folder as many of my files go there! If you don’t find the e-mail with the demonstration, please e-mail me. nika@veronicasart.com Don’t worry. I’m happy to send it manually. 

#6 Art Instruction books

Direct link to books https://veronicasart.com/product-category/art-instruction-books/

These art instruction books feature step-by-step drawings completed in various media, including colored pencil, graphite and even soft pastels. The advantage of buying a digital file rather than a Kindle book is that you can open and see large images on your computer screen. Also, if you have black-and-white kindle, it makes no sense buying the art book that explains how to draw in color.
Every book sells as a digital download that you can save to your computer, and open the file whenever you’re ready to work on your art in colored pencil or paint!
If you live in Europe or any other country, please order art books on Amazon in your country. I can’t ship books overseas.

Watch art instruction videos & previews:

I flip through the book to show you all the pages!

Watch it now. Every art student makes this single drawing mistake!

One of previews free to watch on YouTube. This colored pencil drawing tutorial is included into the comprehensive drawing course.

Testimonials:

“A committed artist, author, and teacher, Veronica Winters’s illuminated artwork and attention to detail pushes her to create realistic images that breath life into everyday objects. We are honored to present lessons by Veronica in the quarterly publication of COLORED PENCIL Student”

–Sally Ford, Founder & Editor, COLORED PENCIL Magazine

I attended Veronica’s soft pastel’s class, and she was very inspiring.  She gave good individual instruction, building confidence in her students by creating a non-competitive environment.  Veronica’s instruction is straight-forward and she has a true desire to help you.  I attended her class after decades of doing no art, she inspired me to continue my journey and I have since had my art accepted by and displayed in the Von Liebig Art Center in Naples. 

–Clare Roberts

Veronica has been an instructor in our Adult Education program for several years offering a variety of drawing techniques in both classes and workshops. Her classes include teenagers and adults, beginners and more experienced artists, and she provides professional and individual instruction to each student. We feel fortunate to have Veronica teaching in our program.

–Marie L. Doll, Executive Director, Art Alliance of Central PA

The experience of learning to draw with graphite and colored pencils with Veronica as a teacher for me was like learning to grow down and up in the world of art. Expressively up, because with each drawing advice I applied more the nuances of finding the skilled way to make a drawing shine through with life, and fruitfully down because for each finished drawing while looking for her to give the ‘teacher’s final remark’ she would always add: How do you like it?

–Kristina Egumenovska, Fulbright Visiting Research Student, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

In a very short time, Veronica has helped me to develop confidence in my artistic ability. Even though I am a beginner, I am progressing rapidly under her direction. She is patient and knows how to nurture a student’s natural talent, while helping the learner to stretch and grow in new areas of understanding (such as how to see and draw proper shapes and tones; working with perspective; how to see, work, and play with color). She is a fabulous artist herself, and learning from her is fun, educational, and inspirational.

–Stelli Munnis

As a teaching artist, Veronica inspires students with her own beautiful paintings and drawings, as well as with her personal attention and gentle, thought-provoking, well-planned, and thorough method of instruction.

–Stephanie Hosier, Assistant Director, Galaxy: The Arts in Education Program of Central Intermediate Unit # 10

I just wanted to say thank you for all your help so far – I’ve really been enjoying the class. This has opened up a whole new world for me. Drawing was something I always wanted to learn how to do, but I used to think you needed to be born with some sort of natural talent. I love finding things I want to draw, and I draw as often as I can at home. It’s something I definitely want to keep doing in the future.

–Brianne Hennel

I was admiring your art and your ability to bring out the full potential of colored pencils! I have to say, I am very impressed. I myself love using colored pencils- they are my favorite medium. By the way, your art work is very inspirational.

–Lauren Foley

Would you like to see your testimonial here? Shoot me an e-mail: nika@veronicasart.com 🙂

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Copyright

I reserve all rights to my intellectual property. It is illegal to forward, print, electronically copy, or distribute any digital content from this website or from downloads without prior written permission. If you copy, or forward any content, in any form, or grant access to the digital products to someone else, then you’re guilty of copyright infringement and this is a violation of U.S. and international copyright laws. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

How long did it take you to paint that?

This is my studio where I live. 🙂

“How long did it take you to paint that?

Every artist is asked this question. Viewers have no idea what it takes, and artists don’t know where to begin answering this question, because it involves…Well, it involves an entire explanation how long it takes to become good. Artwork creation doesn’t always look like a lot of work, yet a single painting incorporates years of unseen work. People ask this question because they want to have a conversation with the artist and they don’t know what else they can ask to have it.

In general, people try to calculate or connect the objectivity of high pricing with the time artist spends painting a particular artwork. On the surface it looks expensive or overpriced, and a prospect buyer wants to understand where the number comes from. Artists, however, think of a lifetime of effort, hard work, bills, tuition and many other business costs they accrue working in their studios. Therefore, weeks, months and years can’t be quantified into a certain number of hours spent on one painting.

In the beginning of the career many artists have to wrestle with the financial burden and make significant sacrifices learning the craft. The costs often include expensive college education. Besides having the obvious tuition and living costs, artists don’t become artists in four to six years after college graduation. The artist career often starts with zero job prospects or security, and builds up to something meaningful over a very long period of time of hard work, dedication and social climbing. For many artists it means a continued struggle, a reconciliation of the need to paint with making money to pay the bills. However, if the artist is good at art marketing and relationships building, the struggles most artists face may be reversed into significant opportunities quickly.

It takes A LONG time to learn how to paint realistically. There are no cute formulas or shortcuts. No one learns it overnight no matter how much talent the artist has! It’s a skill that takes significant effort and focus. Until very recently, there were no realist schools available to get the comprehensive education from, which magnified the problem and effort to achieve a certain skill level. Of course, there are exceptions and we can find super talented, self-taught artists, but such instances are rare. Those who have no time to do their art every day don’t become artists. Fear of instability takes their need to paint away from them.

There is a notion that artists just hang out at art festivals, fairs, or their shows enjoying the limelight and attention. Well, maybe for a little bit but… exhibiting at festivals involves a lot of effort, persistence, and investment. On average, a popular festival’s booth fees run around $450-$700/per show, and the artist is responsible for other costs (application fees, hotel, gas, transportation, and the cost of a professional booth itself that runs around $2,500 on average). Many artists hit the road for months, traveling from one state to the next, working over 8 hours a day. Work at the art festivals includes not only the artist’s time present at the booth all day, but also the time and effort to set up and to break down (usually early in the morning and late in the evening,) time to carry, pack, unpack and pack again a number of heavy, framed paintings.

Professional artists also have other costs that include:

  • Custom framing. Artists invest into their frames because it gives them professional presentation that is often required, by the way, to display their work in juried shows.
  • Time to market artwork. E-mails, presentations, social media, research, writing, contacting galleries and editors takes consistent and relentless effort.
  • Artists hire models to paint the figure from life.
  • Art supplies. Artists spend hundreds of dollars on art supplies every year as they keep practicing for years. This is a continuous expense, like going to a grocery store each week. When the time is right, the artist transitions to professional, durable, lightfast materials that cost a lot more that cheaply manufactured canvases and paints. Professional art supplies let artists create long lasting, museum-quality pieces, unlike the junk that would fall apart or fade within years. Often times if the artist doesn’t share this information with the buyer, no one can tell visually if the supplies are archival or not.
  • Other office expenses that include professional photo equipment, storage files, a scanner and a printer, camera and video equipment, etc..
  • Some artists chose to advertise online or in magazines.
  • As a surprise to many, the artist’s retail price includes a 50% mark up, sometimes 60-65% that galleries take selling artist’s work. That means that the artist gets only half of his/her money after making a sale.
  • The final cost to the artist is not the financial, but the emotional one. In the U.S. artists don’t have much respect unless they are famous. This leads to stereotypes and generalizations. Often called “lazy artists,” “starving artists,” “stupid artists,” or “flaky artists.” We have become the 2nd class citizens because we often allow it to happen, and because art has become the all encompassing word that incorporates everything into it. Art is everywhere today.

We don’t even pay attention to it, but art is everywhere today: in magazines, book covers, album covers, calendars, and even on plates. As the society has moved from scarce product production to consumerism, artists get pushed to the sidelines. A lot of work gets devalued by the Chinese manufacturing, cheaply made goods, mass-produced items, and unlicensed reproductions. This trend reinforces the people’s desire to buy a cheap print or new piece of technology rather than a small original artwork. As a result many folks don’t appreciate art, because they simply don’t identify with it, don’t find the emotional connection, and don’t really need it. TV, wall posters, and other goods and entertainment have replaced the enjoyment of looking at a single original painting.

In other words, ART has lost or changed its original meaning, evolving into other facets of artful creations that redefined the uniqueness and value of art. Bogus art may receive lots of publicity due to smart marketing campaigns that confuse people. Those souls who love the arts just get lost trying to understand what’s really valuable and what is not. It’s rare to see someone admitting that he or she doesn’t get art or lacks education to have an opinion. And that’s why art appreciation should be taught in schools as a relevant subject along with math and the sciences.

Art creates unique experiences. Art takes care of our emotional life. Often described as healing, art reflects on our inner life. No matter the art style or medium, Art makes us human to experience joy and beauty. Art can be a protest and a wing of change. When we look at history of human civilization, we often study it through art.

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