Tips/Videos

UART Tip #23: “How do I Deal with ALL that Green?” with Nancie King Mertz My students often ask this question when we’re together in a plein air workshop, and they often remark that they “don’t have the RIGHT green”.  My solution is to start with a cool underpainting on the furthest section of green […]

Portrait on UART Dark with Alain Picard – Part Two Master Pastelist Alain Picard demonstrates portrait painting on UART Dark premium mounted board. Check out part one here.

Portrait on UART Dark with Alain Picard – Part One Master Pastelist Alain Picard demonstrates portrait painting on UART Dark premium mounted board.

UART Tip #22: My Lighter/Darker/Warmer/Cooler/Brighter/Greyer Mantra with Barbara Jaenicke Okay, that title is quite the mouthful. But it’s what I live by when I paint. I’m often asked how I approach color in a painting, and if I subscribe to any particular color theory.  I wish I could give a short and sweet answer to how I use […]

UART Tip #21: Setting the Mood and Express Yourself with Christine Camilleri Mood is something that the artist can control by using certain things that help to convey a certain emotion. You might choose one or all of these things to help tell your story or to emphasize a certain aspect in your subject. For example, horizontal lines […]

UART Tip #20: How to Capture the City While Keeping it Calm with Nancie King Mertz This painting is from reference photos I took late in the afternoon while attending a benefit in a Chicago hotel!  We’re always looking for our next painting, right? The rush hour traffic was soon to start and the slanted light […]

UART Tip #19: Prepping for Snow with Barbara Jaenicke For any painting, the block-in is crucial. In this all important step, my goal is to begin with only a few shapes, and to connect shapes wherever possible to create movement into and throughout the painting. With a snow scene especially, I’m also concerned with setting […]

UART Tip #18: Blending and Softening Effects with Sanded Paper with Robert Palmerton Blending Effects One of the charms of UART sanded pastel paper is its ability to enable the pastel artist to blend several pastel layers into a uniform hue, and to build atmospheric effects (such as fog or streaks of sunlight), by applying […]

UART Tip #17: Drawing Short Hair in Colored Pencil with John Middick “How can I draw short hair that looks more realistic?” I’ve heard this question quite often from new and seasoned artists alike. It seems there’s a bit of mystery surrounding the process, so I want to offer my own perspective on achieving realistic […]

UART Tip #16: Creating the Illusion of Atmosphere and Distance in a Painting with Jill Stefani Wagner Introduction Recently, our local land conservancy highlighted farms that had been saved through their land rescue program to raise money to protect even more acreage. They requested Michigan artists apply to paint at one of their 40 sites and […]

UART Tip #15: Out of the Box Pastel Grays:  How to Spice Them Up with Christine Camilleri Grays enhance saturated colors, provide balance when there is much going on in your painting, are rest areas for the eye and are invaluable for shadows and showing form or structure. How do we achieve grays that are […]

UART Tip #14: Thinking Outside the Blue Box with Bethany Fields There is nothing more appealing than a bright “bluebird” day. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, the sky is clear and vibrant. Here in my home state of Texas, and particularly in my region, our skies are as blue as pure brilliant […]

UART Tip #13: Loosen-Up and Speed-Up Your Painting Session with Nancie King Mertz Step 1:  Whether studio or plein air, I always first map out a composition with directional “tic-marks” using vine charcoal. This ensures that each element I want to include has its space and prevents letting the subject “grow”, wishing for more painting […]

UART Tip #12: Making Your Mark with Barbara Jaenicke For the impressionist pastel painter, it’s important to allow the mark-making qualities of your pastels to take precedence over rendering precise subject matter. While we work hard to control the pastel medium, the really hard part is learning what NOT to control so that this luscious […]

UART Tip #11: “The Look At Stage” with Lee McVey Some artists finish their paintings and put them in frames right away. I suggest my students put their paintings in what I call “The Look At Stage.” Sometimes this stage will take a few days to a few weeks, but sometimes even longer. Have you ever […]

UART Tip #10: Drawing Fur with Colored Pencils – Step-by-Step with Ewelina Kuczera Long black fur can be tricky. In this tutorial I will show you my method and I will give you some tips on drawing on tinted paper. Here is a reference photo for the portrait – I chose this happy shepherd: 1. […]

UART Tip #09: Having Fun With the Underpainting with Susan Kuznitsky There are many ways and many benefits of using an underpainting on sanded paper to create a strong foundation upon which to add many glorious layers of pastels. The type of underpainting depends on the subject and desired end effect. This demo piece was […]

UART Tip #08: The Secret World of Edges with Jen Evenhus My world is amazing. I’ve lived it for more than 64 years and I learn something new every day. My art world is no different. It’s mysterious, intriguing, challenging and an endless source of joy. One of the ways I continue to learn is […]

UART Tip #07: Plein Air Tips with Lyn Asselta Over the years, I’ve gone from lugging 15-25 pounds of gear out on every plein air expedition, tousing a small backpack that, fully loaded, usually weighs in at under 10 pounds. It has not only been liberating, but it allows me the freedom to do more with much […]

UART Tip #06: Aerial Perspective with Lee McVey It’s a challenge to depict three dimensional space on a flat two dimensional surface. That’s where aerial perspective comes in. Sometimes called atmospheric perspective, it depicts the changes in the atmosphere as it goes back into the distance. Stated simply, as objects recede, they appear lighter, grayer or less […]

UART Tip #05: Drawing a Mouth in Colored Pencil with John Middick Basic structure of the mouth If you are a serious student of portraiture drawing, it is a good idea to study the separate  anatomical parts of the face as pieces of a puzzle. For this particular tutorial, let’s take a look at basic structure of […]

UART Tip #04: On Starting and Finishing a Painting with Lyn Asselta The process of starting and finishing a painting is a broad topic, to be sure, and a topic that is a bit different for each artist. Being a landscape painter, there are a few things that I consider carefully before I start each […]

UART Tip #03: Blending Colored Pencils with Ivor Harrison For many new-colored pencil artist’s, using artist grade pencils can actually be quite a daunting process. When I purchased my first set of artist grade pencils, I thought it was a simple case of removing the pencil from the tin and laying down the required color, […]

UART Tip #02: Embrace Muscle Memory with Jen Evenhus Muscle Memory? “Isn’t that for music, or dance?” you ask. Yes, and it’s for art, too. Until 4 years ago, when I began giving a lot of pastel workshops across the country, you would never catch me painting the same thing twice. My response would have […]

UART Tip #01: Oil Stain Underpainting with Karen Margulis Never has watching paint dry been more fun. There is nothing shy about it. It’s bold. It’s rich. It is usually quite magical to watch. When I want to start a pastel painting with a bang this is the underpainitng technique I turn to…..Oil Stain Underpaintings! It is […]