British landscape with Tony Hogan

British artist and friend of Chroma, Tony hogan recently sent us this tutorial to share with Chroma's online community. he contributes many helpful techniques and approaches. Over to you Tony,

"Selecting this seasonal view occurred after visiting the next village to my studio in Kilham, East Yorkshire. I'd identified the field as a potential venue for a group of people attending one of my residential art holidays, so on the day off we went. returned I started to tutor the group in the way of developing a painting plein-air and did some sketches for a composition.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

A Christmas card by Anna Rosa Martin

Do you like making gifts and cards?
Here is a very easy step by step tutorial on a Christmas card design by one of Chroma's TAPP teachers, Anna Rosa Martin. After you have done this it will be easy to make variations by experimenting with different colour combinations and stencil patterns.

Atelier Traditional Mediums with Alan Friend

I am Alan Friend, an artist from the United Kingdom and friend of Chroma. Jim Cobb asked me to take a look at the new Atelier mediums which Chroma has released, Traditional Gloss Medium, Traditional Glazing Liquid (Gloss), and Traditional Regular Gel (Gloss). The following article is a comprehensive explanation how mediums function and the purpose of these newest additions to Chroma’s stable.

Young Artist making a stir in the UK

Do you love to paint but struggle to find a really catchy idea or subject? Being drawn to what you love and really finding out about it through research and observation and challenging stereotypes eliminates this issue. Fraser Scarfe is a young man who has put this philosophy into practice. He was inspired by the landscape around him whilst growing up in Lincolnshire and wanted to challenge its common image of being ‘flat and uninspiring’. The way that Fraser works is typical of many successful artists who use drawing as a key element in their practice, allowing them to explore ideas efficiently.

Explore Acrylics

Lately talking to people about painting is something I've been doing a lot of. So with my team, Nicole and Frankie, we decided to build a new website because I wanted to demystify the process of painting and embrace the joy of creating. And through the process of exploration and experimentation, help you discover more about your painting skills and yourself.

Painting is probably the second best thing in the world that I've ever done. I love doing it. A lot of information out there these days is kinda serious. Painting to me is fun, and there is already plenty of angst in the world.

Mitch Demo At Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts

Friend of Chroma Mitch Waite recently took a break from his burgeoning business in the South of France ( www.mitch-waite.com ) to undertake a tour of many Art Societies around the UK. Here is a report from one such venue, Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts.

It was good to see Mitch again. He had arrived in England on Wednesday, done one demo then, two on Thursday, ours today and is set for another tomorrow. Obviously a man with enviable energy. He is only in England for about 10 days this time - the work involved in painting for (and manning) his gallery in Vence means that the time he can give to demonstrations and holidays has had to be cut.

New Atelier Mediums!

Painting mediums are wonderful, and when you incorporate them into your practice you will find that you can alter and enhance the properties of paint in a myriad of ways. Determining what you want to achieve (more transparency, more texture, less sheen, less brush strokes, more working time, faster drying time, etc.) will help you decide which mediums to try. Based on numerous artists’ request, we are very excited to introduce a new range of mediums for Atelier Interactive that make traditional acrylic painting techniques even more successful, and even more fun. After all, Interactive was designed to be used by all acrylic artists, not just those who want to rework paint, and these new mediums round out the line.

Oiling Out for Archival Oils

Have you ever noticed how some areas of an oil painting may appear “sunk” or go dull weeks after they are finished? This is a common issue with oil painting yet much neglected technicality in modern painting knowledge. There is a process called “Oiling Out” which rectifies this and is best undertaken before varnishing a fully cured painting,

Paint Talk Gallery 2011 & 2012

The paint talk Gallery so far this year and during 2010 attracted a fantastic variety of work. We at Chroma are very gratified when work is shared freely. It enriches us all in our creative journeys when amateur and professional artists alike contribute to the pages in the spirit of commraderie and exchange of ideas.

Mixing Colour Part II

The previous article we hadn't even dished up any paint. This time we are actually going to put some paint out. There is a couple of things that we need to look at:

Let’s set ourselves up so that the process of moving paint around is as easy as possible. We've touched on looking at setting ourselves up so that we can stay in “the zone”. We are going to stay in that theme, but we are going to look at it in greater detail. We'll look at our working space and our table. This time we are actually going to look at where we put our paint; how that helps us with the process of mixing colours.