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Welcome to your Studio Insiders' newsletter
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Hi Insiders!
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Happy Mothers' Day!
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If you're British you've already celebrated it, and if you're French you're still waiting for it, but for most of the world today is the day we celebrate and honor motherhood. And since YouTube tells us that 90% of our audience is female, and 90% is over 30, the odds are that that means YOU!
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So we would like to wish you and all of the mothers in your life the very best of Sundays. Hopefully your day will include a treat from someone who treasures you, but if not then may you take the time to treasure the love that motherhood created in you, and that you gave freely, and may you know that in so doing you made the world a better place.
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FREE Brilliant Birds Bundle!
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Our Mothers' Day Gift to You!
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Last month's Brilliant Birds daily watercolor challenge may be over (and we've moved on to May in the Garden) but the videos for this challenge - and all of our other past challenges - are still on YouTube and Patreon for you to refer back to.
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To support you in learning how to draw and paint birds, I've put together a bundle which includes sketches of ALL 29 of the Brilliant Birds paintings in one pdf.
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And it's yours for FREE if you hop over to our website to download it sometime in the next seven days.
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Not in the mood for birds?
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You can have $5 off ANY combination of our sketch bundles this week!
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Just choose the minimum price for the bundle or bundles you want, and use the coupon code BRILLIANT at checkout.
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If you don't yet have an account on our website, please reply to this email and we'll set one up for you!
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This Week on YouTube
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Landscapes don't have to be hard...
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...and this week I tried to prove that with my beginner-friendly "classic" landscape, with rolling fields, a distant hill, and puffy clouds in a blue sky. I suggest doing this painting multiple times, like I did, and enjoying the wide variety of effects you'll get - even when you try to do the exact same thing twice!
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The world is awash with must-have supplies...
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...and it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "if only I had THESE paints or THAT paper... THEN I'd be able to... " To some extent of course it's true that better supplies make better paintings possible, but the quality of even the cheapest supplies is so high nowadays that the excuse of not owning or being able to afford quality materials is, I'm afraid, just that - an excuse!
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The latest set of 52 colors from MeiLiang is a case in point. They have a sale on an already very low price and are currently offering this set for under $20, or about 40 cents per color - plus there's a nice little brush, a pencil, a 0.5mm fineliner, a sponge and a mini pack of paper.
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I tried them out on the title page of my nature journal, and I was very impressed. So much so that I'm planning to take them with me when I go to Cairo!
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See them in action in this unboxing and review video, where I also compare them with MeiLiang's previous set of 48 (with iridescent rather than pastel shades).
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If you are yet to take the plunge and buy your first supplies, or if you have a friend or relative in that position, I really do believe that this set offers everything you or they need to get started. For $20 you'll have materials that are high enough quality not to hold you back, and low enough cost to free you from inhibitions and fear of wasting supplies.
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Turning blobs into birds... again!
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If you've been following the channel for a while, you've seen me do this before: paint a blob of color, add a splodge of another color, pull out a head and a tail and perhaps the hint of a wing tip, let it dry, and add a beak and eye to make a bird come to life.
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I could list so many benefits that come from this method of painting birds, but the first - and most important? - is that it's great fun! The joy of finding just the right place for the beak, and then dotting in the eye and seeing a personality jump out of the page is truly wonderful. I hope you will try it yourself.
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Don't be disappointed if it doesn't work first, second or third time. It will happen. And when it does, you'll smile from ear to ear!
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Most Popular...
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The landscape compilation has made a comeback and is again the most popular video on the channel this week!
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To Inspire You...
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Today's inspiration comes from a book called "How to Draw Anything" by Mark Lindley. I picked it up just now and found that on page one it promises that if you can write your name, you can draw. I wholeheartedly agree, and in fact I said so in a recent video on YouTube! So if you're avoiding drawing, this might be the book for you. Here is the author's very encouraging start to Chapter 1:
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You Can Learn to Draw
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Yes, you really can! Many people think that learning to draw is difficult if not impossible. In fact, it need not be. If would-be artists treated the subject as fun and went about it in the right way, it could be possible for nearly everyone, like learning to drive. At first it may seem hard, but it isn't if the basic instruction is correct.
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Once you have discovered how to draw landscapes, animals, people, cartoons and all the other things in this book, you should have no problem at all managing with any subject.
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When tackling any new skill it is common sense to expect and accept that lots of mistakes will be made. It's part of the learning process. It is not unusual for students with no previous experience of draughtsmanship suddenly to discover that they can put down accurately what they see. It requires just three things for this to happen:
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- The ability to look properly
- Self-confidence
- The capacity to remember and carry out basic instructions.
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I have not mentioned skill with pencil, pen or brush. The reason is because all who can write their names, already have sufficient touch and control to make a multitude of complex shapes - called the English alphabet. There are no harder lines, in nature, to record.
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ps. This book was written for adults not children, and includes a section on figure drawing.
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pps. Links to Amazon are affiliate links, which means that we will receive a small commission if you choose to buy, at no extra cost to you.
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Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed this edition of the Insiders' Newsletter.
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