Welcome to the Diane Antone Studio Blog

Robin in Cherry Blossom

In this tutorial I talk about how to make a simple textured background for your painting, and then how to position the subject easily and effectively on top of that background. Then I show you how to paint a robin in a loose but realistic style, accompanied by his flowery branch of blossom. Why not […]

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Doodle Birds

These little cuties grew out of the page after I found a fallen birds’ nest in the garden. I picked up a Staedtler liner pen and sketched some bird-like shapes sitting on twiggy branches, and then coloured them in with loose, splashy watercolor brush-strokes. A satisfying way to spend half an hour – and every

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I want to be free!

Ink and Wash Flowers – Easy Floral Design – Step by Step Tutorial to Inspire Creativity Breaking away from the tightness of line drawing and “colouring in” even if only temporarily, can break an artist’s block and bring you back into the world of painting. Release your inhibitions and expectations and just play with colour

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Line and Wash Geranium

As promised, another pen and ink tutorial, with a colour wash in watercolour bringing the geranium to life. We have a few geraniums which are determined to struggle into flower despite this very cold spring. Although they look complicated to paint, they can be simplified to individual flowers, the leaves can be thinned out a

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Blue Hare

Why is it that often, the hardest part about painting is deciding what to paint, then running out of excuses or reasons to not get started? Why do I suddenly experience an irresistable urge to dust the furniture when I know a painting is waiting impatiently to be born? Today I wanted to do something

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Little Girl with Flower

I was asked to paint a little girl by a client and this painting is the result of a few weeks of thinking and planning the composition and the sketch. It’s now available for you to follow along to as a tutorial on YouTube if you want to have a go. This painting doesn’t require

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Hummingbird and Hibiscus

Always a favourite, the hummingbird makes his appearance today in a new coat of many colours! An imagination of a hummingbird, enjoying his favourite treat, the nectar from the hibiscus flower! Many of you will be living in parts of the world where these lovely flowers grow in abundance, and when I lived in the

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Forget-me-nots

Another pretty blue flower which blooms in profusion here all around our house and along the roadsides is the Forget-me-not. Although the flowers are tiny and unassuming, I thought they would make a pretty painting, using watercolour pencils for the flowers, and paint for the leaves. This is the first time I’ve tried a technique

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Shakespeare’s Flowers

“I’ll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack the flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose, nor the azured hare-bell, like thy veins.”– Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene 2 I decided on a whim today to paint a sprig of bluebells. They must be flowering in England, I thought. One of the things I miss

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Line and Wash

I often use line in my watercolour paintings, in the form of calligraphic marks towards the end, which I feel help bring the work to life. But recently I’ve rediscovered an interest in the actual process of line and wash, using either pen and ink or watercolour pencil and wash. In the effort to get

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Excitement in the Studio!

Yesterday I tried out something completely new and I realised how easy it is to become stuck in a rut when it comes to painting! I came across by chance on Facebook a group which was set up for people who paint in watercolour on CANVAS! I was amazed to think that you could do

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Close up with a Chaffinch

I was working on a YouTube video yesterday when suddenly there was a thud on the French door window next to my desk. I looked up, and to my dismay and despite the bird cutouts on the window to help prevent this, I realised that a small bird had mistakenly flown into the glass and

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The brusho brigade

The line between fine art and craft has long been a fuzzy one which continues to be blurred. The addition of salt and granulating mediums to watercolour paintings has been a borderline tactic which personally I mostly resist, preferring to get my effects through more traditional methods. The same can be said in my view

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