REVIEW - 'In Nicola's courses, there is always something to lean above what you expected. I love trompe l'oeil paintings and was anxious to take this course. In addition to the style if painting, I am learning more about how to improve my painting of shadows. And it is amazing to see how with just 2 or 3 color she can achieve such an array. A wonderful teacher. A wonderful class!' Doris Dickenson TROMPE L'OEIL A French phrase meaning ‘ deceives the eye or to trick the eye’ used to describe paintings that create the illusion of a real object or scene. Learn this fascinating and captivating painting technique in this introductory course and literally introduce a new dimension to your painting. This technique is often used in the painting of murals and as small decorative 'jokes' on walls and furniture, but this style can be fabulous in a painting as you will see here. There is no reason why you can't have fun with this and in this course I'll show you how. Here we will paint these dried chili peppers. We will also paint an old key hanging on a wall and a butterfly. This is also a great course for those of you who like details, using a small brush and creating 'fine' art. What fun.

Do you want to create powerful and vibrant watercolor paintings? I will show you! I have been painting watercolor since I was a child and for the past 20 year I have been teaching students of all levels. The primary reason I see people struggle with it is because they mix too many colors together, producing dull and muddy pictures. With watercolor, less is more. Brightness comes from the whiteness of the paper, and to preserve it you must use nice clear colors sparingly and effectively. In this course I will show you easy step-by-step techniques for mixing colors, directing water and paint and creating textures. By the end of this short course you will be able to convey a sense of transparency, delicacy and subtlety. We will go over these techniques in real time as you see me paint a picture of my cat from start to finish, explaining each step along the way. As well as learning from the lecture materials, I will reply to all messages and will give feedback for any of your artwork in order to help you improve!

Want to master botanical watercoloring? Wish to learn to paint beautiful and realistic flowers but struggle with controlling the paint? Want to achieve realistic 3-dimensional look? I am happy to introduce to you a special.... Botanical Series: here I will break down a learning process for you into simple steps. First you will learn how to paint a single flower with all watercolor techniques explained. And then you can enroll in a little bit more advanced course where you will paint the same flower but using more advanced techniques. This way first you learn the basic of painting a particular flower step by step. And when you know how to paint a single flower we move to a more complicated topic, like a bouquet with a background and special watercolor techniques. Your skills will grow exponentially! How does it look like in real life? In this course we discover how to paint simple tulips in watercolor. Color mixing, washes, basic wet on wet technique and layering, working on volumes and textures, no background. After this course you can enroll in a Level 2 course where you will paint more complicated tulips in watercolor. We will paint a beautiful bouquet of tulips using more advanced techniques, professional cotton paper, create background around the flowers and so much more! This course is designed for Beginners . If you don't feel like drawing your own tulip sketch, feel free to download my outline , print it and trace on your watercolor sheet. The reference photo and outline of these tulips are attached. Download and use them :) Have fun!

EXTRA helpful lecture added in Section TWO. This is perfect for those who want to paint some quick and easy pictures for a selection of greeting cards including suggestions for Christmas. There are paintings suitable for different seasons and a variety of special occasions. And what's even better most of the paintings will only take you about 10 minutes to paint. So once you get into a rhythm you will be building up quite a collection to mount however you wish onto blank cards. Impress your family and friends and maybe even start selling them. You never know ? There are so many different festivals celebrated by different nationalities I have not featured any except Christmas, but I do hope some of the things you see here will inspire you with your own special celebrations. Why choose one of my courses? Because, as a self taught artist I understand how a lot of people feel about their creative work, sometimes anxious, sometimes overwhelmed and often that it's not 'good enough'. I will hold your hand as you overcome these fears as I offer a friendly, relaxed and sensitive teaching style. I also have years of experience of teaching people of all levels both in person and via the internet. Do one of my courses and you will feel as if I am in the room with you every step of the way. Enjoy your painting, love Nicola

There is no singular best way to approach watercolour. This course will  assist many watercolorist to solve a specific problem I had in the beginning of my painting career, and that is that my painting were to tight and lack freedom and transparency and sometimes ended in mud by using too many layers of colours. One of the most prominent elements of my work is the loose technique used on almost all my painting. So I made it a point in this course to really concentrate on my loose technique which is one of the secrets of my art work.

Many hours have been spent putting this course together and making it a success is my goal. Please leave feed back when you have completed the course. If your not happy with the course please let me know how I can improve it, I will do my best to do so. This is a 'learn through play' course and is very basic.  You will simply learn how to get the paint from the box via the brush and onto the paper. In this course I invite you to spend a few days in a camping. We will take our backpacks, a campervan and will enjoy the pure nature through watercolors. Here we will learn about: simple mixing colors creating distnace we will paint reflections on the water we will learn more about highlights and core shadows on objects we will enjoy a simple starry night in the woods and we will take a ride on a campervan how to simplify and make the most of the foreground Have you ever had problems painting landscapes in watercolor? Have you struggled to paint water, buildings and people? Then this course will help you! I'll show you how to paint some of these common elements of the landscape with confidence! I'll teach you how to paint water. You will learn some simple techniques that will help you paint great landscape paintings. No matter if you are a beginner or if you have a little experience of painting, this course will help you improve. Paint Along Step By Step With Me Let your creative side run wild. Make sure you use the Q&A for any questions you may have. When you Enroll on this workshop I will do my very best to help you succeed, enabling you to reach your full potential.

Many students message me with questions about how to find the right watercolor paints to tackle all the different skin and hair tones they encounter when painting their watercolor portraits. I have been painting professionally for nearly 30 years and in that time I have painted literally hundreds of watercolor portraits. Over this time I have developed a very limited palette of just 7 colors with which I use to paint every different color of hair and skin tone. In this,the first course in my new series "How to paint hair and skin tones, Course #1 Medditeranean/Middle Eastern" we start off in the introduction where I show you a sped up version of the course and I show you the very limited tools (just 7 colors and 3 brushes) which you will need to do this series of courses . Then I show you how to use tracedown paper to get an outline of your image and how to locate "landmarks" on your portrait. Masking fluid is then explained in detail before we dive into the watercolor painting. This course concentrates on hair color and texture and skin tone and texture using a very limited palette of colors,for ease of description I have classified it as Medditeranian / Middle Eastern. Using a photograph as reference I explain exactly how I achieve realistic portraits by using real time videos without editing anything out except for drying times .This means that you will learn,not only about the colors but you will also learn how I go about tracing,sketching and masking my work. I am always at hand to answer any questions you may have,just message me in the Q and A section. I will see you in the first lesson,cheers David

Hello and Welcome! In this class I'm going to show you how to paint Cinque Terre, Italy in watercolour. One of the things I struggled with as a beginner was learning how to loosen up my brushstrokes while preserving a sense of realism. I will show you a quick and simple process in simplifying details in a reference picture to turn this into a loose watercolour painting. This class will help you loosen up as well as go though some essential wet-on-wet watercolour techniques when painting boats, water, reflections and buildings. This class is for beginners to intermediate learners. You will need some watercolour paper, watercolour paints consisting of blue, yellow, red and green, a 3/4 inch, and number 6/12 flat brush, and a number 4 round brush. I'm looking forward to sharing my knowledge with you, so enroll in this class and you'll be producing some simple and beautiful paintings in no time.

Hello my dear friend! In this course I will share with you all my experience with eyes drawing and painting for portraits. Eyes are the most impressive part of human face and one of the most difficult for artists at the same time. I'll try to provide all information you need in simple words. You have a chance to see a whole process from sketch and analysis to final brushstrokes and accents. So, let's Rock!

EXTRA lecture added Are you ready to turn your painting passion to good use? Then get ready to have even more painting fun by up-cycling some of your pictures into cards to send on any occasion. So you have been busy painting away and are building up quite a collection of paintings of all different subjects and sizes . You may even have a folder of unfinished ones, disastrous ones and maybe ones that you might frame and exhibit or sell.....one day ! What ever you have wouldn't it be nice to recycle the ones which are hanging about into original greeting or holiday cards? Just think of the money you could save , how impressed your friends and family will be with an original hand painted and crafted card AND how some people may even want to buy them? I give you tips on how to cut up and even weave your paintings to give them a new lease of life Who knows you may even start a little business. How creative is that? So sort out your paintings, get ready to have some fun and let's get started.