Learn To Paint Like Van Gogh

It's important to have the right equipment but you might find you already have most of it already. If you don't you can always purchase a Paint Like Van Gogh art kit like the one for the website. www.artistand.co.uk/shop.

For this class, you will need the following:

* Canvas (The demo is 25cm x 30cm)

* 2 x brushes (1/4 inch & 3/4 inch)

* Pencil

* Acrylic paints - black, white, yellow, light blue & navy blue.

* Kitchen roll or old rag

* Mixing palette, a kitchen plate would also work

* Glass with water

* Starry Night image - Either printed or open in a window

See what you have at home, and I can't wait for you to get started!

Have you ever wondered what these little wooden pieces are on the back of your canvas?

Well, these are called widgets. I know, quite a funny sounding object but they do have some use.

Depending on your preference, the widget is designed to help tighten the canvas when you slot it in. Some people like a bouncy fabric and some people like it to sound like a drum so play around and see what you think. For a smaller canvas, you may not need them!

The outline is quite important but also quite flexible at the same time. Due to the nature of Van Gogh’s style, you can generally get away with any discrepancies, so long as you kind of follow the general shapes. In this video, I’ll go through the outline and break it down for you so that you can draw your outline in complete confidence.

Top tip: Allow yourself to draw quite lightly so the pencil isn’t too heavy when the paint is applied after. You do want to be able to see it but not completely.

The base layer is really helpful for the overall painting as not only does it get rid of all that white, but it also starts to build the colours so you can begin to visualise your artwork.

We are mostly looking at blues and green's for this base layer and don't worry about the areas that are slightly lighter, or slightly darker. We are looking for the general colour of that particular section.

This will be painted over in the next section and it will help you see the colours for what they really are and how the interactive with each other.

In this section we will look at how to use your paintbrushes to created that amazing dash effect like Van Gogh.

In his original paintings, he used oil paint and sometimes beeswax to create that impasto effect however you don't need to at all.

We are using acrylics so the layering is much quicker to dry and you can work into your artwork using your different sized brush.

Begin to add your first layer of dashes and get a feel for how to be consistent and selective with colours.

Now that you have started to work into your sky, continue that same effect but more down your painting to cover more area's. Most of the painting is covered in dashes so it's important that we begin to build up our layers with a strong foundation.

We are going to add a second layer to this so finish the first one, and worry about the toppings of the artwork later on.

As we work our way to the bottom of the page, our strokes start to change slightly when we introduce bushes and buildings.

Watch the video to see a quick and easy technique to paint the bushes in and finish off that base layer.

once the base is complete, we can go back into the painting and start to add that final layer of detail!

The second layer is when your painting really starts to shine. The more layers you add, and the more dashes that are included, the more dynamic it becomes.

Here, it is a great chance to look at where area's of the sky might be darker/ bluer/ lighter and see if you can put that in yours.  We don't want the sky to be all navy blue dashes so enhance your colour choices and throw in so variations.

You've got this far, so you should be really proud of yourself.

Now your painting is really coming along and looking more and more dynamic each time.

Continue with the second layer and watch as your starry night comes to life!