WELCOME from the editor
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Our contributing artists have worked hard to bring you a wealth of inspiring articles to help you develop your own skills, try new techniques and become a better-informed and more confident artist across all media and subject matter this month. There are several new series starting in this issue, from the first of Grahame Booth’s bi-monthly demonstrations showing how to simplify complex subjects in watercolour (starting here with some key advice on painting figures), Steve Hall’s four-part series on capturing landscapes in pastel (Steve begins with a focus on painting typical Kentish and Sussex scenes), and new contributor Rosso Emerald Crimson’s four-part series on painting more creative portraits in oils, beginning with a focus on the importance of the initial studies. There are also plenty of tips and advice on how to use photos more creatively, rather than for copying purposes (by Graham Webber), inspirational ideas for incorporating digitally manipulated images to create layered and expressive landscapes (by Robert Dutton), ideas about how to develop your own artistic style and voice as an artist (by Andrew Field) as well as an insight into, and invitation to follow how Jemma Derbyshire approaches her journey into abstraction in mixed media, inspired by the colours and shapes of flowers and gardens.
For artist-readers thinking about taking that next step and keen to learn more about how other professional artists approach the business side of promoting themselves and their work, Sarah Edmonds continues her new, year-long monthly series with suggestions about how to analyse exactly what it is you’re aiming to sell, with her case-study interview with Kate Kelvin. Kate has spent a lifetime developing her artistic career, from drawing as a child, studying graphics at 18, having a break while bringing up a family and working in other jobs, including as a makeup artist, which continues to supplement her fine art work. She explains how she balances her working week, and what has been most useful to her in terms of marketing her artwork.
We’re hugely grateful to everyone who took the time to respond to our recent reader survey and provide us with such invaluable feedback about what you’d like to see more of, and less of, in future issues of your magazine. We will be introducing some adjustments in future issues, based on your answers and comments, starting in this issue with a refreshed new look to our front cover. If you missed, or didn’t have time to respond to our reader survey and would like to let us know your thoughts about your magazine, and anything you think may be missing that you’d like us to include in future issues, please email me at theartistletters@tapc.co.uk We’ll add your comments to those already received to help us shape our future content when we talk to our existing, and new contributor artists, and plan our forthcoming issues.
Best wishes