Techniques in general refers to the way you put paint on canvas. Obviously you can use a brush to do this, and the knife, and even a rag. However, there are different ways you can use the brush - and some of these ways you very likely haven't seen before. Similarly, there are ways you can put paint on canvas using the knife, which will amaze you - ways which are rarely taught.

Advanced techniques encompasses not only the normal ways of using these implements, but added to this are very unique methods. These methods are extremely powerful and perform functions which the normal methods can't achieve.

They're easy to learn!

Advanced technique also refers to the combination of these methods. So what happens is that not only is a brilliant, unique effect achieved with the use of a technique - that technique also combines with another technique and that combination is awesome. One interacts with the other, in very powerfully ways.

And the combinations are limitless!

The particular (advanced) techniques you choose, and the way you choose to combine them, gives you your STYLE. Your style is your very special artistic identity. Your style is what viewers and buyers identify immediately.. and say... that's YOU !

For you, those choices and combinations give you the ability to paint anything you want, any way you want.

Essentially, advanced techniques provide two major differences.

Firstly, they give you the ability to create a certain "look" or result on canvas which otherwise you simply cannot get.

Secondly, advanced techniques combine together to produce results which are awesome. These resultant effects are entirely unique to you - the choices of techniques and how you choose to combine them gives your work your "style".

There are an infinite number of combinations, so you have an infinite capability at your fingertips to get the paintings you have dreamed.

So it is not only the different quality of the technique which works, but its combination with another technique.. and another.. and so on! (However you would like to do it).

One technique can be applied to a dry layer of your paintng, or it may work with the wet paint already there.

You can paint along to the tutorials supplied here on art-techniques.com. Visit the Online Tutorials page and you'll find explanations and you can watch videos of how the techniques work.

Two subjects are provided for you - a landscape and seascape subject. But the techniques can be used for any image of course.. it's up to you. The principles remain the same regardless of the subject. (These principles are, simply: quality technique used in combination with other quality techniques).

Choose the file format (Windows Media, Real Media etc) for your preference.

You can also see the techniques being used in the previews of the Inner Sanctum Series of DVDs here in the products section. Click on "More information" and you'll see a YouTube video on the page, which is edited for you. You'll see the painting from start to finish.

Have a look through the names of the advanced techniques and what they achieve.. you can find this beginning from the Techniques page on the site.

There, you'll find you have probably already heard of - and are using - a couple of advanced techniques.

However, you are probably missing two things (we know this because we come across it over and again each day).

Firstly, you are probably missing some if not most of the advanced techniques available to you. These are just not taught - so very rarely if ever. You can discover more about them through the Techniques Help 1 and Help 2 and Help 3 pages.

Secondly, you are probably missing the benefits of how these techniques combine together.

Every painter uses at least one of the techniques described. There are, however, often better ways of doing them, certainly there are also other techniques you probably aren't aware of, and then the combination of them makes a difference which will astound you - once you learn the other techniques and how they combine, you'll discover you can create paintings you never thought possible.

That's fantastic! You are doing your thing and that is the most important thing of all.

You might like to look through the techniques here though to see what else is available. That way you will at least know what you have available for you if you need to.

Being famous is not about the techniques necessarily.

Yet we can mention these artists to help understand the different ways advanced techniques can be chosen and used.

If you look at a Monet painting, you'll see the artist has used quite thick paint. (It would have been much thicker in its day as paint slowly flattens over the decades). The techniques Monet used in particular are the Dagger Technique, Caress Stroke, Scumbling. Each of these as you'll see from the information provided here use thick paint. Monet did use some of the thinner paint techniques, some Transparent Glazing (not Opaque Glazing), but it's the thicker paint techniques you'll see on his canvases.

Gainsborough, and indeed Leonardo, primarily used thinner paint techniques.

The best example of ALL of the advanced techniques in history, used by one artist, is JMW Turner. He used everyone of them in his oils.

The techniques are very easy.

The hardest part for most artists is getting past what they've already been taught. Mostly - we come across daily and the frustrations artists suffer - artists have been taught poorly, though with the best intentions by the teacher.

Usually, the teacher didn't know the other techniques and certainly wouldn't have known about how they can combine.

So the hard part is forgetting the way you've been taught, and to see your canvas and your abilities freshly.

That way, the simple use of the techniques will begin to create amazing effects for you immediately.

These techniques have been developed over the decades and centuries... since humankind first began putting paint on canvas.

However, we have found no other place - on the internet or in real world schools, classes and art institutions - where all of the techniques have been documented for you.

This is a wonderful question.

If you were to go and learn music, the first thing that the teacher would do is teach you notes and scales. These are the techniques of music!

With those musical techniques - the tools, the way music is created - you can then begin to put them together to play a song or a piece of music. Then, you begin to form your relationship with the music you play. You begin to say "this is what I like, this is what I don't like" about what you have learned. This is the commencement of your uniqueness as a musician.

After that, once you have the musical tools, and you are away down the path of what you like about your relationship with music, you can begin to create. And to create your unique way.

That is a teaching standard - no matter if you are in a music conservatorium in a major world city, or in a tiny distant town.. you would be taught firstly the notes and scales: the techniques of music!



In paintng, there is no such standard. People teach art any way they like. Mostly, painting teachers focus on things like subjects, or things like colour, line, texture, composition, perspective etc. But not technique!

In learning painting, you probably haven't been taught the most important thing - ALL the ways paint can be put on canvas and how they combine!

We would cherish the day when a teaching standard for painting arrives in the world, to save so many frustrations and failures, and to give people a far more successful method of teaching, and bringing the thrilling satisfaction that comes with that.

So there aren't any similarities of any real value to an artist, but we believe there should be!

Yes. We have advanced production equipment and output to all television standards around the world. We encode the media itself, which means we have full control over the quality and reliability of your DVD playing in your particular country. In simple technical terms, we produce DVDs in both NTSC and Pal television standards, and can do any variances of these as required, as well as the more rare standards.

We produce the films in the DVDs ourselves. We have a large professionally built sound proofed film studio, including especially built sets, so we can ensure the quality content for you. It takes many months to produce one film. Our procedure is to ask "What will help people succeed with their work" and we go through an extensive planning stage to make sure those questions are answered by each film. Each film focuses on certain areas of artist's requirements. We understand some aspects of art assistance are not covered by our collection - we'd love to have a seascape instructional film available right now (this is currently in production), and a guide to assisting in watercolours as two examples. Our entertainment films are not designed to assist, they really are for entertainment and inspiration - and we currently have filmed eighteen paintings to add to our entertainment collection.

In relation to the actual films on sale here: the two areas we've focused on are a) professional technique and b) a simplified version of those techniques put together in a structured way so artists can get immediate results. Our two films achieve that purpose, and are the Fine Art Techniques film (which was nine months in production!) and the Create Paintings That Sell "Fine Art Landscape" subject.

Yes, we recommend you use a DVD player connected to your television.

We cannot guarantee the DVDs will play directly from a computer's DVD drive, and do not recommend purchasing a DVD if that is all you have. Apart from variances in computer software and processors, our DVDs are produced with stringent copyright protection and many computers won't recognise the discs at all.

For artists wanting a professional career, or existing professional artists seeking a bold new direction in their career, or artists who just want to know what the fine art techniques of oil painting are, the Fine Art Techniques film is all you need. That is a very comprehensive film, and there is no need to go past that as far as professional painting goes.

The "Fine Art Landscape" concept is designed to utilise some of those techniques and is relevent to any artist painting any subject, even though the subjects in this DVD are a tree, meadows, distant hills, water, sky and grass. This is because the artist learns the structure of fine art painting, and of course some of the powerful fine art techniques, and by learning them the artist can apply that learning to painting any subject or in fact any style he or she wishes. It's a powerful painting tool.

For us, it is a huge undertaking, though we acknowledge other companies and artists produce quick DVD's. Apart from the ability of the teacher to work with a camera (in our case 3 cameras) and provide exactly the right help on screen, the technical requirements of professional film making are extensive. We shoot and edit in broadcast quality equipment, which is extremely advanced technically and very demanding. All our films are produced to be able to be broadcast as segements on television shows. We intend to produce our own television show in the upcoming year.It may interest a few readers, as an example, that our Inner Sanctum "Seascape" film required months of editing - in rough terms about 25 times the edit requirements of a feature film, not including animation or special effects films.

You will discover techniques here that NO OTHER teacher or DVD can give you.

You won't be able to get the information in this DVD Pack anywhere else. This is the only place where you can see EVERY one of the Fine Art techniques explained for you in comprehensive detail.

You will need to see these if you are to create the paintings you are properly capable of.

This particular DVD Pack has taken nearly ten years to develop, and a full nine months in production. We used three cameras, filmed in TV broadcast quality, and left absolutely nothing out.

Get this DVD Pack and you will have more information about CREATING paintings the WAY YOU WANT to than you'd get in a three year University Course. How do we know? Because third year University art students have come to Robert pleading "Teach me to Paint !"

Yes, it's expensive compared with other DVD prices. However, there is absolutely no comparison with what you get.

The information in this DVD Pack will save you money, save you time, save you effort and save you frustrations.

This DVD Pack is a very specialised tool to give you the
techniques of advanced painting.

You'll see in the DVDs there are bits and pieces of subjects
but no complete picture. This is because we don't want you
to get sidetracked from learning each technique.

So what we've done is given you the techniques on their own,
without distraction. This way you have the clearest
opportunity to learn each technique.

Yes, this is something we would like to change. We were
confronted with a few problems when wanting to include
different demonstrations, mainly due to taking up too much
time in explaining the different demonstrations and also we
didn't want to create confusion.

However, we would like to add ways of using the techniques
to create things like eyes, hair and muscle, and
abstraction. One way around this is that now we have the
website devoted entirely to Fine Art Techniques, we may be
able to add these demonstrations for free as downloads.

The techniques can, of course, be applied in any combination
to create any image you wish.

The answer to this would be as varying as the number of
people in the world. It is limited only by imagination, so
we can't cover all the subjects here of course.

However, that's not the point, and not what will help you.

What will help you is to know a few simple tools. These are
ways of approaching your painting career.

Firstly, study artists that you like. Try to dissect the
combinations and layers to imagine how those paintings were
put together. This is very valuable. For example, if you
try to take apart Monet's paintings you'll find many layers
of thicker applications (and those techniques, though, yes,
he did use thinner layers too!), and if you look at
Gainsborough's work you'll see many layers of thin paint.
That's just a start. It doesn't matter who the artist is
that you like - try to get the best pictures of the work as
you can, and try to detect the different techniques and
layers used.

Next, follow the principles of the DVD in whatever you do.
This is the painting structure. Keep your colors light to
start with, use texture from Day One to your advantage,
painting in the spirit of the subject you're doing, get the
mix right for the application, don't waste strokes on the
canvas (by not thinking about the technique you should be
using), and let the images develop all by themselves over
the layers.

If you really want to get the most from your art, you'll
find that your art will give the most for your life. And
this bit is perhaps the best bit of all. Step outside, and
look around. Absolutely everything you see is a subject to
be painted. Of course, you can look around right now and
find a whole lot more. But here's the tip: try to imagine
how you would structure a painting of the subjects you see.
Even make notes if you want. Try to feel the spirit of
the elements before you, and imagine how what technique you
would use on Day One to lay the foundation for that image
developing. Remember, the image develops naturally over
time, so you have to imagine other layers on top of the
early paint. Bit by bit, try to construct in your mind how
that would develop. This will drive your work forward more
quickly than anything.

And here's where your art will give back to you - once you
start doing that, you see the world differently. You become
much more connected to the world you live in, and things
about it will amaze you beyond words (so thankfully we have
paint!). And you'll find, too, that this works itself back
into your art, and so the cycle just gets stronger and stronger.

And, of course, once your imagination takes hold of this
developed way of seeing, it lifts to new levels again.

But come back to your painting structure always. Let the
image develop over time. Really, you are applying
techniques which make the subject only look good later on,
so learn to think and imagine several layers later.

Yes, imagine you want to paint someone's hair, in a portrait.

You have learned that we paint "in the spirit" of the subject.

Let's imagine then that the person you are painting has
curly hair. One way of painting this would be to use the
Dagger Stroke in the spirit of that curly hair, which means
applying the technique in swirly motions - keeping the
colors very light and making sure the texture you create is
curling where and how that person's hair curls.

Then, you could apply a Transparent Glaze with the brush
flat against the canvas - in the same way as taught in the
free Online Tutorials - so the glaze fills the valleys of
the texture and polishes the tops. This will begin to
create detail, and will brighten the image.

You can imagine that the mix would consist of a blend of
different transparent colors so it's not too bright. This
is commonly called "muddying" the color. Use only
Transparent Glazes at this second stage. And don't make it
too dark.

Then, when it's dry, you could use the Scumble Technique to
correct any curls, or enhance the ones you want, or add
more, or take some away, or lighten the areas you wish.

Then when that's dry, you could use the glaze again in areas
to set those scumbles into the image ("setting the scumble
in" is spoken about in the Online Tutorials). And you can
even scumble again on top of these wet glazes too.

By now there will be individual strands of hair appearing,
naturally, because of this combination of technique, and the
curly qualities of the person's hair will be very evident.

Next, when dry, you could add some darks, using the brush
flat against the canvas to mould some shadows and add real
depth.

By now you would have a full head of curly hair, and you
could go through the above process to finish shaping if you
wished, or you could add highlights here and there with the
Liner Stroke.

If you're really brave, you could gently add some Opaque
Glazes through just some of the edges of the hair so that it
gave the illusion of being 'behind'.

The techniques used here are exactly the same as used in the
"Forest Pond" tutorial, and come from your DVD. The
difference is simply in the color, and of being 'in the
spirit" with the strokes.

If the person's hair is long and straight, you'd simply make
the strokes "long and straight", being in the spirit of that
type of hair.

Yes, that's the best way to learn. This way you learn not
only the techniques, but which ones you like best for what
you want to do and how you want to do it.

But you can choose just one technique, too, if that's the
look you want for your paintings.

However, we are recommending learning the combination of
techniques so you are in a better position to make those
decisions.

This subject has been carefully chosen for you. It is
designed to benefit you in these ways:

* The elements of the landscape included are diverse. You
paint sky, distant and medium hills, large and distant
trees, meadows and fine close up grass, dams, fence posts
and wire, thick branches and thin trunks, dense foliage and
the wispy leaves where the foliage touches the sky.

* While each of these elements are easy to do, the diversity
of them is designed to extend your techniques.

* Learning how to paint dense and fine foliage, for just one
example, gives you the techniques to paint the hair of a
portrait subject.

* Of course, painting these landscape elements means you
have a good basis to keep you occupied for years with
landscape subjects. These are all subjects created by
varying the formation of the elements you do in this DVD.

* A couple of examples of this would be if you added four or
five more tree trunks - doing the work in exactly the same
way as you do with the DVD - and adding more foliage and
branches to each one. What would you have then? You would
have a forest subject!

Or, you could make the hills much higher, and the dams could
be made larger so that one joins up with the other, and then
you would have a valley and river subject.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of these
variations available for you, from just this one image. All
you have to do is paint the elements the same way as you've
learned in the DVD, and you can build a successful painting
career starting right now.

* And as mentioned, what you are really learning here is the
technical application of paint, and advanced painting
structure, which gives you the tools to create any subject
you want, from portraits through to abstracts.

To answer this we first need to remember that subjects are
created by a combination of techniques and layers.

Then it's important to get to know the value of the new
techniques you are learning. This is best done through
doing the painting many times.

After that, you'll know better how to use one technique
today so that in later applications it creates the effect
you want.

For example, in the "Meadow Tree" painting, the Dagger
Stroke on the first day didn't look anything like foliage,
but with later applications it develops into not only
foliage but different types of foliage: dense through to
tender leaves.

So the way to create different subjects is to think about
the techniques and their combinations which would best
achieve this. The more that you get used to thinking this
way, the more you will be able to harness your full creative
potential.

Let's imagine now that you want to paint a sunset. How would
you use "Meadow Tree" to paint a sunset? Firstly, you could
use the Dagger Stroke to apply very light yellows in some
areas, and very light blues in others. Then, you know the
Italian Pink (or Indian Yellow) added later as a Transparent
Glaze will bring that underwork to life. You could even
begin to shape clouds this way - but you don't need to,
because you know you could later when it's dry apply a blue
Opaque Glaze (with lots of medium) to areas leaving the
golden areas that you want as clouds.

In that example, we have taken the Transparent Glaze
technique which was applied in the foliage area of "Meadow
Tree" and used it in the sky.

You have already added a light pink glaze to the sky in
"Meadow Tree", doing this in some areas of your sunset will
enhance the result even more. And remember adding branches
with one stroke of the dryish darker glaze? Simply by
changing the colour to a rich red, or even another yellow,
you could use the same stroke and glance your brush across
the texture of your sunset to create rich reams of clouds
which appear to be directly hit by the setting sun.

Do you see how it's the techniques and the combinations
which create the subjects? It's important to realise how
much you've learned, by painting "Meadow Tree", because all
of this and more is available to you.


*WARNING*. For new artists, please don't get ahead of yourself with new
subjects until you've painted "Meadow Tree" following the
DVD many times. As mentioned elsewhere in the FAQ, the more
you do it the more you will learn - and it's much better for
you to do this without the distraction of attempting other
subjects.

It does sound boring at first.

However, even if you start two paintings at the same time,
following the DVD, you'll see that after just the first day
each painting will be different.

This is a painting done with advanced structure. This means
the combinations of techniques, and layers, creates the
effects. Even slight variations along the way can
dramatically change the end result. It's very important,
and very empowering, to discover how such little things can
have such dramatic effects - most artists miss out on these
discoveries.

Also, once you get to the end of the painting - you've done
all four stages - you'll see then how the things you did way
back on Day One end up. You'll see how the very first
strokes you did end up looking incredibly different, and
you'll see how each stage along the way brought about those
changes. What this means is that you now have a lot more
knowledge when you go to back to your Day One painting.

It is this very thing which will advance your career more
than anything. Your final stages will inform your first stages.

This means that you become much more powerful as an artist,
much more quickly. The more you go through the process, the
better and better it is for you. And as you'll see
elsewhere in the FAQ, it's not just about painting this
subject. It's about really getting the benefit of advanced
technique and structure.

Other things happen, too. You might discover a particular
color you like, or don't like. Then, when you go to do the
painting again, you can vary it slightly. You're still
guided by the DVD, but you've made a slight change according
to who you are as an artist. So you are protected and
guided, but you are also on your way to creating with your
own vision and style.

Or you might find you can do some areas with ease - this
will be a guide for your future career, because the things
that come naturally to us give us the opportunity of doing
these for sale. If you find areas where it's difficult for
you, this might tell you to spend more time learning why
it's not coming easily, and by following the DVD closely
you'll have the answer there for you always. Once the penny
drops, you'll now have a lot more creative doors open for
you, freeing you to greater achievement.

So please take our advice. The more that you do the painting
in the DVD, the more you will learn, and the more quickly.
You'll get more things out of the DVD each time, and each
time you do it you'll be adding more and more strongly to
your knowledge. The DVD will guide you further and further
along your own path each time, while you make the
discoveries about what matters to you as a unique artist.

The answer to this would be as varying as the number of
people in the world. It is limited only by imagination, so
we can't cover all the subjects here of course.

However, that's not the point, and not what will help you.

What will help you is to know a few simple tools. These are
ways of approaching your painting career.

Firstly, study artists that you like. Try to dissect the
combinations and layers to imagine how those paintings were
put together. This is very valuable. For example, if you
try to take apart Monet's paintings you'll find many layers
of thicker applications (and those techniques, though, yes,
he did use thinner layers too!), and if you look at
Gainsborough's work you'll see many layers of thin paint.
That's just a start. It doesn't matter who the artist is
that you like - try to get the best pictures of the work as
you can, and try to detect the different techniques and
layers used.

Next, follow the principles of the DVD in whatever you do.
This is the painting structure. Keep your colors light to
start with, use texture from Day One to your advantage,
painting in the spirit of the subject you're doing, get the
mix right for the application, don't waste strokes on the
canvas (by not thinking about the technique you should be
using), and let the images develop all by themselves over
the layers.

If you really want to get the most from your art, you'll
find that your art will give the most for your life. And
this bit is perhaps the best bit of all. Step outside, and
look around. Absolutely everything you see is a subject to
be painted. Of course, you can look around right now and
find a whole lot more. But here's the tip: try to imagine
how you would structure a painting of the subjects you see.
Even make notes if you want. Try to feel the spirit of
the elements before you, and imagine how what technique you
would use on Day One to lay the foundation for that image
developing. Remember, the image develops naturally over
time, so you have to imagine other layers on top of the
early paint. Bit by bit, try to construct in your mind how
that would develop. This will drive your work forward more
quickly than anything.

And here's where your art will give back to you - once you
start doing that, you see the world differently. You become
much more connected to the world you live in, and things
about it will amaze you beyond words (so thankfully we have
paint!). And you'll find, too, that this works itself back
into your art, and so the cycle just gets stronger and stronger.

And, of course, once your imagination takes hold of this
developed way of seeing, it lifts to new levels again.

But come back to your painting structure always. Let the
image develop over time. Really, you are applying
techniques which make the subject only look good later on,
so learn to think and imagine several layers later.