Artists & Illustrators

Artists & Illustrators is the UK’s best-selling magazine for artists and art lovers, providing advice and inspiration every month. Published for almost 25 years, each issue of Artists & Illustrators contains a colourful palette of profiles and features, together with valuable practical ideas, expert technical advice and useful product tests. Whether you favour oils or watercolours, portraits or landscapes, abstract art or botanical illustration, Artists & Illustrators brings a refreshing blend of creativity and advice every four weeks throughout the year.

Welcome • IT IS TIME FOR A LITTLE STUDIO SPRING CLEAN

Artists & Illustrators

Letters

LETTER OF THE MONTH

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Exhibitions • MAY'S BEST ART SHOWS

SKETCHBOOK • TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS

Fresh Paint • Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

PORTFOLIO PLUS

The Artist Working • Open art competitions are tricky prospects. Taking part only counts if you give yourself a fair chance, says our columnist LAURA BOSWELL

Dominic Avant • After becoming the latest recipient of an Artists & Illustrators award, the American painter tells STEVE PILL about drawing for Disney, the Sargent comparisons, and his French epiphany

Sargy Mann • Six years on from his death, the life and legacy of the blind artist is revisited in a new exhibition. STEVE PILL celebrates his visionary paintings and remarkable will to create

Darya Tratsiakovich • The botanical artist talks openly to REBECCA BRADBURY about her love of imperfections, the therapeutic power of painting, and working the graveyard shift at her kitchen table

Let loose • Painting in an abstract and expressive way doesn’t have to mean a lack of control. American master DAVID SHEVLINO shares his thoughtful methods in our easy-to-follow 12-step guide

David's materials

Top tip

WIN GAMBLIN  GIFT PACKAGES • Experience colour at its very best with these Gamblin gift bundles, put together with the oil painter in mind

mixing GREEN • GRAHAME BOOTH has looked at artistic ways to recreate the three secondary colours. In this final instalment, he revisits a childhood love of mixing greens

Glazing • Often viewed as an ancient technique shrouded in myths, the art of applying glazes is actually a very useful addition to your artist’s toolbox if you use them wisely, says AL GURY

12 WAYS TO CREATE eye-catching effects • RITA ISAAC shares a dozen different textured finishes – and the paint mediums you need to achieve them

Spring FLOWERS • Light wildflower petals against a dark green background provided MATT JEANES with an interesting challenge. His only solution was to work backwards, as his simple-to-follow demonstration reveals

Matt 's materials

3 BONNARD • The French master inspires three drawing challenges set by Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor and artist LAURA SMITH in the final part of her series

Lesley Dearn • Immersion in the West Wales coast and an exploration of various mark making tools has resulted in a new series of textured and thrilling landscape paintings

Portraits Touching • Feeling detached from human contact? JAKE SPICER presents three exercises that encourage a more tactile approach to drawing

1. Mark Making • Our former Artists of the Year winner Norman Long presents a new series focused on creating interesting surface textures – beginning with a look at how to vary your marks

THE ART SHOP DIRECTORY

Mary WEISENBURGER • Gamblin’s product expert on helping artists to pick the perfect colour palette.