Overview What is a Pochade? A pochade (from French word poche, pocket) is a type of painting sketch usually done outdoors (‘en plein air’.) Artists use a pochade to capture true outdoor colors and to capture...
Category - Guides
Best Plein Air Easels: A 2020 Buyers Guide
Overview What is a plein air easel? A plein air easel, as opposed to a studio easel, is used for when you are painting outdoors (‘en plein air’) and need something lightweight and suitable for different...
How To Choose Your Oil Colors Palette: An Advisor Tool
There are lots of possible palettes of colors you can choose when you are painting, both in oils and acrylics, so how do you choose which oil painting palette is best? Here is a tool that will help you how to choose the...
A Guide to Painting Competitions
This is a guide to the best competitions to give you a kick start in your painting career. Why Enter A Painting Competition? One of the best ways of getting you, and your work, noticed is to enter a painting competition...
A Guide To The 15 Pigment GOSP Oil Painting Colors
I need a wide range of oil painting colors to get the color harmony I want in my work but it is always a problem carrying a lot of tubes of paint when you travel. This is even more of a problem when you travel by air...
A Guide To Choosing Painting Media: Oils, Acrylics, Or Watercolor?
Types of painting media Often students ask what type of paints are best for beginners? When doing the Virtual Art Academy program you are free to choose to work in whatever medium you like. Oils, acrylics, watercolor...
A Guide To Critiquing Art: The Visual Music & Poetry™ Methodology
Why is critiquing art important for a painter? Art criticism has a long history. Critiquing art is the best way to develop as a painter. Once you understand how to critique art and the key factors that master artists...
A Guide To Notan: The What, Why, and How
Introduction This guide is based on the 6 eBooks I originally published in 2003 on Notan. See Wikipedia: Notan: A Virtual Art Academy building block by Barry John Raybould, MA (2004/2010) Course on...