How we learn art matters!

Where some art teaching just teaches you specific art techniques so that you can recreate an individual artwork or copy the teacher’s style, I want to help you learn art to think like an artist, to be creative, and to learn art and drawing in your own way…

There’s so many benefits to learning a creative way of thinking, an artist’s way of seeing and thinking…

From the way that we can feel free to enjoy ourselves and not subject to judgement from ourselves and others as to if we’re doing art ‘the right way’…

To how we learn to flex and strengthen our creative thinking muscles!
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Literally changing the way we approach problems in our everyday personal lives and potentially benefiting society as a whole as we bring new ways of thinking into the world…

We need to feel free when we learn art and we need to learn how to be creative…

Not just to learn to draw and paint but to learn how to be artists…

You might have noticed that I teach art and drawing differently to a lot of other artists. This is deliberate…

I don’t share my exact techniques and I don’t provide instructions for a quick fix so that you can quickly learn how to draw specific things…

Because, while this may allow you to make a fair copy of the original – which feels good, pretty satisfying, right? – it isn’t you and it isn’t creative!

Instead, I prefer you to learn art by me providing a basic instruction and understanding of the fundamental principles that allows you to go away and find out your own way of doing things…

Play a bit, get curious, develop your own drawing technique and evolve your own unique artistic style.

Beautiful and richly coloured 'Chaffinches in Cherry Blossom' artwork by Lotti Brown...

I don't see chaffinches often in my tiny countryside garden, but when I do I'm always happy to see the beautiful colours as chaffinches were one of my absolute favourites as a child and were often visitors to our family garden...

​I create my art from pen and marker drawings...

I draw each bird and branch of cherry blossom separately as I then scan each drawing into the computer and create digitally with my drawings in Adobe Illustrator... do you want to see?

Last month, we were looking at understanding pastels (the different types of pastels, including oil pastels, and the different pastel techniques).

Today, we're making a more specialised pastel journey, looking at oil pastel techniques...

Oil pastels are less messy than traditional pastels and lots of fun with rich colours and textures that you can create with very expressively.

I do enjoy using oil pastels and I find I create with them quite differently than with my usual pens and markers.

In this Oil Pastels free PDF download we'll look at:

• oil pastel techniques including lines, shading and sgraffito technique
• oil pastel ideas
• oil pastel drawing demos

​Do you want 2020 to be the year that you get to be truly creative and learn to draw?

I'd love it if you joined me for my Start Drawing Your Way Essential Drawing Skills online course - for absolute beginners or those with drawing experience but who don't feel confident when drawing, my online PDF course helps you learn the skills you need to draw well and gives you the freedom to get creative in your own way, right from the start...

​Loads of practical exercises, loads of lessons, loads of creativity - start seeing things differently when you learn to draw...

Find out more about my Essential Drawing Skills online course (e-book PDF format) here...

Remember to make a note of code 25OFF2020 and use it on checkout to get 25% off - until end of Sunday 9th February only.

Hello to you in a fresh new decade!

It's all about Fresh Beginnings for this fine new decade...

I'm planning some great stuff for 2020, which I'll share with you in a minute - I'll also be taking a fresh look at my own art and learning some new skills.
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I'm proud to be a part of the free holiday colouring book produced by Art Licensing Show to spread a bit of festive cheer...

It's totally free, and available for you as a pdf download so you can print off as many pages as you want to colour. Why not try different colour-schemes, keep the children occupied, and share amongst family and friends...
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Colouring art has proven benefits for body and mind, and is the perfect antidote for the stresses of the season...

Would you love to have a go with pastels but aren't sure where to start?

Are you confused about which types of pastels to choose or uncertain about how to get those lovely blended colour effects?

Then my new Drawing with Pastels free PDF lesson is for you!

Understand:

• different pastel types
• how to use the different pastels
• pastel techniques

Follow my pastel drawing demos to learn the techniques and find a pastel style to suit you...

My colourful 'Garden Wrens' artwork was inspired by seeing a tiny wren flitting about in the colourful Acer leaves in my back garden (while I was doing the washing-up!)... it was a wonderful moment as we so rarely see the little wrens that we suspect have a nest in thick ivy behind our plum tree...

Such a sweet little bird and a real treat to see in my own back garden!

I create my artworks digitally in Adobe Illustrator - but I start them the good old-fashioned way - with pen and paper...

Contemporary gannets art by Lotti Brown - ‘A Gaggle of Gannets’ - digital art created from pen and ink drawings and paintings…

Just like my recent puffin art, I was inspired to create this gannets artwork after a holiday along the north-east coast of Britain where I was lucky enough to watch gannets alighting on Bass Rock (through a telescope).

It was a cool thing to see and it reminded me, too, that I’ve also watched gannets (also known as solan, solan goose, or solant bird) very close to home and at a much closer distance at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.

I think gannets are perhaps a little overlooked (nevermind the difficulties of the ‘greedy gannet’ reputation!) because from a distance they can just look like white seabirds or seagulls… but they’re actually an amazingly beautiful bird with a beautiful golden head, a brilliant blue eye, blue-grey beak, and very unusual green stripes on their legs and feet!

​They dive-bomb headlong into the sea to catch fish and can also fly at over 35mph and have a wing-span that can reach more than 6ft across! Huge seabirds!

Colourful and contemporary 'Puffin Perfection' artwork...

After a holiday on the north-east coast of Britain where I was absolutely fascinated by these amazing puffins, I wanted to create a puffin artwork to celebrate these colourful and unusual birds who find their homes on our north-eastern cliffs and rock-faces.

They really do have the most amazing colourful beaks - they don’t even look real, do they?
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I created my puffin art from pen and marker puffin drawings, plus drawings of sea-thrift flowers and rocks, that I combined digitally in Adobe Illustrator…