London Paintbox Studios

A Sunday breakfast was painted oil on canvas by one of our young students...on a Sunday class.
☕️🥐
Using a variety of source materials and Wayne Thiebaud as reference, this painting went through a few different stages and edits. The menu and cutlery replace a decorative foliage, and, at a close inspection, you can see the purples of the previous table cloth color shining through the chromatic whites, adding depth.

To reach the fragrant perfection of this French croissant that would show its flakey layers, we worked with small brush strokes of oranges and ochers, adding a final glimmer of butteriness on top.

We love how huge the croissant is and how the menu wraps around the edge of the canvas. See the last slide!

Well done!

Dreaming of holidays is easier when you can paint an airplane!

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This oil painting was completed by one of our youngest students on a Sunday class.

The layers of the under-painting, in sepia and dioxine violet, are still showing underneath the monochromatic reduction.

Controlling the restricted palette was hard work, but we think our artist has done an excellent job,
especially in the clouds, of which he is so proud.

We love how delicately the illuminated windows have been painted on.

Well done!

It seems this reel from a few months ago didn't share to our page, and so here it is: the Totoro prints in all their glory, made by one of our teenage students.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVRHtlCiGyM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

It is impossible to summarise the weeks (and weeks!) of hard work that have gone into making this linocut reduction print in just a short reel. Made by one of our dedicated and talented students, Totoro and his friends have been reproduced in a variety of colors, wait until the end of the reel for it! And the project it isn't over yet! In the studio gold leaf, stained paper and final individual handmade additions and touches are brewing. There is nothing left to say, but stay tuned and VERY VERY well done to the artist!!! . . . #londonpaintboxstudios #paintboxstudios #totoro #linocut #reductionlinocut

Stay in the game by following our instagram page 😉

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYSIqX6CLsT/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

This deconstructed game boy in watercolor and ink was completed during our Saturday classes by a young student. Famously, watercolor and inks are very unforgiving mediums: one little mistake and the perfect white of the paper might get lost. We think our young artist has done a great job at mastering the brushstroke with precision and care for detail, rendering perfectly those circuits boards. Well done! . . . #paintboxstudios #londonpaintboxstudios #artforkids #londonartclasses #gameboy

Behind this wonderful painting, there has been a lot of preparation, which you can see in the following slides, as there wasn't a singoular source material, but many ideas that needed collating.

From sketches of different compositions, a quick mock up for pallette and process, to close up studies of the figures, as well as an analysis of similar paintings, no stone went unturned before beginning the actual painting.

We love the way the light shines through leaves, how it scatters on the grass and on the figures.

The underpainting, in burnt siena, intentionally left to breathe through the final layers of paint, brings warmth and freshness to this sweet scene.

The paint is thicker over the greens and onto the figures, bringing solidity to the subject matter and creating a lovely contrast with the thinner texture of the naples yellow grass.

The final touches of pinks and whites in the flowers bring light and a vivid, joyful pocket of color that contrasts and complements the beautiful variety of greens in the surrounding nature.

A huge well done!

These wonderful northern lights have ben painted by a young, dedicated student.

The base coat was done in a green grisaille, which was then enriched with some viridians and emerald greens (See last pic for a snap of the underpainting!).

The sky is obviously the forte of this painting, bringing all the saturation into the image,with hot pinks, violets, and an exuberant lime green.

We love how warm delicate pinks reflect on the snowy landscape, a wonderful combination with the strong, contrasting viridian shadows.

Well done to this young painter!

A beautiful watercolor iridescent bug completed by one of our adult students on Saturdays class.

🌈🌈🌈

In order to obtain this effect, colors have to be carefully layered from light to dark, utilising masking fluid to let them transpire in between coats.

We love the details in the delicate texture of the wings and eyes.

The final brave touch was adding a black background to help the bug stand out in all its beautiful hues.

Well done!

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A game of shadows!

The latest paintings by this young artist have been inspired by the art studio itself.
She has been making her own source material by looking at the surrounding space, documenting and re-working the photographic material into a new image.

This time, the studio's skylight and the light entering through it caught the artist's eye.

In the painting, we see the shadow of an arm holding a paper marquette of the skylight itself, while in the background, the blurry shadow of the actual skylight forms a repeated motif.

This image speaks of and celebrates light as the painter's best friend.

We love how much attention has gone in differenciating the hard and soft edges of the shadow: the structure of the skylight with soft contours, in the background, while the arm and the Marquette appear closer to the surface creating their shadow with hard lines.

A chromatic warm white has been used to paint the sunkissed surface of the wall on which the shadows, painted in paynes gray and caput mortum, create the composition.

A huge well done on continuing this body of work, there's some new paintings being made in the studio already, and we are excited to see them!

As promised in our last reel, the final experiments on this Totoro print, with gold leaf, stained paper, and bleachable inks.
We love how these bring a unique feel to each print and how our student-artist has pushed the possibilities of the media and widened the scope of the project.

Well done!