Foundation Stones for Acrylic Artists
this event was postponed owing to illness of the tutor. we hope to re-arrange for the 2025 programme
DAVE WILLIAMS

Although Dave is a relative newcomer to the world of drawing and painting, on his painting journey over the past few years, he has accumulated some significant painting techniques that should help any aspiring acrylic paint artists to ‘lift their game’ and produce paintings that they would be proud to hang in their homes, and put on public display.
Dave works across the whole art spectrum, from pencil portraits of friends and family …. and their pets, to large scale landscapes and seascapes painted in acrylic and oil.
Dave’s introduction to the workshop….
During the workshop we will paint this picture from the ‘colorbyfeliks’ Instagram account as the demonstration piece – take a look here:
Feliks Kaparchuk (@colorbyfeliks) • Instagram photos and videos

Feliks has personally given his permission to use this piece as the subject for the workshop.
I will show you how to:
- scale your subject to the canvas
- create seamless acrylic colour blending
- recover from paint brush mistakes
- give your painting depth, and
- paint fine details to add realism
It is also important, and I will demonstrate, how to keep a wet palette. To save time during the workshop, I have created a preparation video here to demonstrate how to create a wet palette: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2kalwFoPPy/
Please take a look if you plan to attend – it will save time on the day if you have a palette base and the paper elements already cut and shaped.
You may find that after the initial blend process of the sky, that your wet palette is covered in the wrong paint colour for the land and sea. I recommend that you cut out an additional sheet for backing parchment to lay on the palette when the sky has been completed.
I will be painting on a ‘normal’ stretched canvas, pre-primed, about 16 x 20 inches in size. I recommend you aim for that size yourself. We will be painting in portrait mode (longest edge at the sides). You can go a little bigger or a little smaller, but I recommend NO smaller than A3 sized.
I will also have the canvas mounted on a table-top easel so that the class can see what I am doing. If you have an easel, it may be worth utilising it. If you don’t, then you will be painting flat onto the table. Therefore, please bring plenty of old newspaper, or other such covers to suppress paint splashing onto the table – there will be some splashing!
Materials to bring
A couple of ‘non-standard’ brushes will be needed:
- 1” Round Mop (Daler Rowney Graduate series or similar)
- 1” Oval Wash (Daler Rowney Graduate series or similar)
- 4 (1” wide) Bristle fan brush
- 4 and No.6 Bristle flat brush
- 3 Bristle round brush
- Rigger brush (the long thin one) for detailing
- 4 soft round brush, also for detailing
- Some old (dry!) coffee stirring sticks would be handy, or a long metal or plastic palette knife …. or an old teaspoon, or any other clean paint stirring tool.
Instead of both the 1” Round Mop and the 1” Oval Wash brushes, you could probably get away with just the Round Mop.
This is an ACRYLIC painting workshop. Don’t bring oils or watercolour paints! The colours I anticipate we will use are:
- Titanium White (this will be the most used colour)
- Cadmium Yellow
- Cadmium Red
- Sap Green
- Veridian (Aqua) Green
- Paynes Grey
- Raw Umber
- Azure (Sky) Blue
- Cerulean Blue
- Cobalt Blue
- Indigo
The last important element from a painting perspective is to include a small bottle of acrylic flow aid.
Although acrylic paint dries fast, for it to be dry enough to overpaint can take up to 30 minutes. So a hairdryer is very useful. I will be bringing one to the workshop with me, but it would help if more than one was available so bring one along if you can.
Lastly, bring plenty of kitchen roll, and a plastic bag to discard them into.