Sunil Art Studio

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Sunil Art Studio

Guiding beginners and artists on their journey.

🌟 What I Offer:
🖌️ Inspiring watercolor paintings & tutorials
📅 Engaging workshops for all skill levels

22/10/2026

Not sure what to say really... thank you Bury Free Press and Cameron for the lovely article. 20 years as a mechanical engineer and now painting full time, still pinching myself

Swipe for the article and the painting ( the abbey gate in Bury)

I still teach like an engineer- simple steps, simple process, so beginners can actually follow along. More classes are coming up at TheApex in cityscapes, landscapes and flowers, sign up with them if you'd like to join.

My Beginner Cityscapes course is open now, and my new landscapes mini course is coming this Christmas. Join my email list for my free supply list ( link in bio)

The last pic is the abbey gate painting in full.

Keep painting.

watercolourclass learnwatercolour beginnerwatercolour theapex cityscapes

15/10/2026

A calla lily has three parts. Once you see them, it draws itself.
The spadix — the upright centre. The spathe — the large white petal that wraps around it like an inverted funnel. And the stem. That is the whole flower.
For the drawing, start with the spadix, then build the spathe around it. The spathe has one edge that spirals outward and one that curls inward — pick one edge and follow it. The tip is sharp and slightly bent, not rounded. Draw it in a few different orientations and you will quickly see how the same three parts can produce very different looking flowers depending on the angle.
For the painting, the spathe is not white — it is Indian yellow at the centre, with a soft grey added on one side to show the funnel shape. Pick one light source and stay with it. Soften the grey gradually so the form reads as curved, not flat. Deepen the shadow areas. Then push the background or surrounding tone darker so the white appears to glow without you ever touching white paint.
The flower pops because of what is around it, not because of what is on it.
Three mini courses launching in December — skies and clouds, trees, and water. Waiting list is open. Link in bio.

New here — join the email list and get the FREE supplies list. Link in bio.

Beginner cityscape course is live now. Link in bio.

flowertutorial botanicalwatercolour learnwatercolour beginnerwatercolour watercolourtechnique

14/10/2026

Mountains and reflections from this Monday at Cottenham Art Club

I teach at a few art clubs, and this is one of the demo paintings I did during class.

I paint a lot more than I post. I'm always catching up on everything else, but I'm working on sharing more often!

My mini courses are coming in December, and I'm really excited about them. They cover skies and clouds, water and trees 🌤️🌊🌳

🔗 Everything is in the link in my bio:
✏️ The waiting list for the mini courses
🎨 A free supply list when you sign up, if you're new here
🏙️ My beginner cityscapes course

watercolourteacher ukartist

09/10/2026

Nine paintings. Half sheet each. All snowy mountains.

The artist this time is Jorge Carpuna — a Mexican watercolorist whose washes I find extraordinary. I do decent washes. But there is a subtlety in how he handles them that I wanted to understand better, and the only way to understand it is to try to do it yourself.

So I picked one of his subjects — mountains — and painted it nine times. Each one informed the next. What went wrong gets corrected. What worked gets pushed further. By the end of the series you are not copying anymore, you are learning.

This is the best hack I know for improving without a mentor. Find an artist whose work you admire, pick one subject they paint well, and repeat it until you understand why it works. You do not need to be in the same room as someone to learn from them. Their paintings teach you if you pay close enough attention.

I painted these listening to a podcast. Nine half-sheet paintings in a sitting. There is nothing better.

If you paint landscapes and want to go deeper — three mini courses launching in December: skies and clouds, trees, and water. The waiting list is open and you will get a discount when it launches. Link in bio.

Beginner cityscape course is live now. Link in bio.

New here — join the email list and get the FREE supplies list. Link in bio.

landscapewatercolour learnwatercolour watercolourtechnique watercolourprocess beginnerwatercolour

05/10/2026

A peony looks complicated. It isn't, once you break it down.

Start with the petal. A peony petal is an oval — but it folds. When it faces you it looks one way, when it turns to the side it narrows. Spend a few minutes just drawing petals in different positions before you touch the flower.

Once you have the petal, the flower is just circles. Three concentric circles, small to large, touching at the top — that tilts the flower one way. Three circles touching at the bottom tilts it the other. Add more circles to make it denser, fewer to keep it open. The circles are just a guide for where each ring of petals sits. Inner rings get smaller petals, outer rings get larger ones. The oval you already learned does all the work.

For the painting, three tones of Winsor Red. Light wash first — and leave white gaps, deliberately. Those gaps are not mistakes, they are the light. Second wash slightly darker, still protecting some white. Third wash darkest, and soften the edges immediately with a damp brush so nothing goes hard. For the centre, a little yellow ochre and burnt sienna for the pollen. Finally, drop in a dark background. The peony needs something to push against.

That is the whole thing. Drawing logic first, then three tones, then background. It works every time.
Free supply list in the bio if you want to know exactly what I use. Mini landscape courses launching December, beginner cityscape course live now — all links in bio.

watercolortutorial winsorred beginnerwatercolor watercolorprocess artistsoninstagram

04/10/2026

Six paintings done today. One still in progress.
The subject: Praful Sawanth work. He's an Indian watercolor artist — outstanding atmospheric washes, beautiful loose technique. I picked six of his paintings, matched his palette as closely as I could, sourced the same tools, and just copied.

This is not a new idea. Artists have been doing this for centuries. You pick a master, you copy their work, and you learn things you cannot learn any other way. Watching how someone handles a wet wash on half a sheet is one thing. Trying to replicate it yourself is completely different.

My copies are nowhere near his originals. That's not the point. The point is what happened between picking up the brush and putting it down — the decisions, the mistakes, the moments where I understood why he made a particular choice.

If you want to improve, pick a master. Copy their work. Do it seriously — same paper size, same palette, same tools if you can. You'll learn more in a day than in weeks of painting your own subjects.

This is going to become a series. I'll pick one artist at a time, do five to ten paintings after their work, and share what I learned. It's also a way for me to talk about the artists who have taught me an enormous amount — people I have never met, who have no idea I exist, but whose work has shaped how I paint.

is the first. If you ever come across this — thank you. The invite to the Wet on Wet podcast is open. There is so much I would love to ask you.

Happy weekend. Landscape mini courses launch in December, beginner cityscape course is live now — all links in bio.

02/10/2026

There are few things more satisfying than filling a new palette.

New Holbein 26 wells. Every colour in its place.

The palette itself is excellent. The one thing it is short on is mixing space so I am going to use a separate tray for that. But the colours have a proper home now and that matters more than people realise. A well organised palette is not fussiness — it is how you work faster and think less about the tools and more about the painting.

If you have never filled a new palette you are missing one of the small genuine pleasures of being an artist.

What is in your palette right now? Drop it in the comments.

A reminder that three mini courses are launching this December. Skies and clouds, trees, and water. The waiting list is open now and there will be a discount for people on it when they launch. Link in bio.

If you are new here, join the email list — tutorials and updates every couple of weeks. Link in bio.

And my Watercolour Cityscapes for Beginners course is live now. Also in bio.

watercolourtutorial learnwatercolour beginnerwatercolour watercolourpainting palettefilling

29/09/2026

Twelve paintings of snow and trees. This is what preparation looks like.
I am a mechanical engineer who became a watercolour artist. That background changes how I paint and how I teach.

Before I build a course I paint. A lot. Different approaches, different light, different conditions. An engineer does not guess. You test, you analyse, you refine. I need to know every way a subject can go wrong before I can teach someone how to get it right.

And that is the thing. Being able to paint something and being able to teach a beginner to paint it are two completely different problems.
I have to work out how to strip it back. Fewer colours. Fewer variables. The simplest possible route to a result that still looks good. An engineer calls this reducing complexity without losing function. I have to find the version of the process that works for someone picking up a brush for the first time — not just the version that works for me.

That takes more preparation than the painting itself.
Then there is the iterative method. Pick one subject. Paint it as many times as you can.

Every painting here took between 15 and 30 minutes. But across a dozen paintings something happens. You correct the mistakes from the last one. You keep what worked. You push a little further each time. Engineers call this iteration. In watercolour it is the fastest way I know to get genuinely good at something.

You do not get it right the first time. You get it less wrong each time until it is right.
Same principle. Same paper.

These paintings are all part of getting ready for the mini landscape courses launching in December. Three courses — skies and clouds, trees, and water. There will be a Black Friday sale and people on the waiting list get first access and the best price.

Waiting list link in bio.

For people who are new — join the email list for tutorials and updates. Link in bio.
And my Watercolour Cityscapes for Beginners course is live now. Also in bio.

learnwatercolour beginnerwatercolour engineeringmindset minicourse watercolourpainting

28/09/2026

Most people sit down and start painting. I do three things first.

A value sketch. A colour sketch. Then the painting.

By the time I pick up a brush for the real thing every problem has already been solved. The horizon is set. The perspective is confirmed — one point, two point, three point, whichever the scene needs. The outer shapes are in. The details placed in the right order. The contrast and shadows tested in the colour sketch without committing to anything.
When I finally commit to the painting I am not figuring things out. I am just painting.

And when I paint, I always work in four steps. Drawing, first wash, second wash, highlights. Every painting. Every subject. Every size. No matter how complicated the scene looks, it fits into those four steps. They give me a way to check where I am and what comes next without ever losing the thread.

The two sketches are quick and rough — thinking tools, not finished work. But they save you from the most common mistake in watercolour which is trying to solve problems on the final painting where mistakes are expensive.

This is how I painted this morning at Cottenham Art Club. Every Monday. Same process, same order, every time.

It is an engineering method applied to painting. Resolve the problem before you build the thing. Works in a factory. Works on watercolour paper.
This entire method — value sketches, colour sketches, perspective, four steps — is at the heart of my Watercoloof Cityscapes for Beginners course. Even though it is a cityscape course the method works for any subject. Link in bio.

If you are new here, join the email list — link in bio.

And a new mini landscape course is coming in December. More details soon, also in bio.

watercolourpainting engineeringmindset learnwatercolour beginnerwatercolour cottenham

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https://sunilkalbandi.com/

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