Firstly the text on this page gives you an introduction to Dale's 'steps in painting' approach, then there are two further major sections to click on directly below, namely 5a and 5b.
Section 5a	The first  basic step-by-step example
Section 5b	28 step-by-step demos in varying degrees of difficulty for you to choose from.

INITIAL THOUGHTS ON 'RULES' IN ART.

I am aware that art should be free, and that the visual image should be something more than just a mechanical reproduction of some thought process...   it was Henry James who said that 'art is the soul of a Nation...'    We all know that one gets art from artists, but just pictures from 'palette-mechanics'.

By the same token, in order to create the artwork, a lot of practical and often highly technical things have to be done on the paper or canvas.    A work of art is therefore the product of two elements:

  A) CONTENT (THE IDEA OF THE ARTIST), and

B) TECHNIQUE (HOW THE ARTIST DOES IT).

If there is inadequate content, then we have a mere technical exercise as a result, and if the technique is deficient, then the expression of the idea will be lacking.    Both of these factors are necessary in a good work of art.

Now it is very difficult to assist an aspirant artist with the idea, although one can give participants guidelines and encouragement to assist stimulation, subject analysis, discipline and related spheres which can help them to create with more spirituality, enjoyment and and motivation.    Hopefully quality ideas will flow therefrom, and the artist will grow in stature....   On our courses we assist the participants in this 'right-brain' realm by providing facilities to make them comfortable and relaxed, by sharing our peaceful and tranquil studio setting, by spoiling them with fine food and beverage, by providing an eclectic music programme, and by giving them access to hundreds of collected photographic, video and graphic images as stimuli.    In addition to this, I try to bring a greater awareness of the 'big picture' in world art into the course, and all along the way we have the particular beauty of Leisure Isle around us...    But I still know that the really good ideas will come out when they are in their own environments, surrounded by their own loved ones and when they can start to plot an art direction in their own creative world.

Handling technique is different.    Technique is mainly from the other side of the brain.    We have more medical folk than any other profession attending our courses, and I always endeavour to explore the left brain / right brain hemisphere influence theory with them.    Whilst it would appear to have certain grey areas (sorry!), there seems to be definite consensus in the concept that there are cerebral areas that control different disciplines in our brain. The most-quoted and formulated is the theory that the right brain is the side that has to do with the 'big picture', and is holistic in its nature, whilst the left brain is more technical and analytical.    Teaching technique in painting would therefore probably fall more under the left brain influence.

I started out in this section by suggesting that art should, as far as possible, be 'rules-free'.    Indeed most of the books and videos of artists that I have collected over the years suggest this desire, and then the artists go on to do their artwork following the guidelines of a series of obscure rules that they have created for themselves!

I have always been one to try and make my job easier, and when we teamed-up with the Gatehouse Production House in Johannesburg to make my first two videos on oils and watercolours, both the production team and I decided to ensure that my steps in painting were set out in detail to assist those who followed the demo paintings in the videos.   After all, we realised, if you go on a learning workshop for golf, or cooking, or fly-fishing or any other discipline, you will be given a structure of ground-rules.    Why should the technical side of painting be any different?     We have sold hundreds of the videos over the past decade, and confidence from this broad acceptance has led to the processing of this computer programme.

                                            ANALYSIS OF THE PAINTING PROCESS

Over the years, since my first lesson in oils with my late father Leslie Elliott when I was at school in 1961, I have been analysing the painting process.    Almost by default I inherited the role as a painting facilitator on the established Mont aux Sources painting holiday programme in the 80's, and since then I have actively watched how folk paint, how they cleverly streamline the process, how they employ devices and techniques to make their job easier and how they utilise their equipment to their best advantage.    One very important thing I have noticed: once the artist establishes a basic set of rules to paint with, he or she sticks with that structure forever. Obviously the artist will always tweak the framework as his technique becomes more proficient, but the basics will remain the same.    It is therefore, with respect, very important to have a tried-and-tested, versatile and uncomplicated set of 'rules' to start off with.

I have developed a set of 10 basic steps in oils / acrylics which I have introduced to hundreds of creative folk. These steps are very straight-forward, and should help to give a structure to your oils / acrylic painting.    As stated in section 1, I have developed a system where we will use the best qualities of both the oils and the acrylics, the first 5 steps being 'acrylic' steps, and the last 5 'oil' steps.    To re-cap: the acrylics are good for us because they dry almost immediately, and they are excellent at building up strength in the painting with medium tones, whilst the oils are good because they have the edge with their vibrant colours, they handle much better than acrylics, and they don't discolour when they dry, as acrylics do.

This is the layout of the 'mechanics' of my 10 steps that I give to participants on my courses: