I don't know how many times I have finished a painting than thought Hmmm this looks so good will I wreck it if I varnish it? To ad more pressure to that it's a commission and they are paying you for it only to have ruined it by varnishing it!. Here's a quick fixable hack I like to do. I use a paintable sealer first. So at the end of the painting hit it with the (Paintable) sealer this will make the dull colours pop and a lot of the times give the finish you were after. Sometimes you don't even need to coat it with a varnish after this process. Now this will give it a satin or closer to a matte finish but seals it and you still have the ability to tweak if you need to. I like to varnish as the last process only as here in Australia flys and bugs and dust leave their nasty presence known and leave residue especially after 10 years of collecting dust on your collectors wall. They only need to Firstly lightly dust off then without soap or any other cleaner use a slightly warm, damp towel and clean off any residue that has accumulated over time. Hope this helps Legend! talk soon! Heff.

G'day Legend's Just a quick one. Have you ever been looking at things that inspire you to paint and so you screenshot it or download it and think I'm going to paint that when I get a chance. Only to come back a few days later to feel nuthnnnn! I mean you say to yourself, "What did I see in that?" Yet I bet if you grabbed the paints out the minute inspiration hit you at the time you would have turned a blank canvas into a masterpiece! I screenshot anything and everything to the point of clogging up my phone or Laptop with images that I will "come back to later" Which I hardly ever do! Take action. When I know I've got a morning to myself to paint grab out the phone scroll through Pinterest or whatever your favourite art platform is over a beverage and when inspiration hits, Go! Stop scrolling run to the studio and paint that thing! In your style of course he he. Heff.

G'day Legends. Sorry I have been a little silent on the Heff creative front as I am currently working renovating houses and to be honest I'm stuffed at the end of the day and by the time I want to get some painting under my belt it's time for bed only to do it all again tomorrow! Anyway enough of my whining here is a great little video where I paint a funny looking dog. It was pretty quick too. I think it only took half an hour which is good if you are selling your artworks on eBay or Etsy as let's face it those platforms perform best with quantity not so much quality. If you can deliver both you're on a roll! I personally want to make this a full time gig so yeah the kick I get when I'm sending paintings off to their new owners is a real buzz for me. So without further ado let's have a look at this latest video. cheers Heff.

I got a really nice email this morning from someone who painted along with one of my tutorials. It reminded me of something I believe pretty strongly — especially for beginners and returning artists. You don’t learn painting by thinking about it. You learn by having a brush in your hand. Something else happens too… time disappears. You stop thinking about everything else and you’re just there, making marks, mixing colour, figuring things out. Before you know it 3 hours has passed by. Artists call it “the zone”. It doesn’t always show up — but when it does, it’s magic. If you’ve been putting painting off lately, this is your nudge. Even 20 minutes counts. Cheers, Ben (Heff)