Learn how to build a frame for your art. This shadow-box frame is perfect for works on paper, and artist Diane Reed Sawyer takes us through the process from beginning to end.This exclusive demo is from Pastel Journal. For more of the latest inspirations in the medium and art demonstrations that range from the creative to the practical, Pastel Journal is the only source you’ll want.

Sharply lit and set against a dark background, Birgit O’Connor’s watercolor flowers are anything but sweet. “I usually don’t paint the garden variety of flowers; I like the unusual. If the flower isn’t sweet, the color can’t be wishy-washy.” Follow along as O’Connor demonstrates five flower-painting watercolor techniques.

Emilie Lee in the Great Wide Open of CaliforniaEmilie Lee is an intrepid artist living out a wanderlust life on the road as a painter and explorer. She’s been a subject of our Artist HQ series and given us great tips for winter plein air painting and here she tells us all about her artful adventures while painting the redwoods of California!

Unique to the medium of pastel is the need (or is it want?) for more individual pastel sticks. This is due, in part, to the nature of the medium. Wet media painters have the ability to mix paint to achieve subtle value and tonal variations, which allows them the option of working with an extremely limited palette of paints.

Fight Feeling Blah with This Painting ToolI hit a wall trying to write today. I wanted to write about the importance of expressing strong feelings in your work, but I couldn’t figure out how to tie it all together. It was frustrating. But I knew I could get through it because I’d experienced it before, as a writer and as an artist.

How to Paint Imagined PlacesMost painters I’ve spoken to say it’s somewhat liberating to paint an imagined subject or a fictitious place. Working in such a way does come with its own set of challenges, however.People often judge such artworks more harshly than works that are more realistic, almost as if they are trying to uncover the secret behind a magic trick.