Join Sam for a monthly online painting project.  Each month, you’ll explore a new habitat and its characters and creatures—from funny penguins studies to mermaid collages beneath the waves, from the playful antics of puffins to the moody hues of ravens at midnight. Working with a variety of mixed media techniques, you’ll learn new skills, experiment with colour and texture, and end the year with a beautiful collection of artwork—even transforming your work into custom Christmas cards. This is your chance to grow as an artist, discover new approaches, and celebrate the wild world around us—all from the comfort of your own creative space.

The videos are published on 1st of every month.  You can pay ahead for the year by adding this product to the shopping cart or you can pay monthly via Patreon

Each project will have a stage by stage video, written instructions, a colour palette guide and a shape guide to help you with your drawing skills.

Project Breakdown

1. January – Musical Penguins
   Start the year by exploring subtle desaturated colours, whites and greys to bring out the shape and character of the Penguins listening to music. We will be using indian ink, tinted charcoal for this project and cartridge paper and I will show you the difference of working on coloured paper also.

2. February – Wild Companions
   This month, focus on animal friendships of puffins Learn how to depict their tapping of beaks to bond and create friendships with added humour.  We will create work on cartidge paper, use coloured / patterned tissue paper, pva glue, acrylic gouache and colour pencils.

3. March – Woodland Mysteries
   With spring comes forest animals—deer, foxes, and badgers. This month, you'll paint the soft greens and fresh light of spring, bringing these animals and their forest surroundings to life.  We will specialise on the environment really getting to grips with the shapes of trees, leaves and depth of a forest and within that we will hide the animals.  We will be using acrylic gouache, oil pastels, colour pencils on cartridge paper.

4. April – The Playful Riverbank
   Paint lively river creatures such as otters, kingfishers, and dragonflies. You'll experiment with water reflections, movement, and the energy of riverbank life.  We will create colour palettes, sketches and we'll be using acrylic gouache, colour pencils, oil pastels and masking fluid

5. May – Meadow Magic
   Celebrate the life of a wild meadow with butterflies and bees. Use vibrant spring colours and light brushstrokes to create an energetic, nature-filled scene. We will create work on cartidge paper, use coloured / patterned tissue paper, pva glue, acrylic gouache and colour pencils.

6. June – Nighttime Wanderers
   Focus on capturing moonlit scenes with deep shadows to illustrate the mystery and life of nocturnal animals.  We will be using acrylic gouache, oil pastels, colour pencils on cartridge paper.

7. July – Birds of the Sky
   Capture the grace of soaring birds. Explore how to convey flight and feathers against vast skies with light, airy brushwork.  This month I will introduce soft dry pastel work into our kit!  But we will also use colour pencils and acrylic gouache for layering techniques.  

8. August – Creatures of the Sea
   Dive into the world of mermaids.  You’ll focus on capturing fluidity and the blues of the underwater world, using flowing techniques to create movement and depth.  And we'll be using collage to create our mermaid character, so collect together magazine images a figures (lots of different ones).  We'll be using magazines, tracing paper, tissue paper, acrylic gouache, colour pencils.  I'll also showing you how to create textures with a geli plate (not an essential bit of kit) but you might fancy trying it.

9. September – Forest Giants
   Shift to larger forest animals like a Canadian Moose will make you smile this month. You’ll experiment with scale and perspective, conveying the majesty and presence of these creatures.  We'll be using acrylic gouache, colour pencils and soft pastels on cartridge paper.

10. October – Creatures of the Night
    Explore darker themes with animals like ravens with a steampunk style.  This Halloween-inspired project encourages moody palettes and gothic compositions to evoke mystery and shadow play.  Working on cartridge paper with acrylic gouache, colour pencils, and soft pastels.

11. November – Highland Spirits
    Paint the misty, atmospheric landscapes of the highlands with wild horses.  Focus on soft washes and muted tones to capture the magic of foggy, ethereal environments.  Using cartridge paper, acrylic gouache, colour pencils.

12. December – Who is Father Christmas
    Close the year making a Christmas Card with me.  This will be a collaborative project and you'll be working to a printing deadline so we can produce a batch of 20 Christmas Cards for everyone to send in time for Christmas.  Our theme will be Father Christmas!  I'll give you notice of this project in October so we can be prepared!

Tools and Materials Used Throughout the Year:

• Surfaces & Paper:
  • Cartridge paper (throughout the year)

• Painting & Drawing Media:
  • Indian Ink (from January)
  • Tinted charcoal (January / I love Derwent tinted charcoal)
  • Acrylic gouache (multiple months I love Jacksons Holbein)
  • Oil pastels (February, March, April, etc.)
  • Colour pencils (used in most months)
  • Soft dry pastels (introduced in July and used in some following months)

• Collage & Mixed Media Supplies:
  • Patterned/colored tissue paper (May, June, August)
  • PVA glue (May, June, August)
  • Magazines (August—collage figures)
  • Tracing paper (August)

• Additional Tools & Techniques:
  • Masking fluid (April)
  • Geli plate (August, optional for creating textures)
    

These core materials will be combined and layered in various ways throughout the year, allowing you to experiment with colour, texture, mixed media, and different painting and drawing techniques.  I've made a couple of recommendations above but go with what your budget can allow.