A New Course by Ian McManus
Painting Sunlight in Watercolor
Your paintings look flat because you reach for color when you should reach for tone. Ian McManus shows you the 5 elements that make the difference between amateur and professional work.
After this course, you will build every painting on a tonal foundation and see the light appear because the shadows do the work.
3 paintings · 3.5 hours of HD video · Lifetime access
At a Glance
At a Glance
Why tone does more than color ever will
"The one thing I would like somebody to have told me when I first began painting was this importance of tone over color," Ian McManus
Sunlight is not painted with bright colors. It is painted with shadows, tone, and the right edges in the right places. Each painting in this course builds on the same five-element system: drawing, tonal values, simplification, edge control, and wise use of color.
Is This Course Right for You?
You practice, you take workshops. Yet, last year's paintings look the same as this year's. You know something is missing but you cannot identify what it is.
With the video on, everything works. On your own, the painting falls apart. You need principles, not steps.
You mix beautiful colors, but the result still looks unrealistic. This is because nobody showed you that in any high-quality painting tone carries the light and color comes last.
You keep adding brushstrokes hoping to fix the painting. You lose transparency because you do not know what to put down in the first washes.
Street scenes, buildings, figures. You want to paint them but you do not know where to start.
Course Table of Contents
Each lesson follows the same five-element system applied to a different scene. The method repeats. The subjects change.
Introduction
Learn more about your instructor Nicholas Tobias and see how the learning process will be organized.
Lesson 1: Cathedral Grounds in Afternoon Light
Three tonal planes: light sky, dark middle distance, mid-tone foreground. You merge separate objects into one connected shape using shadows and learn where to place figures so they stand out without competing with the focal area.
58 min
Lesson 2: Under the Canopy
Perspective lines that direct the viewer's eye to your chosen focal point. Ian shows how pavement, buildings, and a canopy all converge to one spot, and why the focal figures sit at that exact point.
1 hours 7 min
Lesson 3: Sunlit Tower, Church Street
Sunlight painted through the shadows around it. A sunlit tower gains its power from the dark cast across the foreground. You also learn how to paint figures at different distances that read correctly in perspective.
1 hours 22 min
Conclusion
Summary of techniques learned, creative task and feedback giving.
This Is What You Will Paint
The first painting teaches you tonal planes. The second teaches you perspective. The third teaches you to convey sunlight by painting the dark elements around it.
Ian's Method
- This set of principles works on any subject. Get the tonal values right first, simplify into big shapes, control your edges, add color last. When you understand this order, you stop guessing and start making decisions.
- "I think at this course I'm going to be handing five key elements to producing much more professional artwork," Ian McManus
Support and feedback
During your studies, you receive personal feedback from professionals and the support of a creative community of like — minded people - learning becomes easier, more inspiring and more interesting.
Get individual written feedback on your paintings
- 3 detailed reviews of your final paintings + 1 creative task within the first 75 days.
- Professional feedback from a curator - Olga Karlsson (Premium plan)
- Expert critique from an academically trained fine artist.
Join our international and artistic community
- Connect with like-minded artists, share advice and feedback.
- Join daily discussions on drawings and art-related topics.
- Enjoy a welcoming space moderated by our Community Manager and Support Team.
Certificate of completion for Premium Plan
Upon completion of the course for the students of Premium plan we issue a certificate. The certificate could be used as a proof of your qualification's upgrade at work (if it is related to arts) and for your private affairs as a recognition of your mastery in painting.
Meet Your Instructor
"I believe that anyone who is passionate enough about painting and commits sufficient time to honing the craft with some guidance from a good tutor can learn to paint," Ian McManus
- Self-taught. First picked up a brush in his early forties after twenty-five years outside art.
- Ruth Hill Memorial Award for finest painting, IEA Open Exhibition (2013)
- Paintings pre-selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI)
- 10 solo exhibitions, The Gallery Holt, Norfolk (2011 to 2024)
What you will achieve
Light that feels real
Sunlight will glow because the shadows around it do the work
Tone before color
Every painting starts on a tonal foundation, not a color palette
Clean, confident edges
You will know where to soften and where to sharpen
Simpler compositions
Big shapes, clear decisions, everything unnecessary left out
Figures that belong
Figures that sit in perspective and bring life to the scene
A system you can reuse
5 elements that apply to any subject, not just these 3 paintings
lesson sample
CHOOSE YOUR PLAN
Plan
Standard
For independent learners who want the method and the recordings
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
- 3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
Bonus
- 30 ArtiCoins
Plan
Premium
For those who want a professional eye on their paintings
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
- Individual feedback from a professional curator on each of the 3 paintings + 1 creative task within 75 days
- Certificate of completion
Bonus
- 40 ArtiCoins
Plan
Elite
For those who want to learn from Ian McManus directly, live on Zoom
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
- Certificate of completion
Bonus
- 50 ArtiCoins
- 2 LIVE Zoom sessions with Ian McManus himself!
Plan
Standard
For independent learners who want the method and the recordings
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
- 3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
Bonus
- 30 ArtiCoins
Plan
Premium
For those who want a professional eye on their paintings
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
- Individual feedback from a professional curator on each of the 3 paintings + 1 creative task within 75 days
- Certificate of completion
Bonus
- 40 ArtiCoins
Plan
Elite
For those who want to learn from Ian McManus directly, live on Zoom
- 3 lessons + 1 video about materials (total 3,5h)
3 final street scene
- 24/7 access from any location at your own pace
- LIFETIME access to the video lessons as a bonus
- Access to the moderated students community on WhatsApp
- Final project (your own painting)
- Certificate of completion
Bonus
- 50 ArtiCoins
- 2 LIVE Zoom sessions with Ian McManus himself!
You Have No Risks — We Support You!
100% guarantee
If after 1 to 2 lessons within the first week this approach is not for you, you get your money back.* (*within 14 days after payment)
Freeze for Premium plan
Start date is not convenient? We freeze the course for as long as you want (1 time free of charge).
Freedom and Mobility
Access any time. Go at your pace. Learn from smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
Materials for the COURSE
1) Paper: Saunders Waterford 300gsm, rough surface
2) Paints: Winsor and Newton or Daniel Smith tubes. Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Light Red, Cadmium Yellow, Verditer Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Sepia, Neutral Tint
3) Brushes: Squirrel mop size 10, 4, and 2 Pencil: 2mm 2B
Lots of flexibility with supplies — no need for exact items!
FAQ
Still have questions?
Our team is here to help. Not sure which plan is right for you? Just reach out — we'll guide you in a few minutes.
Contact us
You have looked at a sunlit street and thought: I want to paint that light. Then you picked up the brush and the painting came out flat.
The light was in the shadows you did not paint, the edges you did not soften, the tonal structure you did not see.
"If you want to paint light, you're going to have to paint dark," Ian McManus