Hazel Soan on painting animals and figures that come alive instead of sitting flat
4 pm CEST, Berlin / 3 pm BST / 10 am EDT, New York
Hazel Soan on painting animals and figures that come alive instead of sitting flat
In this free Art Talk, Hazel Soan explains how she builds a painting, works a few marks live, names each decision as she makes it, and answers your questions.
What you'll see and learn:
During the Art Talk, Hazel walks through the way she reads a subject and builds form, with a few live marks under the overhead camera so you see the thinking behind them.
Why some paintings look alive and others look flat, and how the difference comes down to tone and light rather than detail
How she builds form through light and shade first, so any detail lands on structure that already holds
How she approaches animals and their markings, the figure, and movement, the subjects most painters avoid
Where her new Live Intensive takes this next, and how four sessions turn this way of seeing into your own practice
Does this sound like you?
Your paintings look right and still sit flat
The shapes are correct and the color is correct, and the painting stays on the paper. You add detail and it gets worse. What is missing is tonal structure.
You freeze in front of a difficult subject
An animal, a face, a figure in motion feels like too much. You measure, you outline, you get careful, and the painting dies before the second wash.
Your paintings turn muddy
You keep adjusting and keep adding, and the color loses its light. You sense it happening but not where the method slipped.
You follow along, then can't repeat it alone
With the tutorial you keep up. With your own photo in front of you, nothing transfers. You want the principle, not another picture to copy.
Your webinar with Hazel Soan
Hazel talks through how she makes animals and figures come alive: light and shade before detail, a limited palette, and the point where an animal stops being painted. After the talk she opens her new Live Intensive, four Zoom sessions where you paint five works alongside her.
Your Instructor: Hazel Soan
"The beauty of painting is that moment when I get carried away."
— Hazel
- Author of more than 15 books on watercolor, published by HarperCollins and Batsford
- Art Expert on Channel 4's Watercolour Challenge and presenter of her own series, Splash of Colour, on Anglia TV
- Work held by the National Portrait Gallery, the BBC, the Ritz and the British Embassy in Ankara
- More than 25 solo exhibitions, from London to Namibia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe
- Studios in London and Cape Town, with a month on safari in Africa every year
What our students say about painting with Hazel
Choose your plan
- Participation in a live art talk webinar
- 48 hour access to the recording of the art talk webinar
The Live Demo starts in just
FAQ
How does it work?
Do I need to be experienced?
Will there be a recording?
What language is the art talk in?
Most artists try to make an animal look alive by adding detail. Hazel does the opposite.
Light and shade first. Details last, and only where it earns its place. That is why her animals move while a careful copy sits flat.
On September 10, she shows you how she sees it.
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