Theodore Miller’s painting of this elephant caught my eye and made it to the pic of the week. I always think of how rough an elephant must feel, and the use of paper texture in this image gives the perfect effect. Although you don’t get to see much of the elephant, what you do see gives the impression of a dignified creature, with battered, aged skin. A well-deserved pic of the week, methinks!

On a slightly different note (well, completely different!) I am on holiday for a week and a bit, so there might be some delay in the images being approved. Don’t panic if they don’t appear as soon as you think!

After a bit of delay with changing the Pic of the Week (due to deadline and then Bank Holiday), I’ve picked one from the very talented Karen Bonaker. Her Three Amigos image instantly made me smile, with great use of composition. Having the two darker dogs flank the middle one makes them look like a cheeky gang who have been up to some serious mischief! Karen has also managed to paint lovely soft-looking fur that looks good enough to stroke.

This week’s Pick of the Week is from Lillyana Antoneavic. Lillyana is a recent member to the gallery, and has already built up a nice portfolio of images. We thought this one was excellent, with lovely texture and a softness that works well with the subject matter. The colours help add to this feeling of softness, and the cat’s pink nose and green eyes stand out well from the rest of the image.

I was wondering whether you'd like to see a new feature in the magazine, which is an idea that has sprung up from the last readers' challenge. We have had so many entries that used the kingfisher photo, that I got to thinking whether it would be nice to show how different artists have interpreted the same photo. Maybe with a little breakdown of what they did and how it was done? If it's something you find useful we can make a regular thing of it.
And talking of readers' challenges, specifically the challenge with the kingfisher, I'm afraid I made a mix-up with the dates, which meant a lot of entries came in after a winner was announced. I've decided to have two winners for that challenge and apologise for my terrible calendar skills. I'll put a full post on the forum later today to explain things. Have a good rest of the weekend!

Ah, the chicks are chirping, the lambs are bounding and there are lots of lovely Easter eggs to be eaten! As the Easter holidays approach, I thought it worth pointing out that we won’t be in the office from the end of tomorrow (the 20th) until next Tuesday (the 25th). This will mean that any images you upload may not be approved until the Tuesday, so don’t worry if it takes longer than usual for them to appear.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and see you next week

Good news for anyone who has missed an issue or is looking for a comprehensive digital art companion. We have produced two excellent products that could be just the things you’re looking for.
The Complete Guide to Digital Painting is a 256-page bookazine that collates tutorials and features from past issues of the magazine. Costing

It’s been really nice seeing how some of you have been using the tutorials in the magazine. If you have a go at any of them, please remember to post them in your gallery. It doesn’t matter if you have used your own images and just applied the techniques - it’s still lovely to see what you do with the information!

Hello to you all. Just a quick note to say the competition link is temporarily out of order, but all will be back to normal on Monday. Many apologies for the delay!

Upon approving the images this morning, I happened to notice that we are now over the 6,000 mark! A massive congratulations and thanks to you all for sharing your Painter creations with us. It is always a pleasure to see what new images have been added and it’s great to see how you are all improving. I look forward to seeing the next thousand!

As we head towards having nearly 6,000 images in our gallery, I wanted to ask if there were any pieces of art that you particularly liked or if you had created something yourself that you were proud of. There really is an incredible array of images and styles, and I'm keen to promote your work in any way I can. So don't be shy - email me with details of anyone you admire or shine the light on your own creations and I'll keep the details for future excitements!