Ugly fairies are so much more fun than the pretty ones. Maggie’s Bug Collector is no exception. The googly eyes behind goggles and the buck teeth are the first thing you notice, along with the elf ears and the fascinated, geeky expression, and these create a bizarrely cute, appealing character. What I like most about this piece though is the texturing - the patterned, silky and shiny golden scarf, woolly sweater and velvety jester’s cap are all wonderfully warm and tactile - a really good example of how to paint different kinds of cloth and play up their textural contrasts while sticking to a very restricted colour harmony. The buttons and bells are nice touches along with the rough stitching on the cap. And take a close look at the background - the shadowy twigs are fantastic and the butterfly in the centre of the composition is not quite managing to camouflage itself against the woody background. It’s an image that really bears a lot of second looks - there’s a lot more to it than initially meets the eye…  

The evolution of Jason’s style over the last few months has to be seen to be believed. This detailed, textural piece is a prime example of what constant practise can do! The features of Jason’s subject are much more realistic than in previous works and there are some well-observed touches such as the ruddy colour around the nose and the subtle treatment of the dark, windblown hair. I particularly like the colour harmony of this piece; the contrast between duck egg blue and peachy brown shades is wonderfully complementary and works well with the somewhat battered antique effect that Jason has applied, calling to mind World War II pilots or 1950s adventurers. The textural contrast between the leather and sheepskin on the jacket is nicely painted too.

This portrait study from Cathy Barber displays a wealth of texture and detail. The hair, beard and the wrinkles on the face are all particular highlights, and the twinkle-eyed facial expression is brilliantly captured. A fantastically executed piece and one of which Cathy should be very proud!

Plenty of other images caught my eye on my trek for this week’s Picture too. Theodore Miller’s Elk Brush is another highly textural piece in smooth, clear autumn colours. Gramarye by Maggie Barra is an intriguing fantasy image, as is Ray Kamizoe’s bright, anime-influenced Fairy. Miriam Montagni’s Fantasia piece boasts some incredibly detailed, stylised background patterns which are just delightful, while Cuyler Smith’s Creative Thought is an interesting blue-toned little piece that displays some real skill with light and shadow. And I also got a chuckle out of Frederick Taylor’s The Future comic strip.

We’ve introduced a new feature to the redesigned Painter website. Readers of our sister magazine Digital Photographer might be familiar with it. It’s a fun game called the Face-Off, in which two paintings, randomly selected by the website, are faced off against each other. Choose which ones you like best and check out the top-rated Face-Off images. You can even choose images by section, so if you want to do a portrait, landscape or fantasy and sci-fi Face-Off you can. Have a go by visiting http://www.paintermagazine.co.uk/painterfaceoff/

The new, wider version of the Painter website has just gone live! There’s loads more room for you to check out the Latest Images as we can now fit more thumbnails on, we’ve extended the Latest Galleries and Featured Galleries so you now get to see three instead of two each, and we’ve got a new box to show off some of the top rated Galleries as voted by you. Enjoy the site’s expansive new look and let us know what you think!

This fantastic sci-fi image shows off a lot of skill with Painter. In the foreground, the damaged metal of the hydrant is done very well - the bumpy, scratched texture is very well done. The concrete and smoother metal textures are also excellent, and the dramatic background imagery, colours and lighting really add to the atmosphere of the piece. Plus, it has robots! I particularly like the hulking but oddly elegant forms of Simon’s mecha creations, and their dull metallic colouring and red star insignia reinforces the title of the piece, as we see them as units within an army. This intriguing image raises all sorts of questions about the backstory behind the scene - where is the city, why did the war start, whose side are the robots on?

Amanda’s painting treads a fine line between fairytale illustration and fantasy art. On one hand it’s beautifully stylised; the patterns on the dress and around the circular border frame and formalise the composition. On the other hand it’s a different spin on the idea of Red Riding Hood: older, with a sword in her hand and a wolfish grin on her face - not to mention the wolf sitting tamely at her feet. Painting an instantly recognisable subject from a different angle is always a rewarding exercise for both the artist and the viewer; it always provokes thought. What I love most about this image are the facial expressions - this Red Riding Hood is perfectly capable of walking through the woods alone (in fact, the wildlife ought to be afraid of her), and the Big Bad Wolf would evidently rather be chasing sticks than eating little girls. The composition is lovely too - reminiscent of Wen-Xi Chen’s circular-themed, red-toned Opium piece. And note how paying attention to value and tertiary tones has allowed Amanda to combine two colours that we’re often advised to steer away from mixing: red and pink. Keeping both colours orangey-toned and working with shading means that they match well and add to the richness of the overall colour harmony.

There’s something very appealing about the naive, scribbly style Stefanie has used here. It’s not as simple as it looks: the light and colour on the fish’s scales is delicately done in a gorgeous complementary mix of orange, gold and sea green, while the thick, inky lines add definition and informality to the composition. The texture is particularly well done, I love the scratchy flowing pale lines and the very subtle diffused Leaky Pen blobs for bubbles. It’s a fun image with wide appeal and a lovely cartoon style. There have been a lot of great images submitted to the Gallery this week, and it’s been a tough choice to pick just one - my other favourites from the last seven days include Grimoire’s Angelus, The Day After in Times Square by Maximuz, Egg Symfony by GEORGE5, lydiayan’s Snake Angel, and the fantastic Rise and Shine by regular Painter contributor Wen-Xi Chen.

I’m a sucker for dry, witty British art of the kind found on Banksy murals, Massive Attack album sleeves and on the pages of the late and much lamented Deadline magazine. This image by Mark Hollis plays on several British stereotypes - the council estate, the chav and the idea that an Englishman’s home is his castle. I love the contrast between this idea and the rundown social housing in the background of this image, and the juxtaposition between the baseball cap and the beautifully painted silks and satins of the 18th Century costume underneath. Mark has a very painterly technique when it comes to colour, texture and light, and combining this with the twisted social realism of his subject matter makes for an intriguing image which evokes past masters of social commentary like William Hogarth.

I’ve just had a press release from the lovely people at Microsoft Research, who’ve come up with a new photo editing toy for Windows users. If you have a play with it, be sure to let us know what you think, either by posting a comment here or on the forums!

 “Microsoft Research today launched AutoCollage 2008, a desktop application that allows users to easily compile a set of individual photographs into one seamless collage.In just a few clicks, people can transform an unwieldy group of photos, for example, of an event like a wedding or holiday, into a single collage image that can be printed, used in e-postcards, web pages, desktop backgrounds, or emailed to family and friends. “AutoCollage is an advanced computer vision and image processing program that assembles pictures into a seamless collage using methods such as object recognition and face detection. Having automatically identified interesting parts of pictures, AutoCollage combines the separate pictures into a composite collage by deliberately following natural features as a boundary between images.  “AutoCollage runs on Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 and above, and is available worldwide through a 30-day free trial.  An unrestricted version is available to purchase in the UK and US only at this time from http://research.microsoft.com/autocollage/Download.aspx.”