Graham Berry
MASTER ARTIST
Unlock Your Artistic Potential
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Mentoring Aspiring Artists
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MEDIUMS: Acrylic | Colored Pencil | Charcoal | Alcohol Ink | Conte | Digital | Drawing | Gouache | Mixed Media | Ink | Graphite | Oil | Watercolor | Spray Paint
SPECIALTY: ✔ Technical ✔ Creative Process & Mindset
My paintings are inspired by the effect of light and shadow on our environment, creating dynamic shapes and colours, I especially enjoy painting people going about their everyday lives and I hope to inspire you to see future paintings everywhere you look. In my demos I will show you how I simplify scenes, to see things just as shapes and colours, eliminate unnecessary detail and take the fear out of painting people. Share with you my passion for watercolour painting and to pass on the knowledge and skills gained from over 40 years as a professional Illustrator and Artist. At the end of the 2 hour demo i will have a completed painting that will inspire you and give you confidence to put people in your own paintings. Happy painting.
Graham’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Specialty: ✔ Technical ✔ Creative Process & Mindset
Technique:
Color & Composition
Airbrush
Drawing Fundamentals
Demos
Perspective Drawing
Layering Techniques
Supplies & Tools
Photoshop
Storyboarding
Work From Life
Brushwork & Mark-Making
Alla Prima Painting
Marketing:
Photographing Artwork & Digital Editing
Social Media
Business:
Book Illustration
Commissions
Pricing Artwork
Working With Art Agents
Packaging & Shipping
“Mastrius is a perfect balance of accountability, community and fun.
It feels like family. Family that makes you a better you.”
~ Elizabeth, Emerging Artist
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If the group you’re interested in has a waitlist, you have the option to join another group to get started. When your group opens we can transfer you over.
Your Membership Includes (click here):
- Mentorship Session: Meet via video conference for a monthly 2-hour session with your Mentor and small group. You choose the mentor, we provide the group!
- Mid-Month Session: Meet via video conference for a 1-hour session with your small group and Navigator to connect, share progress, encouragement, and support.
- Weekly Events: Attend LIVE weekly events online, on hot topics like Finding Your Style, Composition & Critiques, plus master DEMOS. Access event recordings!
- MyStudio: Access your private online studio space equipped with business tools and Mentorship Session Recordings.
- Chat Group: Access your private online chat group to connect with your small group and Navigator (group facilitator) anytime.
- Discounts: Enjoy member discounts on LIVE and ON-DEMAND courses, art supplies, and more!
Aspiring
Mentorship MembershipFocus: Technique
• Skills: Supplies & tools, Demos, Color
• Medium: Watercolor
• Style: Impressionism, Realism, Illustrative
• Subject Matter: Figurative
Focus: Creative Process & Mindset
• Skills: Reference photo pro tips, Studio set-up, Overcoming creative blocks
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Next session: November 03, 2025
On the 1st Monday of every month
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM MST Mon
Not your timezone? Click below
Group Focus
My first experience of painting in watercolour was very early on in my illustration career, back in about 1974, I think, a long time ago. I used watercolour for various styles and subject matter, from cartoons to realistic wildlife illustrations. Some of my figurative illustration work for magazines were really enjoyable to do and I’ve never lost my enjoyment of painting figures.
My background in Graphic Design and Illustration has a big influence on the way I paint today, especially in my drawing and composition. A good drawing was is essential when painting figurative work, each little gesture can have so much meaning when illustrating a story. Also good composition was important too, leaving room for headlines and type etc. Even now when I’m painting I often think what it look like as a book jacket or poster, old habits die hard! Working as an illustrator and working to tight deadlines means the quality of my paintings today are always consistent, no matter how much time I spend on a painting. If my illustrations were not consistent with the work in my portfolio they would be rejected! ..plus I only use six colours or less and just two brushes for all my paintings! my six colours: Winsor Lemon, Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Rose, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue and Cerulean Blue, all W&N. My brushes are ‘Robert Wade’ watercolour brushes: a 1″ flat and a size 16 round, both synthetic. Also my time working as an illustrator meant I had to keep on top of trends and had to have experience in many styles and subjects, creative burnout was never an option. I drew and painted almost everyday and I was getting paid for it, I loved it! During my illustration career I worked in lots of different media, for example: acrylics, coloured pencils, pen and ink, airbrush, scraper board etc. Different styles too, from very realistic to cartoons, caricatures.
I loved the variety. My artistic influences are many and varied, the watercolours of Sargent, the colours of Sorolla and the storytelling of Norman Rockwell. Also watercolour artists of today are Don Andrews and Robert Wade are both a big influence on the way I paint today. Sunlight and shadows feature a lot in all my work, and the control of the highlights in my paintings is something i enjoy, I never or very rarely use masking fluid. I prefer to have control of the quality of the edges, whether they are soft or hard. Also the strength and choice of colour adjoining the highlight is so important and is something my students will tell you is the one thing I go on and on about! My work is studio based and I mostly work from my own photographs. My paintings begin in the viewfinder of my camera, again I think that is because of my career as an illustrator. I just love painting people going about their everyday lives, it is a subject that as always fascinated me, painting figures was always a big part of my illustration career, the ability for a painting to tell a story is a big part of my work today, I do paint other subjects including landscapes and still life but I always like to see a hint of human activity in there somewhere!
You Will Learn:
• Working with a limited palette
• Painting people
• Telling a story in your paintings
• Painting figures in sunlight
• Working fast and loose
MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
About me. I studied Graphic Design at Blackpool College of Art, and later studied Illustration at Wimbledon College of Art. After graduating in 1971 I was employed as the Illustrator at a small design studio in Soho, London and has gone on to have a very successful illustration career. I’ve had to move with the times and all my commercial illustration is now done digitally. It was this fact and the downturn in the economy in 2010 that allowed me time to concentrate on watercolour painting. I’ve only recently began to consider myself a painter, although I’ve drawn and painted most days for the past 40+ years it was as an illustrator, any painting I did in my spare time was done to promote my illustration career. It as only been since my illustration work was now 100% digital that I could see myself as a fine artist. So I only consider I started my career as a painter 5 or 6 years ago. I finally retired from illustration in early 2017 and now concentrate fully on painting and teaching. I have recently had a studio built in my garden, from where I will teach workshops to small group of students ( 4 max ), there will be lots of one to one tuition. My paintings are inspired by the effect of light and shadow on our environment, creating dynamic shapes and colours,
I especially enjoy painting people going about their everyday lives. My experience working as an Illustrator has refined my drawing ability that is the foundation to my work, I believe the ability to draw is fundamental to my painting. I’m always on the look out for images that will make interesting paintings, I try to take my camera with me at all times just in case I see something that appeals. At other times I will go to a specific place or event with the intention of getting material for painting, usually I will do a number of paintings from those photos or sketches, at the moment most of my paintings are studio based. After years working as an illustrator, with the restrictions of working to a brief, it feels great to be painting for myself and when a painting is not going as I would like I now have the freedom to rip it up and start afresh. Somedays you feel you’ll never paint anything decent but you’ve just got to work through it, every painting you produce adds to your knowledge of what works or doesn’t work. Painting with watercolour is never easy and every painting provides a fresh challenge, it’s a very exciting medium to work with and when a painting turns out as you would like it’s very satisfying. Over the last couple of years I have given demos and workshops to various Art Groups in the UK and in the summers of 2015 & 2016 I taught a 3 day workshops in the South of France for Rochemaure Aquarelle. In the spring of 2017 I together with my wife Pauline embarked on a watercolour workshop tour of the USA & Canada. I taught 9 workshops in 9 weeks, three 2 day, five 3 day and one 4 day, a total of 25 days, a lot of preparation! The workshop tour began in Illinois and then on to Texas, South Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland, Edmonton ( Canada ), California and finally Panama City, Florida. It was not all work and we did manage to visit some iconic destinations, Dallas, Memphis, New York and San Francisco, it really was a brilliant experience, so much so that we are planning a return workshop tour in 2019! “My paintings are inspired by the effect of light and shadow on our environment, creating dynamic shapes and colours, I especially enjoy painting people going about their everyday lives and I hope to inspire you to see future paintings everywhere you look.
