HelenVanWyk.Com

The Wonderful Color White:
How to Achieve Results That Sparkle

Helen has encouraged artists all over the world to get painting and to "give it another try". Distilling fifty years of painting experience in the Welcome to My Studio series, Helen shows you through a complete demonstration, how to paint the color white and how useful is it. Covering color mixing and offering guidance about light and shade, this strangely interesting subject holds quite a few surprises as Helen paints a still life. The final lesson in this video covers snow, in particular its color, as Helen paints a winter scene of an old red barn.. Helen attributes her own success to a thorough understanding of painting principles, plus "discipline, dedication and practice." While the last three can only be found in oneself, her principles are preserved in these video tapes. You will find yourself watching them over and over again.
75 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Strike a Pose:
Learning to Paint Flesh Tones

Helen studies and captures realistic fresh colors from a doll as if it were a real person, showing how you can capture the notoriously hard realism of skin. From the onset Helen tells us to ensure the model is in a pose that relates to their personality. There are many many fantastic and hints in this video that will help you bring vibrant life and color to your life paintings. From the beginnings of a rough painted sketch you will witness the doll and the painting come to life, capturing each contour, each flow of material and interpreting each area of light and dark. Helen further teaches us the principles of painting with more instruction than you thought possible. You will have to watch this video over and over again to fully realize the potential of what Helen is teaching. As Helen points out in her own unique and wonderful way, "You diddle with it until it is done." Every artist should own a copy.
50 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Kissing and Warm Colors:
Adding Passion to Your Paintings

Encouraging us to think carefully about how we paint Helen shows how "Kissing" ruins paintings, how dimension is lost and how "Kissing" can make a confused subject matter. Helen tackles the hot subject of orange with a full demonstration of a still life that includes orange fruit and a vase. As always, Helen teaches us basic principles of painting and it is up to us to and grasp her words. One viewing of this video is not enough to fully digest its content. The color red, the subject of passion: Helen introduces us to a still life involving leather bound books, wine and glasses. She covers lessons such as how to add passion to your paintings and how to paint reflections and how to paint glass. As Helen had always asserted, "still life is the back-bone of good painting."
75 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Symphony of Light:
Convincingly Capturing Shadows

Throughout this video Helen gives us an interesting insight to her thought process as she paints and shows how light and shadow can make a profound difference in a painting. This valuable insight will last a painting lifetime! You also learn many useful hints and tips along her thought provoking journey in this video. Helen tackles the difficult shape and contours of a violin with a full demonstration and walks us though every step of the painting with its highs and lows. You will see how adding light and shadow will vastly improve your work and learn that it is all achieved in a series or progression of easy to follow and common sense stages. Drawing with a paintbrush: Helen's methods include using glaze and masking tape to gain a stream of light effect. You will never look at a violin the same way again! This instructional demonstration can be applied to the subject of you choice.
50 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Conquering Earth and Water

With each stroke of Helen's brush you will learn to capture the feel, the light, the magic and splendor of close study and observation. Whether you like to paint landscape or seascape, Helen will show you the way. Helen begins by painting a beautiful view from her studio followed by a seascape where you will learn to paint water crashing against jagged rocks making the waves come to life. Your will also learn how to capture the wet watery movement and back splash of waves, how to capture the textural effects of rocks and water, how to paint light and what it does ( and does not do ). This video is a must have for landscape painters.
50 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Realistic Landscapes

Helen Van Wyk dispels the idea that the fundamentals of landscapes - composition and perspecitve - are difficult for beginners to learn. In the first lesson, Helen exhibits a painting that's rife with errors in composition, correcting each error as she critiques the painting. It's two lessons in one, as you learn how to recognize problems in composition and also how to solve them! In the second lesson, Helen explains how painting subjects in propotion enhances perspective and makes landscapes look "real".
50 Minutes VHS or DVD,