HelenVanWyk.Com

Copy the Masters

This is a two lesson set. Helen strongly recommended that her students visit art museums and copy reproductions of paintings by the Old Masters, saying "You can't paint a good picture until you've seen one." In the first lesson, Helen chooses to copy a self-portrait by Rembrandt Van Rijun, who painted more than 70 self-portraits during his career. You'll follow each stroke as she recreates the Dutch painter's work from bare canvas to finished painting.
60 Minutes VHS or DVD,

People, Places and Things

This is a two lesson set. Displaying her amazing versatility, Helen Van Wyk demonstrates techniques that you can use to paint a portrait, a landscape and a still life. In the first lesson, Helen completes a portrait of her husband Herb, giving tips that you can use in painting any portrait as she creates his specific likeness.
75 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Still Life Secrets

In her easy-to-follow style, Helen Van Wyk demonstrates how drapery and books, everyday items found in your home, can add intense interest to still-life compositions featuring these ordinary objects. First, Helen uses gold brocade drapery as a backdrop for a black vase and a bright red dish. As she demonstrates techniques for capturing the appearance of textured material, she offers hints for successfully painting a plausible-looking fabric. In the second lesson, Helen paints a still-life of books on a table: opened, closed and resting on each other.
60 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Creating Magical Effects

Through demonstration and description, Helen Van Wyk simplifies two techniques that she knows you can use to enhance your still life paintings. First, Helen reveals to you the foolproof secret of drawing a circle in perspective. This trick will allow you to paint a circle or elipse from any angle, whether it's a full round shape seen from above, (a plate perhaps), or the slender curve revealed by the side view of a hat's rim. Helen always joked that she'd like an "ellipse-making machine" to make the job easer.
60 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Elegance Of Flowers

Helen Van Wyk shares her years of experience and secrets for painting "happy flowers", drawn from her own love of daisies, which appear in some of her most popular floral paintings. In the first two lessons, Helen demonstrates her technique for painting a vase full of daises, beginning with the composition of the subject and the placement of the flowers. As she creates the painting, she offers invaluable tips for capturing the greenery, the lights and darks of the yellow-and-white blossoms and the flowers' relationship to the vase.
75 Minutes VHS or DVD,

Earth Colors

Illustrating how earth colors can be used in a painting problem, Helen reveals the characteristics of Light Red, Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna, all of which are chromatically reduced (and less expensive) versions of bright reds, yellows and oranges. As Helen explains, the true value of earth colors is not in their inexpensive prices, but in the way they let painters reach a darker and duller range of colors and tones that is virtually impossible to create with the warmer colors of the palatte. First, she uses Light Red to paint clay pots, then calls on Burnt Umber to paint brass, and finally, captures copper using Burnt Sienna. After viewing this video, you will never again think of earth colors as merely "cheap" paint!
75 Minutes VHS or DVD,