In this video I paint a little family memento: a set of ceramic guinea pigs, painted from life. It’s a studio subject rather than a windswept beach or a Scottish hillside, but I approach it in the same practical way—simplify the shapes, get the drawing in, and then build the painting in calm, controlled watercolour layers. I’m working on a 10" x 7" sheet of Fabriano Artistico 140lb NOT, which gives me enough tooth to pull out edges and enough working time to nudge values before everything locks in. Because they’re ceramic, the whole job is really about value and reflections—where the light is clean and where the form turns into shadow. I keep the colour mixing straightforward with my Winsor & Newton Artist quality palette, leaning on earths like Raw Umber and Burnt Umber for the body colour, then cooling shadows with blues where needed. The big takeaway is that even a “simple” still life like this lives or dies on getting the light pattern right—and if you do that, the character comes through without overworking it.