"I have a little arty secret for you. You may already do this in your practice, but it's something that I've only just discovered and it's really useful. There's a lovely easy way of checking your tonal value when you're painting. By that I mean that your colours aren't going too muddy and that you're getting a really nice contrast with your darks and your light. And I'm gonna use my little wildcat as an example here. It's a good way of checking that your painting isn't looking too flat, especially if you're painting wet on wet like I do, where it's quite easy for the colours to merge and end up with no crisp whites or dark dark. Without the contrast it can even knock onto how the composition then looks because your eye won't necessarily be drawn to the right places and moved around the canvas if it's a bit flat. So quite simply turn it black and white. You can take a picture or a video and you'll be able to see what pops. When we paint we can get a bit too involved and not step back and look. So it's a great way of just seeing it from a different angle. And that's my wildcat painting finished. Hopefully with enough tonal contrast to bring it to life."