Coronavirus: Portrait Artist Of The Year on Sky Arts gets lockdown makeover

As people get creative to combat lockdown boredom, Sky Arts has come up with an interactive way for viewers to brush up on their art skills.

Portrait Artist Of The Year is transforming itself into a live, weekly paint-along, redesigned for a world staying at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Hosted by Joan Bakewell, Portrait Artist Of The Week will feature a celebrity sitter posing live from their own home each week.

This of course gives viewers an extra incentive to tune in, with the chance to peep into stars' homes while also getting creative.

Each four-hour sitting session will be broadcast live on the Sky TV Facebook page , and viewers all over the world will be able to join in the challenge.

The first model is dancer and choreographer Akram Khan, who admits: "The idea of sitting still for several hours haunts me."

He will be painted by the winner of this year's Portrait Artist Of The Year, Christabel Blackburn.

Blackburn, who will also be painting from her home, will offer tips to the audience in real-time as she works on her portrait.

Viewers will be able to share their finished work on Instagram via @artistoftheyear using the hashtag #myPAOTW.

Judges Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano, and Kate Bryan will highlight their favourites each week.

The competition will run every Sunday for four weeks with a different celebrity sitter, with previous series winners taking turns to paint live.

A highlights programme will be shown on Sky Arts at the end of the series.

Additionally, Sky Arts has also released a raft of arts content - free for all in the UK - on the Sky TV YouTube channel.

:: Listen to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Spreaker

Highlights include episodes of Celebrity Portrait Artist Of The Year and Treasures of the British Library, and live concerts from Queen, Shania Twain and Take That.

But be quick, they'll only be available for a limited time.

Viewing figures on Sky Arts have more than doubled since lockdown began.

Portrait Artist Of The Week will start at 10am on Sunday 26 April.