Australian How To Paint magazine chooses a topic or style of art each issue and gives you a comprehensive guide for you to develop your skills. Over the series we will cover all major painting technques plus popular paint ideas.
When Ludij came to Australia with her family at the age of six, she first landed at Derby in Western Australia – a far cry from the city life of Amsterdam. Finally disembarking from the ship at Fremantle, the family flew to Cairns via Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. On the flight from Brisbane to Cairns, the plane stopped frequently at towns all the way up the coast. Ludij recalls that the further north they went, the smaller the airports became. Initially painting in oils, Ludij Peden’s subject matter evolved from the rivers, creeks, canefields, mountains and coastline of tropical North Queensland to stockmen, water buffalo and escarpments when she and her husband moved to the Northern Territory. Ludij is not really sure when her fascination with houses began, but…
STEP ONE The first thing I do when confronted with a white canvas is give it several coats of coloured gesso. In this case, because I had already determined the mood and setting, I decided to merge a black gesso at the top into a white gesso towards the bottom of the canvas. Using coloured pastel pencils, I drew in the subject and placements of the key features. STEP TWO I went over the pastel outlines with a thinned mix, using Genesis Thinning Medium and some of the Genesis colours, applied with a rigger brush – this helped to preserve the drawing to some extent. I set the outlines with the heat gun and removed the surplus pastel with a damp tissue. I worked up the sky areas – drying,…
I began my true artistic journey 11 years ago in 2002, when I considered it was high time for a bit of selfishness in my life. I had played with creativity as a child, experimented in oils as a teenager and encouraged art in all my teaching roles as an adult. When it came time to pursue my own art dreams, watercolour was what I wanted to do. I had spent years touring galleries, studying and admiring works of art that were way beyond my financial means. In the end I decided that I just needed to paint my own! Watercolours were inspirational because of transparent beauty and the flow of the medium. I loved the clean power that could be expressed through this medium. The techniques were initially learnt…
I have chosen to simplify the composition, so this is basically a tonal painting using complementary colours. I have chosen by the pigment number rather than by brand. STEP ONE Prepare the surface i.e. stretch the paper. With 185gsm paper I generously spray each side with water, allowing time for it to absorb and for the paper to buckle. I them roll it out flat with a paint roller and use staples (they always work) to attach it to the board. When the paper is quite dry, use a soft lead pencil to draw up the important details. Don’t slavishly copy a photograph! Make the decisions about what is important and why. Compose the drawing, altering and rearranging the elements. Loosely draw in the tree elements so that they can…
John Shields is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of History and Arts; a Life Member and Past President of the Macquarie Towns Arts Society; an Exhibiting Member of the New South Wales Royal Art Society; and a Life Member of the Baulkham Hills Art Society. He was born at Pennant Hills in suburban Sydney. He now lives and paints at Richmond on Sydney’s northern outskirts. Aside from receiving some tuition at Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College (1953-1954), and subsequently completing an Arts Degree at the University of New England, John has been largely self-taught. Australian artists who have influenced his work include Gruner, Streeton, Heysen and Robert Johnson. The main characteristics of this artist’s work are ‘atmosphere and light’. His main interest is endeavouring to capture the varying light effects…
To achieve the best results, I commenced the painting with the attitude ‘this is going to be the best painting I have attempted up to this date’. The following steps have worked for me. I have developed them over the past 40 years. However, individuality is one of the strengths of art. You would be well advised to be selective and choose only those methods which work for you. I worked from the horizon upwards and downwards, increasing the strength (tone) of my colours as I progressed. I blocked in shapes using the darkest colour (‘mother colour’) and then added in details and highlights with colours produced from the ‘mother colour’. STEP ONE To determine the composition I firstly divided the board into thirds, forming nine rectangles. The lines were…
