Innehållsförteckning för Volume 12 Issue 1 från Artists Back to Basics

The chatter of eastern Rosellas permeates the solitude of an artist’s studio through an open window on a sunny July day. They’ve settled in the winter seed grass outside – left long on purpose to attract many parrots to the garden. King parrots, grass parrots and James Hough’s favourite – the eastern Rosella. Known locally by his moniker Jim, silently he stops work, reaches for his SLR camera – ever present by his side – and begins to photograph. It’s the beginning of yet another wildlife original masterpiece – an acrylic on clayboard. After the Rosellas move on James puts down the SLR and goes back to his easel to paint. His studio is surrounded by photographs he uses to get exact details of his subjects correct. As James develops…

In the last article we discussed relinquishing control, and looked at how relinquishing control can help create a “natural feel” by allowing the paintbrush to have its own way, to a certain extent. This article will focus on exactly the opposite. We’ll be looking at absolute control, and developing skills to help achieve it. Technique is liberating. Being able to have your brush do exactly what you want it to do, whenever you want it to, opens you up to a whole world of creation. Being able to have your brush do exactly what you want it to do, whenever you want it to, opens you up to a whole world of creation. You’ll regularly hear me bang on about a gradation of colour or tone. One of the reasons…

I was both excited and nervous when I first embarked on this painting. I could see the finished painting in my mind but transferring the image onto the canvas was a real challenge! A photograph some friends took whilst on holiday inspired me. The birds were in a feeding frenzy by a roadside. The surroundings weren’t particularly colourful in the photograph and so the colour choice had to be sympathetic to the original but subtle enough not to take the impact away from these vibrant birds. Step 1 The sketch up was painstakingly slow, but I wanted it to be accurate even if some of the birds only had their heads or tails visible! I used a sheet of sketch paper of a similar size to the finished painting to…

Right, back to your landmarks. They may or may not be incredibly distinct features, as long as you can easily refer back to them as you go (i.e. find them in the reference photo or real life scene when you look back each time) (fig 1). Because you have got landmark shapes or features (in hair, feathers, wood grain, chrome, etc) to refer to you can then break up the spaces between them into smaller and smaller areas with other less distinctive features. You might (almost always) find occasion to adjust where your initial landmarks are in relation to each other and the rest of the drawing as you add more and more details that you can see as you break the shapes you are finding up smaller and smaller.…

Unlike many of my fellow artists, I cannot say I have been drawing or painting since my early childhood. And I wasn’t born with instant talent either! How I paint today is the result of learning and practicing for about 13 years. What I can say is that I have always been somewhat creative. Before picking up a paintbrush, I was a keen potter in the northern New South Wales town of Murwillumbah. I was also sewing my own clothes, learning screen printing and photography. As a child, I saw my parents being creative too; dad produced artworks with wax crayons and also pencil drawings and mum did silk painting, doll making and home crafts. I was born, raised and educated in Germany and migrated to Australia with my French…

Rottnest Island Western Australia I’m heading of for 4 days on Rottnest Island 19km off the coast of Western Australia To do some research for a possible upcoming tour Below, my pen sketch of my accommodation Rottnest Island Note my Island transport (on your bike) there are no private cars on the island but plenty of bikes for hire Day 1 Just a short bike ride from my cottage, high up looking out over the Indian ocean is Bathurst light house, it screamed out to be drawn, but after several attempts nothing really exciting was happening in my sketchbook, I returned back to my cottage, made a drink, and mulled over my sketches, it just wasn’t working what to do! I’d hit the rocks. What to do, When your art…

We’ve covered a lot of ground and ranged fairly widely over different aspects of freehand drawing over the last few years so I reckon it must be about time we broached a subject that everyone always wants to know about, that is how to realistically draw “textural” things like wood grain, metal, hair, grass, fur, feathers, skin, cloth, etc. In fact anything that is unable to be represented by an actual definite outline and shape because of the complexity/subtle uniformity of the subject and/or the intensity/lack of light falling on it. Hmm, that’s pretty much everything I think in one part of a drawing or another (fig 1). There’s Always Hard Bits Every subject and composition you ever set out to draw will have both areas that are easy to…

My plan is to create a story … an interaction between the horse, the man, the cattle, the dog, and the environment. The sunlight and textures will be important elements, and the lost and found edges will give the overall unity to the painting. I am familiar with the subject, having ridden horses with cattle in the Gippsland High Country. I have filled sketch books, and taken many photographs. I visualise the artwork in my head before I begin to work. I try to “see” the finished painting before I start. STEP ONE I tint the selected canvas with an acrylic mix of Maroon and Black. This dark base will allow me to give greater effect with the light. It will push the lights forward and settle the darks back…

STEP ONE Looking at quite a few reference photographs, I produced a couple of sketches of the subject. When I was happy with the design (I chose a Z design), I also made a canvas sized drawing onto butcher’s paper. STEP TWO I applied two coats of Gesso with the ¼ inch flat brush, then one coat of Raw Sienna, thinned with Jo Sonja’s Stroke and Blend Medium. Over the Raw Sienna I painted in the sky. I used Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue and a touch of Pthalo. I worked it with the stroke and blend medium, lighter towards the bottom, darker in the top right hand corner, as my light source is coming from the left hand side. I added a small amount of Cad Red light to the sky.…