Innehållsförteckning för Volume 13 Issue 1 från Artists Back to Basics

I have always been a keen observer of the natural and man-made world. I loved drawing as a child but did not start oil painting until age twenty in a night class in an art supply shop. My chosen career then was structural drafting, and painting was of course a hobby. I travelled the outback extensively in 1989 and 1991 but never painted for I was just as keen a photographer. In 1993 I then turned to a university degree in geology, for it was always a passion of mine to understand the physical processes of the Earth and how it came to be as we see it today. It was a career that got me back to the bush where I enjoyed being, and painting took a place on…

My mother was a great gardener, and flowers have always been a source of joy and inspiration for me. They seem to be put on earth to lift our spirits with their pure, clear colours, lovely fragrances and intricate patterns. And they have the ability to transform light into something miraculous. I am passionate about watercolour for similar reasons: the colours are pure and transparent, allowing the light to shine through them from the white paper as if lit from within. So for me as a watercolour artist, flowers are the perfect subject, and capturing the inner spiritual light through flowers has become my passion. For almost all my life I have been interested in creativity and consciousness. What makes a person creative, and how do creative people see the…

There are a lot of different options when it comes to choosing your background treatment. Here’s some of the most common kinds and the pros and cons associated. No background at all Just having plain white paper all around the subject is a striking statement and for the right subject can make for a powerful work. It really leaves no doubt in the mind of the viewer what the main point of interest is but comes with a couple of points worth considering to really achieve the full effect. First of all it can be extremely difficult for the uninitiated to keep the paper snowy white right to the end of a freehand drawing project, keeping your initial sketching and subsequent developmental drawing lines as absolutely light and removable as…

STEP ONE For a street scene such as this one, I start with a relatively simple but accurate drawing using a grid as a guide. I overlay a gridded, clear acrylic sheet onto the image on the laptop and can then draw lines along awnings or window sills on the screen etc. to find a vanishing point. I keep this point in mind through the whole painting process. Here I have made a few compositional alterations. I have dragged one car back to fill a space in the intersection and slightly overemphasised the size of the tram. STEP TWO I start to map in the darks using the #6 short flat. My dark mixes are Ultramarine with Burnt Sienna or Viridian with Crimson or Cadmium Red. I have opted for…

Step One I grid both my reference photo and my watercolour paper into 16 rectangles and draw freehand with a Fine or H Staedtler Mars 780 thick lead mechanical pencil. The grid lines keep me from getting too far off base, and the slightly hard pencil won’t smudge as much as softer pencils. Just avoid pressing too hard or you could create depressions in the paper that will trap the paint later. Step Two I want to keep this whole painting delicate and soft, with little bits of light dappling throughout both the background and foreground, so I deliberately keep my colours fairly pale and muted. I don’t want the yellow-greens, in particular, to dominate over the pale pinks in the flower. But I still want that sense of sunshine.…

This piece began in my mind – inspired by the real scene I’ve so many times observed. I paint many of my scenes from imagination and in varying degrees use my photographs as extra reference for elements such as this island. In my commercial work I’ve frequently been required to produce concept drawings or fantasy art for various projects and I think this gave me an interest in developing some of my art into more than just what is there in real life. Whilst I also enjoy painting real-life scenes I love creating imaginary images which may be just an expansion on the real-life scenery. STEP 1 For this art piece I began with a drawing, refined it, and then placed it into my Artograph projector. I then used the…

The first thing that we need to look at though is developing our perception skills Last article we talked about planning our painting before we made any marks and trying to uncover any problem areas prior to working on a finished piece. We discussed that it was a great idea to practise on a blank canvas and to mentally go through the motions of making the painting to try and discover some problem areas before you got down to the business end. In the next couple of articles, we will take a detailed look at what some of these problem areas maybe, some strategies for discovering them and some ideas for dealing with them. The first thing that we need to look at though is developing our perception skills. By…

The background in any and every drawing (or painting) is always a very important consideration in that it is not only a big part of any aesthetic arrangement overall but also part of any and every compositional element open to manipulation by the artist to present the subject or main point/s of interest to its/their best advantage. There is a lot of artistic room to move with background treatments from gloriously pristine white emptiness right up to the entire background being as carefully considered and executed as the actual subject you are drawing. You can even go mad and do the old switcheroo and make the ‘background’ the main feature/s and the actual subject itself the supporting surroundings (figures 1, 2 & 3). You may choose to have no ‘background’…

Are you looking for something to give you an edge? Then try GENESIS HEAT SET PAINTS. With all the pressures of busy schedules and upcoming deadlines, it can often be hard to achieve perfection. Genesis Heat Set Oil Paints could just be your saviour. With these paints you can choose to keep working long into the night and not have to wait hours or days for your paint to dry. Or, if you can only grab a few minutes here and there, you can just pick up your palette and brushes and get to work, then down tools and run to catch that bus. No need to mix up a fresh batch of paint every time you want to paint. Mixed up the wrong colour? No worries, just put it…

Like most of my clients I too love Blue Wrens, they seem to be such delicate little birds, always darting here and there they appear to be the busiest little fellows in the bird kingdom! I Imagine the world must seem so big to them, here I have created a little “safe Haven” for them, complete with waterfall! Step 1 Having transferred my drawing onto my 40cm x 50cm creative edged canvas I begin blocking in. I am keeping the background fairly dark in tone as I want the sunlight to really burst into the painting! Mix of Ultramarine, Red Violet and Cobalt achieved this, with a small patch of sunlight creeping in from the left side of the painting using Warm white plus a touch of Naples yellow. Step…

STEP ONE I like to get as much information on my subject as I can before putting pencil to paper. I have a relative who owns a very tame pair of Electus Parrots (Minka and Toby) and I was able to take many photographs at close quarters. As the painting progressed, I could also call on Minka and Toby to ensure that I was not doing them any injustices! I settled on an arrangement, having spent a lot of time positioning photographs. I did some rough sketching before transferring the drawing to my board. The more accurate the sketch is, the easier it is to end up with a precise and true interpretation. STEP TWO Using a combination of Cobalt Blue and Paynes Grey, I applied a wash over the…

Today I’m visiting the Kimberley region of Western Australia an area the size of many small countries with the help of Perth artist Beni Wright. The Kimberley and Pilbara landscape, above all other considerations revolves around painting it’s ever changing light patterns, which dependant on the time of day and weather conditions, either throws mysterious shadows over the hills and high ridges or drifts out across the dusty flats, but just a short time later the same composition may be blindingly bright as the suns reflected light dispels the shadows and reclaims the landscape. A Pilbara Landscape by Bernice Wright In a recent article in Creative Artist Magazine I featured Beni’s cosy art studio and collection of visual diary’s the result of her many trips traveling around Australia and the…