Australian How To Paint Issue 33

Kelli Mac was born in country Victoria and later lived in various parts of Australia including Perth and Alice Springs before finally moving to settle in Darwin in the Northern Territory. In Darwin, this lady has found a strong and renewed passion for her painting that has led to her focusing heavily on art during the past few years. Mainly self-taught, Kelli has also built her skills through participation in regular workshops and contact with other creative people. Being raised in the Victorian diary farm belt close to the Murray River and surrounding forests, Kelli developed a long-term respect and appreciation for the natural bushland. From a young age, Kelli began drawing the forest trees and landscapes surrounding her country home. A love of horses as a young girl gave…

STEP ONE Start with a strong all-over background colour of Phthalo Blue mixed with a touch of Phthalo Green to create a vibrant summer feel to the entire painting. Prepare your composition using reference photographs, taking care to ensure that the fallen tree trunk perspective takes the viewer’s eye across the water and into the far bank. Using a warm mix of Phthalo Blue and Permanent Alizarin, roughly brush in the far bank and background foliage. A small house paint brush purchased at your local hardware shop is ideal for this early background work. Next, using a slightly cooler mix thinned with clear painting medium, draw in the fallen tree and the reflected shadows. Then with a cool mix of Phthalo Blue and Cadmium Yellow Light (again thinned with painting…

• Working from photographs is great – but spend time with your subject matter. If you are doing a landscape, go bush as often as you can and study the random wonder of Nature. If painting figurative works, join a life drawing class to build your skills in body proportions and texture. • When working with acrylics (especially in hot and humid conditions like Darwin), use only quality paints. The Atelier Interactive range is great. Keep a spray bottle handy and mist your work as you go. • Don’t overmix your colours. Place complimentary colours beside each other on your palette and load both colours onto your brush. I use colours straight from the tube and rely heavily on the colour wheel theory to create energy and impact in my…

I always knew deep down that I wanted to be an artist. Even as a young boy growing up in Brisbane I would draw as often as I could - filling my sketch pad with depictions of family holidays, cartoon characters, people and wildlife. I remember sketching pictures for friends back in primary school and participating in several local drawing competitions, resulting in a few small prizes along the way. In secondary school, I became even more passionate about art, but the perfectionist in me also enjoyed the detail and preciseness of technical drawing. My interest in these two subjects led me to study interior design at a tertiary level. By the end of the 3-year course I had lost much of my original enthusiasm for interior design as a…

STEP ONE The first stage is to plan the format and composition of my artwork. In this case I have chosen a square format - a square is a solid shape with a natural sense of balance and it seems appropriate for this particular subject. I have placed the tree slightly higher on the page because it will be counterbalanced by the strong reflection in the water and would otherwise appear too ‘bottom-heavy’. I have also ensured that the horizon line is positioned a bit off centre as this would appear to cut the artwork in half. A simple sketched outline of the subject will do at this stage. Although the intended final result is a detailed representation of the subject matter, there is no point getting too carried away…

Drawing is often lots of fun and a wonderful and satisfying experience for many people. However, over my years as an art teacher, I’ve encountered many who long ‘to be able to draw’ and are quite afraid to make the first marks because they are already convinced that they can’t draw, or they fear failure, or they just don’t know where to start. In this article, I want to encourage such people and give them the opportunity for enjoyment and success with drawing. The technique is not for beginners alone, as artists of different experience levels and abilities have also expressed gratitude for these ideas. As a landscape pastel artist, my ability to draw trees is essential – therefore I have chosen trees as my subject. It is vital to…