Table of contents for Issue 41 in Creative Artist

My childhood upbringing was in the bush in the Hunter Valley of NSW, where I started drawing as a young girl. My imagination was inspired by my father from the bush environment where we lived - he was my first art teacher. My career started as a Graphic Artist with NBN 3 TV in Newcastle, NSW, and during the later years of the mid 1970s I worked as a contract artist with National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) during the development of the Northern Region of National Parks, NSW, designing displays for visitor centres and producing National Parks brochures. In the 1960s there was a growing need for field guides on Australian wildflowers, and leaving work for a year I travelled Australia, collecting and painting wildflowers to produce one of…

As a small child, my earliest memories of art were: loving colouring-in books to colour in the drawings with pencils, although I wasn’t too keen on painting; my Grade 3 primary school teacher, Miss Toomey, putting one of my drawings on the wall in the classroom of which I was very proud; and winning 1st place for art and craft at the age of seven at the school fete, and not knowing that my Mother kept the certificate I received all those years ago, which I discovered after her passing. I am totally self-taught with no formal training whatsoever. As with many artists, working full-time and raising my two small sons, there was no time for art, although once they had grown up and had their own lives to lead,…

Materials List • Stretched canvas • Aquarelle pencil • Paints – Ultramarine Blue – Titanium White – Raw Sienna – Burned Sienna – Yellow Mid – Payne’s Grey – Raw Umber Step One I am painting on a 500 x 600mm stretched canvas. Using a dark shade Aquarelle pencil, draw in the basic lines - distant mountains, the closer details of the Three Sisters and related rock formation in the foreground and some detail of mountain ridges that will be covered with trees. Step Two Mix Titanium White and a little Ultramarine Blue to block in the sky; add a little more blue and contour the mountains. Next add a little Raw Sienna and block in ridges. Adding a little Payne’s Grey and Raw Umber, roughly block in the remaining…

MIXED MEDIUM Materials List • Photographic equipment:– Canon EOS 6D camera– Canon zoom lens EF 100– 400 mm• Acid free Bainbridge board• Black waterproof Ink• Tracing paper• Rotring pens: No. 0.25, 0.35, 0.4• Pencils• Watercolour paints Step One (a) Photographic preparation: Set camera on AF with stabiliser on and select sport shooting mode. Journey to Washpool National Park with lunch, cameras, tape recorder, iPad and sketch pad, search rainforest during the winter months when mating is in full swing and calling is very vocal. Spend patient hours listening, with camera at the ready, and slowly track through the undergrowth towards the bird calls. After finding one of his numerous dancing mounds just wait, some days you’re lucky, some not. Try enticing the bird back to the mound with bird calls -…

Materials List • Reference photograph• Ampersand scratchboard• Craft knife (Xacto knife)• Fibreglass brush• Ampersand Black Repair Ink• Small paint brush• Cotton gloves or cloth• White graphite/transfer paper• Stylus or biro• White Stabilo Pencil• Eraser• Spray varnish Step One Firstly, choose a suitable image. Make a line drawing of it, use moderate pressure and transfer the line drawing onto the scratchboard using the white graphite paper and stylus or biro. Step Two Beginning with the long hair on the left ear, use the craft knife (Xacto knife) and make long scratches as shown. Make sure to follow the direction in which the hair is growing. Step Three You may wish to add the intense highlights to the hair on the left ear before you move on by brushing over the top…

I haven’t exactly had a conventional background when it comes to art. I was born in Tweed Heads and have lived on the Gold Coast all my life. It is only recently that I have begun to really concentrate on my love of drawing animals. As a child I had a bit of an interest in art, often sending in drawings (and poems) to the Sunday papers, and winning small prizes. But for most of my adult life, I’ve not considered myself a particularly talented artist, and had very little confidence in my ability. Unable to study music due to teacher restrictions at my high school, I made a practical choice and became an accountant. At least I could be fairly sure of getting a job . . . so…

Materials List • Canson A3 drawing paper – 220 GSM• No. 2 and No. 6 paper tortillons• Staedtler Mars Lumiograph Pencils – 2B, 4B and HB• 2B Mechanical Pencil• Soft white eraser• White eraser pencil• Tissues• Tracing paper (for resting the drawing hand on) “This photo is of my cat Oscar, who sometimes lies on my desk next to me while I work (and often lays on my work!). I took the photo using the High Definition setting on my smartphone’s camera. It is a good picture to use for a pet drawing as it is close up, has good contrast, and the fur is clear and detailed”, says artist Debra Land. Step One I begin by printing the original photo on an A4 piece of paper in grayscale, and…