Indice dei contenuti per Issue 10 Volume 3 in Artists Back to Basics

• Having taught oil painting for many years, three basic problems seemed to constantly arise with new and inexperienced students. 1. Not mixing sufficient colour 2. Using ultra cheap hobby paints 3. Not replenishing depleted colours on their palettes • I realise that financial constraints are a real concern for many students and amateur painters who may not be recovering their costs through painting sales yet. In my experience poor quality paints are a false economy, as the quantity of pigment in them is less than the better quality paints, so more paint is needed. – Continued I have also found that the permanence is often inferior and that the “extenders” used in the poorer quality paints, can reduce the chroma (intensity). • A premixed palette will help avoid “muddiness”…

• Paper – Art Spectrum 230mm x 310mm 300gsm paper. • Brushes – Art Spectrum X72 Finest Kolinsky Size 10 Sable Brush – Art Spectrum 550 Sablinsky Size 10 Sable Brush – Art Spectrum X72 Finest Kolinsky Size 4 Sable Brush • Paints – Art Spectrum Payne’s Grey – Art Spectrum Australian Leaf Green (Dark & Light) – Art Spectrum Pilbara Red – Art Spectrum Aureolin – Art Spectrum Ultramarine – Art Spectrum Australian Gold • Pure Rainwater (if you can’t get rainwater then use distilled water)…

Robert Kremnizer was born in India in 1943, while his parents were en route from Poland to Australia. He now resides in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill, and works in Double Bay. Some would consider that as a 65 year old lawyer this man’s background is probably not suitable artist material. Aside from a busy legal career, he has also written four books on Jewish philosophy (kabbalah). But now for the real story … As a boy growing up, Robert always wanted to be a painter and he was strongly encouraged by his parents. They made all the materials and conditions very available and he had lessons for many years with Justin O’Brian who taught him drawing and painting. In his teen years, he entered the Blue Mountains Council…

LIGHT SOURCE Without a light source there will be no shadows, highlights, reflected light edges or tonal values. The light source creates shadows which indicate form, solidity, tonal values, surface contours and textures. If you are right handed the light source should come from the upper left hand side, so you are not working in your own shadow. If left handed, this is reversed. TONE The more tonal contrast in a drawing, the more three-dimensional the drawing will appear. If there is no tone, which also creates the shadows and highlights, the drawing or painting will appear flat. Surface texture is indicated by tone, and the reflected light edge gives a solid form to the subject. With no light source creating tonal values, a drawing will appear flat. REFLECTED LIGHT…

In any highly detailed representational freehand drawing project there are quite a number of stages to pass through in order to achieve the best results. These next four articles will review all the stages you need to go through to have what you need down on the paper to be able to successfully utilise the techniques used in the final stages of any highly detailed, realistic work in graphite. I call these advanced “finishing off” techniques fudging and squirling. We will be using the progress of the drawing of a glass vase as a visual aid in all four articles to demonstrate the entire process from start to finish, to explain each stage with both words and illustrations (fig. 1). Away we go… Moving Back and Forth to Move Forward…

DRAWING FROM EXPERIENCE WITH PENCILS FROM ROYMAC AND KOH-I-NOOR We can draw on the past, draw from experience, draw a blank, go back to the drawing board … or we can simply draw. One of the first things we are taught as children is to draw. It’s a means of expression, a way to tell a story, or a tool to explore creativity. It’s relaxing, it’s fun and (let’s face it) it’s cleaner and easier than painting! A good pencil is important, whether you’re sketching landscapes, drawing portraits or just scribbling for fun. You want a pencil that is thick and strong, with a fully bonded colour strip and bright, vibrant pigments. You want pencils that you can rely on and that make you love the drawing experience. Roymac and…

A proud South Australian by birth, Stephen Trebilcock began his life at Montacute in the Adelaide Hills. For much of his childhood he lived in the small community of Winkie near the Murray River. Stephen’s art draws heavily on influences from the rural environment where he was raised, and from his ongoing love of gardening. Hill-Smith Fine Art Gallery describes his motivation and methods in glowing terms. “Trebilcock’s work does not focus on the vast panoramic scenery of the Australian landscape so often depicted by our painters … his world is more immediate and intimate. From a childhood surrounded by orchards, it is the introduced European fruits, vegetables and flowers that capture Trebilcock’s attention. His images possess a Biblical abundance, whilst noting also the imperfections or blemishes that reflect the…

We have all been hit with the moral issue of tracing an image onto our paper or canvas and whether it is called ‘cheating’. Well we have all grown up now and do not poke as many fingers as we would have when we were kids “Cheater, cheater, you traced that nyah nyah nyah” … thank goodness we have grown up because I do not want to type that again! In this day and age the competition in the art world is intense making the tools of the trade the defining factor in which art has that special X factor. To me the basics of transferring your image to paper/canvas are paramount … composition, tone, balance, colour. In order to get these exactly as portrayed in your reference photo I…

• Canvases and Boards I use good quality Belgian linen, prepared on stretcher bars for larger works or sometimes I mount the linen onto a timber backing using acid free EVA glue, making the canvas surface firm, enabling me to paint the detail with more accuracy. For small to medium works, I tend to use triple coated Gesso boards. The smooth surface is great for painting technical subjects or finely detailed works. • Brushes – My favourite brush is the versatile Filbert. Sizes range from #2 through to #12 with most work being done with sizes #6 and #8. Good quality flat brushes, sizes #4 / #12 with medium to long bristles are used mainly for blocking in and applying good “meaty’ textural strokes. I keep cheaper flats and old…

When it comes to which watercolour paint manufacturer to use, to me it is clear, I prefer the very comprehensive Art Spectrum range as they are a paint that has been carefully stone milled to enhance the light fast properties of their range. Not only do they have a massive selection of colours but they have taken this one step further and created an Australian Landscape range which encompasses the natural colours of the Australia, ie, Leaf Green Dark (& Light), Australian Grey, Australian Gold, Australian Green Gold, Pilbara Red Tasman Blue etc. I simply love these colours and they are so natural it makes matching your painting to the Australian landscape a breeze. Now that I have expressed my favour of which paint supplier to use, I would also…

Stage 5. Precise Linework Drawing This involves changing each line from it’s somewhat refined but still relatively rough state to super fine, clean, accurate line work (Bare Bones) representing every obvious shape (big or small) in the composition which can possibly be represented with a fine outline (fig. 1). There are a couple of important elements to consider in this process. Remember to keep all lines light enough so they can be adjusted after the initial toning stage is established and keep in mind that you are not just refining the lines themselves but also using the opportunity to also more accurately represent the actual proportions of the abstract shapes making up the different elements of the composition. The finer and clearer your lines get as you go along, the…

Hello, I’ve just proved to myself how isolated and cocooned I’d become working from my home studio, often meeting but rarely engaging on a working level with other artists, or noting their approach. It seems we all have our pet likes and dislikes when it comes to art, and the way we set about painting and drawing, l only use these brushes, this type of paint and paper, sound familiar? So heading off recently to paint in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia with a group of artists I’d never met before, l became very interested in their approach, all 12 had different easels, small telescopic photographers type, traditional wood and metal tripods, brushes and paint were similar but often resulted in very different finished work while painting the same…