Tabla de contenidos para Issue 11 Volume 4 en Artists Back to Basics

I love these delightful little birds! they are always so busy, whether it is looking for food or for a suitable partner! The male loves to do his fan dance, quite often to an un interested female! This pair happened to be enjoying some seed that was scattered from the top of our Avery roof by some over enthusiastic Galahs! Step 1 I have air brushed the background with a Viridian and Cadmium yellow mix on one side and a Lilac and Permanent Violet mix on the other. I have chosen both of these colours to create a tonal balance as both of these colours feature in the wing feathers of the bird.’ I have also decided to paint in one of the birds at an early stage to give…

I have always been fascinated by the artist’s skill but did not pursue painting myself till the late 90’s. I started my working life as an Electrical Engineer and became involved with the Personal Computer industry from its inception. This developed into a role in sales and marketing management. I wanted an interest I could do in my limited time and very quickly became hooked by watercolour painting. I ended up turning it into a new career a few years later. I have now been painting as a professional artist for the past nine years. Luckily my paintings quickly found a ready market with hundreds of paintings sold both locally and overseas. My techniques I am a realist / impressionist artist. I like to paint with freely flowing watercolour paint…

STEP ONE Using a reference photograph of the scene, I drew a sketch onto gessoed heavy watercolour paper. STEP TWO Here I established different areas of colour with thin acrylic washes. STEP THREE At this stage I refined important areas including the headland, the sea and the beach. STEP FOUR The finalisation of all areas including the surf and the houses at Terrigal. FINAL STEP This was the stage where I added the Norfolk Island pines and the figures on the beach.…

STEP ONE For this painting I mix a thin strong paste using black acrylic with water and some polymer gloss varnish. Using a piece of cosmetic sponge attached to a skewer (see ‘materials’) I draw in the “bones” of my subject. Dipping the sponge in water allows me to adjust my tones for perspective and interest. With the fine end of my sponge I can roughly sketch in figures to give me some idea of my composition. STEP TWO Keeping my paint undiluted and my brushes dry I use viridian green, burnt sienna and cobalt blue to paint the mass of trees that surround this beach, then add some yellow ochre to convey light on the foliage. Even more yellow and a touch of white for the grass, then the…

S&S is offering a wide range of exciting new products as well as traditional favourites for Christmas this year. From colouring, drawing, watercolour and sketching pencils to easels, pastels, watercolours, acrylic and oil paints you’ll find something special for the artist in the family. A large selection of the Derwent pencil range is on offer for this Christmas. S&S is offering Derwent Coloursoft, Studio, Artist, Inktense, Watercolour, Pastel, and Sketching pencils in a variety of wooden presentation boxes of 24, 48, 72 and 120, helping you begin your artistic year with a flourish. Of particular interest, especially for the younger artists, will be the Derwent Master Manga Art Sets. These sets contain everything you need to begin creating Manga drawings or comics and come with a set of Inktense pencils,…

STEP ONE THE DRAWING The first step is to draw the scene. The key point is to start with eye level and then draw your objects relative to that. What do I mean by this? Well, when drawing with perspective, objects above eye level will appear to move down to it the further away they are. While objects below eye level will appear to come up to it as they move away. Another point about eye level which is important is that it basically tells you approximately how tall people are - hence eye level. You can then make all your other objects, cars, awnings, posts, fences, etc. , relative to that height. Figure 1: Watercolour painting “A wet day in Bathurst.” Reference photo Here is my reference photo for…

There’s a lot more to drawing than the making of marks on the paper. We’ve talked in the past about some of the psychological aspects of the creative urge but no matter how you manage your own brain there are things that come as original equipment that can make artistic creation both easier and harder in different ways (sometimes simultaneously). I have had a deep suspicion all my life that has in the last few years coalesced into a conviction. Every single human being is unique when born and can only become more so as life experience is thrown into the mix but there are certain underlying forces that are always going to try to drive us in certain directions, some which seem to have common threads based on factors…

One of the things I like to talk about when it comes to making paintings, is the concept of breaking the process into three sections Those three sections are: • your physical skills • your perception skills • your conceptual skills Your physical skills are your ability to move a paintbrush and manipulate your paint. Your perceptions skills are your ability to observe and find the nuance and information necessary to make a painting that works. And your conceptual skills are your ability to interpret what it is that you want to say, and either add, subtract or alter information to say it. We’ll be looking at all three of these concepts- and at the same time, focusing on giving up some control over our brush. We’ll be using our…

Heading for the Adelaide hills and Flinders Range I join an, 8 day Pen and Wash art tour to the Flinders ranges Getting ready to go/ what should l take? I’m off to Paint in the Flinders Ranges. I’m by no means a well organized painter, with every thing in its allotted place and ready to go, as so many other artists seem to be. I’m a spur of the moment guy, just a look at my studio pallet below will show you how disorganized I am, it gets washed about once a month if its lucky, so I thought I’d run through my preparations with you first , I do like to have my water colour paper pre stretched and ready to go, as I hate working on paper…