Table of contents for Issue 43 in Creative Artist

MATERIALS • Arches Aquarelle hot pressed watercolour paper: 140lb (300gsm)• Brushes: various makes: Nos. 00 - 8• Daler Rowney Watercolour Paints:• Cadmium Yellow• French Aquamarine Blue• Quinacridone Magenta• Alizarin Crimson• Sepia• Yellow Ochre• Indigo• Burnt Sienna• HB pencil and rubber Step One Lightly sketch in your composition with an HB pencil, drawing in all of the detail that you want. Mix your paints so that you have your main colour mixes: Quinacridone Magenta and Alizarin Crimson for the pink mixture and Cadmium Yellow and French Ultramarine for the green areas. Start by wetting different areas and applying varying intensity washes throughout your image. Then define any dark edges using a much thicker paint mix, adding a touch of Indigo to the basic paint mixture to darken it. I tend to…

MATERIALS • 2B and 9B pencils• Graphite powder• Mechanical eraser• Putty eraser• Tortillon• Bristol paper (or any paper of similar quality and smoothness of texture)• Cotton wool• Camera A self-portrait is a challenging subject. This is how I have approached it: I work from one or maybe more photographs. To get the level of detail in the work a photograph is the ideal tool to record the facts. It also means the subject hasn’t got to sit still for hours on end. Copyright laws allow the use of another person’s image if it is just for practice. However, this is a complex area and I am no expert. I would advise that if the work is to be sold it is best to have permission from the original artist. Step…

MATERIALS • Faber Castell Polychromos pencils• 1 x Caran D’Ache luminance white pencil• Pencil sharpener• Canson Mi -Teintes black paper• White Gouache paint• Fine paint brush• Soft brush to sweep paper of pencil crumbs• Eraser• Workable spray fixative For this demonstration, I have chosen a beautiful photo of a gorgeous nineteen year old cat called Mochko. I took the photo when he was enjoying the last rays of sunshine for the day. He is old and has health issues, and so this portrait is now treasured by his human, and will remain in his collection as a memory of his best friend. This is one of the most beautiful things that we can offer as artists - to immortalise our fur family, and people. There is a natural flow that…

Nestled alongside the harbour at Sydney’s iconic beach suburb of Manly you’ll find this cultural hub, which began in 1930 after Manly Council supported the idea of a gallery as a cultural focus for the area. Passionate committed citizens, including artists, historians, and politicians, were the driving force behind the gradual development of the collection into a gallery. Manly Art Gallery & Museum (MAG&M) was the first metropolitan-based regional gallery in NSW, and is one of 40 public galleries in the state. Manly Council and the MAG&M Society fund the ongoing acquisitions and conservation program of its significant and valuable art, ceramics, photography and beach objects collections. Manly Council owns more than 1,300 paintings which depict the life of Manly since the early 1800s through lithographs and drawings, right up…

When I was first introduced to soft pastels I remember thinking “I don't want to paint impressionistic, 'big stroke' pieces of art”. That's pretty much what I thought pastels would produce. There's nothing wrong with that either, it's just not the way I wanted to go. I had no idea that you could create intricate detail with pastels simply because I actually knew nothing about them. Someone showed me pastel paintings by certain wildlife artists and they literally blew me away. This was a new beginning for my art because I really didn't understand how to make a brush work and so I needed something that I could relate to. Oil, acrylic and water colour painters amaze me because what they can do is alien to me, but I understand…

MATERIALS • I use Chroma Australia and start with Atelier Gesso Primer over the canvas. Then I use Archival Oils and mediums.• Paints – Cadmium Yellow Light– Raw Sienna Dark– Burnt Umber– Cadmium Red Light– Quinacridone Red Violet– French Ultramarine Blue– Cerulean Blue – Titanium White• Brushes– Bristle flats No 10, 6, 4, 2– Sable round 4, flat 4– Sable liner rigger 2 I was travelling around Armidale, NSW on an early morning in July when I stopped a few times and took a few quick photos. From this I formed the composition and chose all cool colours and one warm one for the painting. Step One After a sketch, the painting started with a very thin wash of colours to cover the canvas, then I was wiping out some…

I am a watercolour artist living in Somerset, England. I started my career working in forged steel sculpture, but this line of work became pretty impractical with two small children in tow, so I started to look for something that fitted in a little better around family life. I had no formal training in painting, although drawing had always been a large part of the preliminary work for my sculpture, and I have always loved drawing since childhood. I didn’t have a clue what to do with paint so I dabbled with acrylics and oils, but when I tried watercolour I knew there was no going back. I didn’t want my paintings to feel static and solid and found that working with watercolour gave me a lot of freedom artistically,…

I was born in Leicestershire, England. I followed the norm and studied art and music at college. After my studies I took up a career in finance. However, throughout a successful career I always felt unfulfilled. Two years ago I came to the end of a contractual role and I followed my instincts to draw. It had been twenty years since I picked up a pencil. The passion was stronger than ever. I could never draw in my spare time; it had to be all or nothing. I give 100 per cent in every piece I produce. For me it’s all consuming. It was a natural step and the right time in my life to undertake a course of full time study of fine art at degree level at Winchester…

Like many artists before me, life has been interesting to say the least. I have countless stories to tell of humour and horror, blessings and failures. But through everything, for me there has been one constant and one thing I have always had faith in – Art. From as early as I can remember, I was drawing Renaissance ladies in gowns, long and flowing, fragile fingers and arms; their womanly beauty and magical auras saturated my little mind and imagination. As I was growing up, my mother, who passed 22 years ago, painted with china paints until the early hours, and the smell of the turps and linseed would drift into my room as I slept … it was a beautiful smell. It meant that mum was creating a new…

I started drawing when I was seven years old. It came naturally to me while other children my age seemed to struggle with it. Creating works of art gave me great joy. When I was 13 years old I was asked to give a live drawing demonstration inside a local shopping mall. I was overjoyed when a crowd gathered around me and I was able to show everyone what I could do. I went on to study formally and I obtained a Diploma of Commercial Art in 1988. With this, I ran my own business as a commercial artist in Margaret River, WA, for a number of years while developing my painting skills in my spare time. After moving to Queensland I set my sights on just painting and working…