Artists Back to Basics

I am a retired pharmacist with interests in painting, photography, chess, tennis, badminton, lay preaching, music et cetera. Married with two adult daughters and two grandsons, I have been interested in photography since I was given a 127 Brownie camera by my mother, when I was nine, and have been photographing ever since. As for painting, I did an hour a week in the fifth form. At the same time, my best friend was drawing such magnificent horses I thought, “I could never match that!” So I did no more painting for several decades. Much later I developed an interest in filming and made animated films (puppets) and documentaries. In 1984 one award I received was in Australia’s “Ten Best on Eight” for a movie: “More New Zealand Birds”. I do some judging for…

STEP ONE I decided not to include as many blossoms as in my photo. Instead of a dark blue sky I opted for a light tint, merging by wet wash with a pale green. This was done after first drawing in the main features with care. I liked the gnarled appearance of branches and used several colours to suggest this. STEP TWO The frilly “collar” of a tui can be tricky with either negative painting or white strokes on black. So I decided to put some curled strokes on the paper with a latex masking fluid. I have found it wise not to use your best brushes for this. STEP THREE The black of the bird is painted over the gum marks, and when the paint is also dry these can be lightly erased off.…

I’ve written lots of articles about a lot of different aspects of freehand drawing over the years, now it’s time to delve into the most arcane techniques and methods I know and use every time I draw. We’re Not in Kansas Anymore Usually I try and do a quick catch up for the uninitiated in articles dealing with more advanced concepts but these are too wide ranging and far too far by far from the raw beginnings of “Basic Drawing Techniques” and “Drawing Straight Lines” to make that possible, so I’ll have to just dive in deep right from the start this time. If it makes sense to you all well and good, if not, reading previous articles by me will give you the grounding you need to grasp these very advanced…

I first began painting in the early 1970s – a great time for emerging artists. I had just returned to Australia after spending 10 years of my youth in England with my mother and stepfather. I had a baby and young child, and was looking for some form of work that could be done from home. So when I was reunited with my natural father after my 10 year absence it was fascinating to find that he had become a professional artist and was making a good living out of his art. He was very well known in the ‘70s – ‘80s, and living a rather exotic lifestyle on his boat, moored in Sydney harbour. Coincidentally, at around the same time, I met a young woman who was also painting and…

Step One Firstly I draw in my subject with accuracy but no detail. I use thin willow charcoal because it is easy to rub out. Pencil is difficult to remove and painting directly on to the canvas often means a messy drawing with correction lines. The board I chose is a 51 x 61cm, which I felt suited the subject matter of the Kimberley Eucalypts. I always begin by blocking in my darks, then mid-tones, then lastly my lights. If I am working on a section of the painting as I am with this one, then the darks of that section go in first. In this case it is the foliage and the darks of the rocks. I have decided to work from the background and the top section of the painting…

The closer you are to the subject, the steeper the diagonal lines will be, as the vanishing points are closer together. ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE – LANDSCAPE Perspective creates the illusion of three dimensionality on a two dimensional surface. When fences, roads or buildings appear in the landscape, an eye level line and vanishing point is required so the correct perspective is represented in the scene. The Eye Level line is simply the line that is level with your eyes. The Vanishing Point is where all the angles from fences, roads and buildings converge. To determine the Eye Level Line, hold a pencil or ruler horizontally directly in front of your eyes, at a distance of approximately 30 cms. Where the line appears on the scene is the Eye Level line. Lightly pencil this line in…