Innholdsfortegnelse for No 178 i Artist's Palette

• It is important when adding figures that they don’t look as if they have been tacked on. Therefore, I place the shadows accurately; and I use three tones to give a three-dimensional effect. • Practice your drawing skills. • Learn the rules of good composition. • Always have a focal point to make your picture tell a story. • Don’t make the picture too busy. • Try to achieve a full tonal range in your paintings. • Paint the lightest lights against the darkest darks. • Paint what you see … not what you know. • Develop the power of lost and found edges.…

• Don’t be afraid to re-arrange compositions to suit the canvas. Nature does not always accommodate our visions. • I usually work more than one painting at a time. This allows me to continue working on a painting while another is drying; or if I come to a difficult decision, I can put the work aside and continue with another piece. • Keep your colours crisp and clean, by avoiding mixing too many colours together. • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, because you will probably learn from them. Relax, be free flowing … and enjoy the moment.…

• It’s been said many times before … but practice really does improve your work. • Carry an A5 digital diary and a pencil with you, so you can draw at any time. • Draw what you see; not what you think you see. • Look very carefully at your subject and take notice of the angles of lines, the relative lengths of lines; and compare the size of all the parts of the subject. • Remember, the length and position of the first line on your paper determines the size of the finished drawing and the position of the subject on the page. Think hard before you draw this line. There’s nothing worse than finding that you cannot fit your drawing onto the sheet when you’ve been drawing it…

Mackay in Queensland was my birthplace. I was two years old when my family moved to Roma, where I lived for 17 years. I met my husband in Brisbane where I had moved for employment, and we were married in 1970. We bought an orchard and farm near Stanthorpe and spent seven years there. Then we moved to Kingaroy in 1981. These days, we live on a small 80 acre farm at Kunioon near Kingaroy. We run a few cattle and peacocks, and we are surrounded by abundant wildlife. I am a partner in our own employment business; as well as doing my art full-time. My art career started after the death of my mother in 2001, and a further year of losing other relatives. I needed therapy, and art…

My name is Donna Hosking, but I paint under the name of Donna Heart. I was born in Perth, Western Australia. After many years of moving, I now reside in the lovely (extremely windy) coastal town of Geraldton. I’m a stay-at-home mum (which is full-time work) so finding time to be in the studio for extended periods proves elusive. I end up snatching small amounts of time for art throughout my days and in the evenings! For a time, I was a primary school teacher – but my dream is to be a full-time artist. I don’t have any formal training as an artist. I am self-taught. I have been creative in one form or another for my entire life. As a child, my mother would always insist that I…

• Surface of choice. I used a custom-made ply board surface, 45 x 45 cm. • Papers (I prefer to use scrapbooking papers as they are acid free and archival quality, but any paper is fine). The music paper I used was wrapping paper from an online purchase; and my favourite paper that seems to be creeping into just about everything I create at the moment is from the June Bug line by Basic Grey. • Acrylic paint/colours: Atelier Interactive Cobalt Turquoise Light; Kaiser Colour Dusty Pink; Burnt Umber. • Black and white gesso. • Caran D’Ache water soluble crayons: Salmon; Pink; Russet; Carmine; Brown; Olive; Light Olive. • Spray enamel paint in Cream and Powder Blue. • Golden Gel Medium. • Scrapbooking masks (Heidi Swapp and Heather Bailey); brayer;…

I have always been fascinated, as a visual artist, by the environment and our nurtured spaces and the impact these things have had on us; the human form; and the nurtured forms we as people create. It is impossible to consider a visual experience without reference to these occurrences and the impact they have on our daily lives. My paintings give the viewer the capacity to wonder, to use imagination, and to see ordinary things in an extraordinary way … taking them into an infinitely wonderful world revealing the beauty of ordinary things. I offer a personal artist’s vision and perception. My unique painting style has been a consequence of different events. I paint in traditional and contemporary styles – with watercolours, mixed media, acrylics and pastels. I live at…

I knew there was something different about me when my painting of a tree with a red trunk was shown to my class of fellow nine-year-olds. Yes – I was colour blind. Like quite a few men, I was colour deficient in red, green and brown. I was born in Chesterfield, England, in 1938. I progressed though school and in 1955 passed my GCE Art. It was one of the few subjects that I enjoyed; and that was the only tuition I initially had in art. I left school and became an apprentice draughtsman at Rolls Royce Aero Engines in Chesterfield. The training was very strict and I remember the first few weeks when I spent all day learning to print 0.160 inches high and black (B pencil). The letters…

Pastel portraits are amazing. Textures can be used with the pastels; as well as beautiful combinations of the pastels together. I chose this portrait because it was different – and even a bit challenging in areas. Everything is merely a shape, and by observing tonal values very dramatic results can arise. STEP ONE I drew up the picture and chose colours. I love warm colours and I used reds, oranges, ochres and warm yellow for this painting. The dark is Flinders Blue Violet. I looked for the tonal values – the dark, medium and light colours of the face. I try not to have severe lines, but graduate the colours as I go. I outlined the hair with orange red colour, as the light focused on my model was a…

• 12 x 18 inch canvas board. • Artists’ quality oil paints: Titanium White; French Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue; Permanent Crimson; Cadmium Scarlet; Cadmium Yellow; Spectrum Yellow; Burnt Sienna; Light Red; Yellow Ochre; Raw Sienna; Viridian; Prussian Blue; Turquoise. • Brushes: Hog bristle – Number 16 577 Eterna flat; Number 10 1600 Roymac flat; Number 4 579 Eterna flat; Number 10 577 Eterna flat; Number 2 fan blender; Number 0 and 00 Neef Taklon liners. Also a special brush made from a single fox whisker. • Mediums: Refined Linseed Oil; Pure Gum Turps; Liquin.…

A dedication to my dear friend Willy O’Brien: This lamp holds many memories for me. I decided to paint it in memory of a beautiful friend who recently died tragically. It is painted with a free flowing abstract feel, depicting an easy going manner and inspirational light – in keeping with my friend’s life. STEP ONE The first two steps are an important contribution to the end result of the painting. They need not be exacting, but they need to imply the emotive content of the painting. Be free and relaxed with your line. Use your body to apply this! With a neutral pastel colour, I roughly sketched the shapes and lines of the lamp, paying particular attention to the free flowing lines of the stems. Their connection to the…

FINAL STEP I recently commenced a series of small portraits for an exhibition in Melbourne. Two of the portraits are used here to illustrate the approach taken. The pictures were drawn from life and the paintings were based on drawings and a reference photograph from the same session. STEP ONE I quickly used a dark 6B pencil to draw outlines of the faces and then validated those lines with black paint, smudging and correcting the lines with white paint while still wet. Next, I applied smooth and diluted acrylic paint to the different areas – sufficient to cover the canvas evenly and provide some mild tension. This was performed in one sitting, providing a sense of commencement and also an idea of whether the pictures would work or not. The…

• Art Spectrum pastel paper – Burgundy colour. • Selection of artists’ pastels: Medium Ochre; Bright Red; Deep Orange (medium tone); Light Orange; Dark Orange/Brown; Warm White; Yellow Ochre (light); Flinders Blue Violet; Soft Pale Yellow (for highlights). • Selection of artists’ pastel pencils for eyes, mouth, and detail work. • Floor standing easel with cardboard under the board to catch pastel dust; and a backing board with clips for keeping the paper secure. • Damp cloth for wiping hands and eraser.…

Inspiration for this image developed throughout the process of creating it. I had recently caught up with an old best girlfriend from school, and was thinking about our friendship and how it had changed and grown over the years. It occurred to me that we’d always remained close, however – much like sisters. While painting the piece I had been thinking of my friend a lot, and I decided to write words to encapsulate our friendship: “She sees me, she knows me. Honest and real. Sisters. Friends.” STEP ONE In preparing the surface for this painting, I used a custom-made substrate of plywood which had been finished off (with beading and hanging wire) by a local framer. It was square – 45 x 45 cm. I usually don’t have a…