Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 13 i Artists Drawing and Inspiration

We have this gathered some amazing artists for you this issue. We have a selection of pencil, pastels and charcoal drawing demonstrations for you to try. Every artist presents you a creative drawing inspiration from pets to portraits and seaside creations. We hope you enjoy all six artists and their tips and ideas. We take you three amazing galleries located in Victoria and NSW. These reviews present some amazing artworks and talented artists. In this issue we also have a special feature on Derwent Charcoal and Graphite blocks. David Winning takes road tests the products and gives us a report on his findings .We hope you enjoy this issue of Drawing and Inspiration. We would love to see what our readers are doing so please send photos of your work…

This piece/technique is a particular method of chiaroscuro portraiture done using mainly willow charcoal and an eraser to work up shadow and light evenly. This creates a dualism that will utilise the full range from white to black along with all of the shades and textures in between. MATERIALS • Paper (I used 160gsm)• Soft willow charcoal• Eraser• Knife• One piece of hard dark graphite• 2h pencil• One small piece of white pastel STEP ONE Any black-and-white portrait is essentially a two dimensional rendering exploring the different light/dark interactions of a three-dimensional face. To ensure that it’s aesthetically pleasing, preparation is all important. We spend incredible lengths of time looking at human faces, and are sensitive to flaws in their dimensions; this is why portraits are notoriously difficult to just “whip up” or to perfect. When selecting…

STEP ONE Using mid tone paper, put light and dark lines indicating flow of the painting and direction of light. Block in as much local colour as possible. This tells me if the balance is working. The circle reminds me of the focal point. STEP TWO Intensify areas adding a few more shapes using same colours. Work on background hills and middle ground. When in doubt I always use shades of caput mortuum as it is neutral enough to either warm up or cool down when necessary. I try to keep the whole painting working each step and often work inwards from the sides. MATERIALS • Oil pastels• Hogs hair paint brush• Rag cloth• Fixative STEP THREE Push in more detail and strengthen sky by pushing pastel into paper. A green/ blue is used…

• Always keep your eraser by trimming off used parts with a sharp knife. You may go through a lot of erasers for one drawing but the result of a clean crisp drawing is well worth it. • Sharpen your pencil regularly. I tend to be constantly sharpening my pencil and in this drawing I went through about five pencils. This is vital for working the graphite onto the paper rather than locking it and flattening the paper. • Always keep a clean piece of paper between your hand and the drawing while working on the drawing to prevent smudging. • I cannot stress enough how important it is to work you tone up to the desired level in multiple layers rather than doing less heavier layers. This allows for…

MATERIALS • Matisse Derivan Gesso• Spray enamel• Pencil• Charcoal• Unbleached Titanium• White• Paynes Grey STEP ONE The linen is primed with Matisse Derivan Gesso and lightly sanded. I repeat this process approximately five to seven times. I then mixed up a very runny slurry of colour – Unbleached Titanium, a small amount of Paynes Grey and mostly white, and using a wide wash brush, I applied the paint mix to the linen, allowing it to splash and drip. I also applied random marks of spray enamel. Once dry, I then roughly sketched up the figure in pencil and charcoal. Any mistakes were left in the finished work as I think it adds interest rather than detracts from the image. STEP TWO I always start with the face when adding colour, and usually begin with a green base.…

• Try to work with a limited number of colours so that your painting will be tied together.• Spray with workable fixative between layers.• When you get to about halfway through don’t get discouraged – I want to scrap all of my works at this stage.• When doing skies remember that the colour at the horizon will always be lighter than higher up.• Don’t just stick to the one brand of pastels. Each pastel has a unique quality. I like to use the harder Faber Castell and Conte pastels when I am painting subjects such as birds and animals because I can get a finer line but with landscapes and seascapes, I prefer the softer pastels such as Rembrandt and Art Spectrum which blend beautifully.• When doing seascapes, use lots of colours not just blue for…

• Treat your preparation and your photo with significance and care, because the entire piece is going to build on these foundations. • Don’t focus on one area too much, work up the piece evenly. • Don’t get lost in detail; the idea is for it to look perfect from a distance, and look like charcoal up close. Fine details can wait until the final two stages. The eyes will be your main temptation. • Do not panic or freak out if it doesn’t’t look how you imagined it would at any stage along the way, it is YOUR decision as to whether the piece is bad, or just incomplete. Persevere. • Don’t just think of your eraser as a tool for fixing mistakes, as you could just as easily…

Although I started painting in 2005, my artistic journey commenced when I was quite small. As one of six children growing up in the 1950s in the suburbs of Brisbane, we were encouraged to spend most of our days outside. I, however, loved nothing better than to stay inside making dolls clothing and furniture from material scraps and bits of cardboard while my busy, creative Mum sewed clothes for her ever-growing family. The need to create was very strong in me and evidenced by my inventiveness, including teaching myself to crochet at age 12 using a reel of cotton and the head of a pin as the crochet hook. Practical fabric and yarn arts including sewing, crochet, knitting and tatting were my main forms of creativity up to and including…

Born in Yorkshire 1943, I displayed some artistic talent throughout my schooling and my teachers suggested I might think about art school. But I wanted to follow the sun and after seeing the film ‘A Town Like Alice’, decided that would be a good start and at the age of 18 had saved up enough to buy a passage on a boat to Australia. Alice was more than everything I had hoped for and I knew instantly I was a desert person. The stunning colours and vistas of the inland in the midst of a drought reiterated my desire to paint, and those scenes remained in my head throughout leaving Alice seven times for good, before finally settling there in my 30s when I began to dabble with paint. I…

MATERIALS • High quality artist white paper • 2B graphite pencil – I use Mars Lumigraph • A good pencil sharpener and a piece of fine sandpaper for getting a really sharp tip on your pencil • A solid drawing board • Masking tape to the paper on the drawing board • Erasers – with these I cut them into thirds and wrap paper around them to prevent to oil off my fingers ending up on the paper. I prepare a jar full of these before I start so I don’t have to stop drawing • A sharp knife to cut off the end of the eraser to keep it clean. You only need to cut off a small portion but it’s the best way to ensure you drawing stay…

After working for seven years in the field of graphic design, I wanted to explore the creative/artistic aspect of myself, so I enrolled in a Diploma of Contemporary Art in 2008. Learning to paint and draw anatomically during my course at TAFE (Tasmania) I developed not only skills in life drawing and colour theory techniques, but also a growing confidence in myself as an artist. Testing out my new skills, I entered a Tertiary Art Competition in the second year of the Diploma and was rewarded for my efforts by taking out the People’s Choice Award. This result not only increased my confidence in my artistic abilities and encouraged me to continue my studies but was a great source of feedback. Also the reward I gained through the sale of…