Artists Drawing and Inspiration Issue 24

Welcome to our latest edition of Artist’s Drawing and Inspiration. In this issue we feature five outstanding artists and their amazing drawing techniques. We also have an amazing buyers’ guide for our readers. With eight pages of ideas and gifts, there is no better way to start 2017. Ellen Lee Osterfield continues her “Remember when” series with one of our favourite pastimes - when things were a little simpler. In this issue she embarks on the annual river holiday, taking you back to your childhood. Also in this issue, we have two fabulous wildlife artists. Rikki Fisher and Laura Grogan show off their amazing talents using scratchboard, watercolours and ink. You will be impressed with their artwork and enjoy their individual techniques and skills. We would love to see what…

To whom it may concern I am an emerging artist based in Botanic Ridge Victoria. I primarily work in coloured pencil and would love to be considered for inclusion in the Woodlands Gallery. I have attached four examples of my work for your information. Kind Regards Leanne Moss John Vasey John has always been drawing and sketching, but in 1999 he began painting with oil paints. In his professional life he worked as a sound engineer, Production Manager, Technical Director and more recently as a Tour Manager for touring music shows. He is a keen sailor with Double Bay Sailing Club, sailing a Laser during the summer months, and working on the response boat for the 18 footer races. This love of sailing translates very much into lively paintings of…

The natural world gives me immense pleasure. I have my mother to thank for teaching me, as a child, to appreciate nature. I have enjoyable memories of clambering over rocks with her on sunny days, catching skinks for her aquarium or playing with the many different dogs she bred. Coupled with an adventurous nature, I soon exchanged dolls for climbing trees, collecting birds’ eggs or moulding animals from clay, sourced from my backyard. All these experiences fashioned me into the person I am today – a wildlife artist. When not exploring my surroundings I immersed myself in drawing. Growing older I found work and later family life crowded out the time to pursue my art. From time to time I caught a glimpse of where I wanted to be when…

MATERIALS •  Reference photo• Cotton gloves• Biro• White carbon paper• Fiberglass brush• Very fine steel wool• Scratch knife – curved edge• Scratch knife – straight edge• Ampersand scratchboard• Watercolour brush or airbrush• Black ink – Art Spectrum or similar• Fixative Scratchboard. What is it? Scratchboard is a board with a thin clay coating covered with black ink. A scratch tool is used to scratch through the layer of black ink revealing the white clay underneath. You can buy board that is pre-inked, called scratchboard, or un-inked, called clayboard. There are also boards that are coloured beneath the black ink. You can use a variety of tools, basically anything that scratches. Nibs, steel wool, fiberglass brushes, emery boards and tattoo needles all have their uses. The main tool of trade for most scratchboarders is a fine nib like a No. 11 exacto…

• Don’t use cheap materials even if you are just learning; the results may be inferior and can, as in my case, dampen one’s resolve to continue. • Pay particular attention to composition, light and shade, lost and found edges. You will be scratching for a long time so get it right from the start. • Once your picture is ready to be transferred onto the board sit with it awhile. I make a copy of the proposed artwork, and pin it to the wall in a place I pass every day. After a week or two I will know if I need to tweak the image, discard it or proceed as is. • There will be a point in your work where you will feel like giving up. This…

Born in Nepean Hospital in 1965, I grew up in Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains of NSW. Our house backed onto the National Park, so my playground was the bush. Up to now, I’ve done quite a few Australian landscapes with eucalyptus trees, and I feel this fascination stemmed from my childhood. Very early on I was drawn to the arts. I could pick out tunes and play them on the piano before I was taught. Projects throughout school focussed more on the visual than the written. I remember getting in trouble in history once because I drew the heads of Roman statues instead of writing about them. It seemed more important to me to understand the tonal grading of the face than to discover which town they had ransacked.…