Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 25 i Artists Drawing and Inspiration

We have another fantastic edition of Artist’s Drawing and Inspiration for you this month. We meet four amazing artists and we discover their tricks and tips for creative artwork. Gordon Hanley is our very own “Living Master” and is one of the world’s most talented metal point artists. In this issue, he tells us the history and shows us his process of silver point artwork. You will be amazed with the results he is able to achieve. All up we have six demonstrations, including a special drawing inspiration by Jenny Greentree, to get you started drawing trees. Also in this issue we pay tribute to Margaret Olley who is an icon in Australia for both her artwork and her passion for Australian artists and art. She is one of the…

Gordon Hanley was born in England, and was aged five when he arrived in Australia with his parents in 1960. Life took a number of unexpected turns (a recurring theme in Gordon’s life), that resulted in a two-and-a-half year stay in a migrant hostel followed by constant travel, that saw him attend nine schools before obtaining a university scholarship to UNSW. He studied biology, and obtained a Dip. Ed. Then he promptly joined the military, serving five years with the RAN. Returning to Queensland, he worked as a science/ maths teacher while working on his true calling in art. He later obtained a B.A in history at UQ, but in terms of art skills he is entirely self-taught, studying then practicing the techniques of the great masters. “After decades of…

Growing up in a tiny village in Cornwall, United Kingdom, and having some amazingly creative and driven people in my close-knit family meant that I got off to a good grounding with my artistic skills. There was always a cake to bake and decorate, or a carnival costume to design and create. It showed me from an early age that there were no limits or rules to being artistic, you just had to give yourself the time and energy to get stuck in. We moved ‘up north’ when I was nine-years-old to a big town where I continued to follow my artistic path through school, on to college for my A Levels and Foundation, and finally on to a degree course in Fashion and Textile Design in Cheltenham. From the…

MATERIALS • Stretched primed canvas • Willow charcoal • Size 2, 4 and 6 size flat ended brushes • Turps • Oil paints: Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean, White, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow • Viewfinder or cardboard cut to the shape of the canvas STEP ONE I don’t have a set method of painting, often just working instinctively and allowing the subject and medium to decide. In this case I set up a simple still life under the skylight in my studio and firstly drew up the basic lines of the composition in charcoal. Often I forget the charcoal and compose in a very turpsy wash. I use a viewfinder to decide on the most appealing composition. STEP TWO I lay down a thin turpentine undercoat. STEP THREE I continue…

• The key word when working with coloured pencils is layers. As this is a dry medium that is the way you can achieve the desired tones and values. • As professional pencils can be difficult to erase, it’s better to start with the lightest colours you can see and keep adding layers to darken the areas until you reach the right shades. However, the dark parts of the drawing are better drawn from an initial stage to make the design become more apparent. • Examining your work from a distance during the process is very helpful. You can tape your paper on a board in order to have a firm surface and lean it against a wall. Try squinting through your eyelashes to reduce the mid-tones. That way you…

MATERIALS • A length of wire • A sheet of paper • A special undercoat The zenith of silverpoint drawing was achieved during the Renaissance with masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Albrecht Durer creating some of the most beautiful and recognisable drawings in the history of art. In 1560, the discovery of graphite in England and its subsequent use in the familiar “lead” pencil heralded the rapid decline of silverpoint. Unlike silverpoint, graphite drawings could be done on unprepared paper, mistakes could be erased, and graphite was much less expensive than using precious metals. Although one of the most difficult of all mediums to master, metalpoint drawings have a subtlety of line and a tonal beauty that few other media can rival. Instead of silver, Gordon Hanley…

MATERIALS • 1 x sheet white Clairefontaine Pastelmat® (to fit 12 x 16” portrait) • Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour Pencils: – Black – White – Caput Mortuum – Dark Sepia – Payne’s Grey – Burnt Ochre – Dark Indigo – Cool Grey I – Cool Grey II – Prussian Blue – Warm Grey II – Warm Grey III – Terracotta • Craft knife • Pencil sharpener • Water brush (or normal watercolour brush) • Glassine paper (use this to lean on to prevent smudging when working) STEP ONE I took around 200 photos of this dog in a brief photoshoot with a commission client. Sometimes I take several hundred of my subject in the hope that half a dozen will stand out. In this case, there was one head…

Titika works primarily with coloured pencils. She is a member of IGOR (International Guild of Realism), of CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America), of AUSCPA (Australian Society of Colored Pencil Artists), and the UKCPS (United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society). She says, “Having been born on an island I have always been drawn to the sea and everything about it. Naturally, many of my paintings have evolved around all things marine. “I love water and I draw immense pleasure from painting it. I’m mostly obsessed with the transparency of the shallow waters, the distorted patterns of pebbles and the reflections of light on the water surface. I’m mesmerised by the way the bright sun plays with the waves, causing endless reflections and refractions on the floor of the sea. It’s a…

I can remember when my sister and my father and I got together in Dad’s shed to make a kite! Some balsa wood for the frame and some of mum’s brown paper that she used to use to line her cake tins, some string and some glue and you were all set to get started! Building the frame was usually Dad’s job then us kids would put the glue onto the frame (most times we squeezed out a little more than we needed), next on went the brown paper! We were always rather impatient when we had to set it aside to let the glue dry, but once dry the string was attached and we were ready for “lift off”! We had mullock heaps beside and behind our house, the…

Margaret Hannah Olley was born on 24 June 1923 in Lismore, northern New South Wales. Eldest daughter of Joseph Olley and Grace (nee Temperley), Margaret’s families both had long ties with the region. The Olleys were a pioneering family in the Lismore district, while the Temperleys lived in Ballina and owned the local newspaper, The Richmond River Times, during the 1880s. Margaret’s earlier years were spent near Kyogle at the family’s Horseshoe Creek property, before moving to Tully in Far North Queensland. It was in Tully that Margaret’s sister and brother were born; Elaine in 1925 and Ken in 1927. By 1931, the Olley family had returned to the Northern Rivers region of NSW, purchasing a sugar cane farm on the banks of the Tweed River near Murwillumbah. Margaret and…

• When laying down the watercolour pigment use very light layers. The pigment is so vibrant that once the water is added you really do not need much. Test them before working on the main piece. • If you want to use a different brand of water colour pencil, please use a coloured pencil conversion chart (available online). • The further you get into the piece, the sharper your pencils need to be. On the final layers you will need to keep them super sharp, but they can be blunt when laying down the first layers. • The portrait does not need to match the reference photo exactly, unless it is a commission portrait, and even then, always try to inject some character into the subject or exaggerate something a…