Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 39 i Australian How To Paint

From an early age I immediately fell in love with the line, tone and the immediacy that pencil offers the artist. Although at that age I really didn’t put that into such clinical thoughts. I just knew that for me, pencil was the most fun to draw with, even more than my treasured box of 100 Crayola crayons! When anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, without hesitation I would reply, ‘an artist’. If they said, ‘A painter?’ I would always respond with, ‘No, I like to draw’. I was born in California and lived most of my childhood there. Long summers were spent outdoors in our backyard, and along the coastal beaches or camping in the big trees of the Redwood forests and Sierras.…

• Draw from life as often as you can. • If you do not live near a zoo or sanctuary, try drawing from videos. • Test your paper and pencils before starting. Avoid unexpected surprises. • When drawing fur and hair, keep your pencils sharp, sharp, sharp! At all times! • Be careful not to overwork the wet stages • Always allow your paper to dry completely before beginning the next layer. • Use LAYERS, not pressure to create your darks and tones. • Adding layers of colour under your graphite can help create richer darks. • Did I mention it? Keep your pencils sharp!…

Board • For my support, I used a 4mm thick MDF board (Medium Density Fibreboard), which sells as a large sheet from a hardware store • Box-cutter • Steel rule • Cutting mat (to cut the MDF board) • 6cm wide house paint brush for under-coating the board • ‘Primer-Sealer-Undercoat’ house paint • 35mm long x 25mm wide Taklon synthetic bristle Brush for the final coats • Fine sponge sandpaper to lightly sand between each coat Layout • Camera, with a 70-210mm lens, to photograph the subject close-up • Computer with a ‘photo-altering’ program, like Photoshop • 2B pencil and a sheet of Bank layout paper, for drawing the cartoon on • Stencils, ruler and a compass are useful for drawing the geometric shapes • Soft grey lead pencil, or…

Born in 1965, Frances McMahon has been passionate about illustrating Australia’s native birds since age five. Indeed, it was at this tender age that one of her paintings was selected to be included in a children’s art exhibition that toured the world. When asked what was the initial spark that ignited her desire to paint birds, she remembers accompanying her father on long but enjoyable bird watching walks. Though it was occasionally a struggle keeping up with her father’s long strides, she was nevertheless always thrilled to identify and “tick off” another species. She sold her first painting (a commission of a kookaburra) at around age 14, and had a small trade during year 11 and 12, duplicating album covers for those that wanted their favourite pop group immortalised in…

Janina Jackson was born in 1970 in Geelong – into a highly artistic family. “My dad was art director for a local surf clothing manufacturer and my mum was into anything and everything creative – pottery, sewing, macramé, crochet, painting, herbal medicines and lotions (it was the ’70s),” she laughs. “Now, mum’s into paper maché sculpture and music, and at age 60 she taught herself to play banjo, mandolin, guitar, piano accordian and harmonica. These days she sings in a band as well. My brother showed artistic talent from a young age and was very much encouraged by my parents.” Janina didn’t think she had any artistic talent. She rebelled against the family by getting a ‘real job’ as a nurse after completing university training. “In 2002, I developed chronic…

Born in the cold Boston, Massachusetts area, but raised in early childhood in Kailua, Hawaii, Jen Callahan has never lost her love of the sea and it’s creatures. Each morning after her Mom completed household chores; it was off to Kailua Beach, only a mile away, to spend time on the sand and play in waves, searching in the worn lava tidal pools for sea anemones, sea cucumbers and little fishes. The move back to the Mainland one February settled her in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC with her first introduction to snow, boots and gloves – “Not fun” she says. But the home was only a half mile from the Occoquan Bay on the Potomac River in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the family spent summers at Atlantic…

STEP ONE Before I draw I like to meet the animal, to see it move, see it interact with others, listen to it, even smell it! When you sketch from life it helps you to work out the anatomy and form of the creature. Often you will note something in the field that may not be obvious on a photograph. I use life sketches as a form of visual note taking that I can refer to back in the studio. As well as sketching from life, I will take many digital photos of the animal from as many angles as possible. You can never have too much photographic reference! And with digital photography you can take hundreds of shots without costing a fortune. These sketches of young Devils were done…

Born in 1953 in Sydney, Richard moved to Melbourne in 1956. He holds a Diploma of Art & Design, majoring in Graphics in 1974, from the Prahran College of Advanced Education, and a Diploma of Education from the Melbourne State College. He taught Art for 10 years at St.John’s College, Braybrook and resigned as the Head of the Creative Arts Department. In 1985, Richard established the Mt. Aitken Art Gallery, above the Winery, in Gisborne South, Victoria and started painting part-time as a realist artist. From all the many artists Richard met, none painted Photo-Realistically in Oils, hence he was forced to teach himself and develop the style that came most naturally to him. During this initial period, he won two 1st prizes in the local art shows, as well…

• For painting long, straight edges, I used a 25mm long x 1mm wide (25 x 1mm) bristle brush, generally called a script brush. For blending, I use a 15 x 1mm brush, generally called a liner brush and a 10 x 1mm brush. • If a just painted area needs softening, or the texture flattened, I lightly brush over that area with a rounded, pure sable brush, 10 x 2mm. • An angular brush 5 x 3mm is useful to wipe away overlapped paint. Paints • Airbrushing - Mattise ‘Flow Formula’ acrylic paint: – Naphthol Crimson – Titanium White – Ultramarine Blue – Yellow Mid • Oil painting - Art Spectrum opaque paints: – Burnt Sienna – Burnt Umber – Cadmium Maroon (Cadmium Red is okay) – Cadmium Orange…

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 blade. Once a layer is scratched, diluted ink is layered over the artwork by brush and rescratched to create tone and form. This process of scratching and layering diluted…

“Heatwave” was a commission for a client in Canada who happened to see a painting on my website of two Eastern Rosellas (“The Happy Couple”) and wanted a painting just like it. I have never repeated or copied a painting, but in this case I suggested to the client that we could reverse the original composition and change the background. The client was open to this, and so work commenced. Using a program similar to PhotoShop, I created a rough digital composite using my photos. I didn’t have any photos of Eastern Rosellas, so the bird on the left was a photo of an immature Crimson Rosella, but I used the paintbrush tools to change him into the correct species. The rosella on the right is simply “cut out” from…

• Use large water containers - at least as big as a coffee can or a kid’s sand bucket - the cleaner the water you use the cleaner the colour you will have (I always have three or four buckets before I start to paint). • Pre-plan you colour combination before you work on your final painting --- test drive your colours. • Try to combine no more than three colours at a time and this will prevent the dreaded MUD colour - I usually only combine two colours of heavy base acrylic at a time. • Most important: DON’T be afraid of COLOUR!!…

• Drawing Board • Acid free masking tape • Arches 300gsm Cold Press Rag paper • Derwent ‘Sketch and Wash’ pencils, HB and 4B • Derwent ‘Graphitint’ pencils, #01 Port, #04 Indigo, #14 Russet • ½” Taklon Dagger Brush • #10 Taklon Round Brush • #1 Series 7 Windsor Newton sable brush • Art Spectrum Artists White gouache • Staedler Mars ‘Karat’ Aquarelle pencils. #129-59 indigo and #124-79 brown • Staedler Mars 2.mm ‘technico’ pencils HB, 2B, 4B • Staedler Mars ‘barrel’ sharpener for Technico pencils, standard pencil sharpener for the Derwents/Karats • Blue tack • Cotton gloves…

STEP ONE I usually start a new painting by looking through my stored digital photographs, on the computer, that I have taken over the years. Today I selected the kookaburra on the TV antenna photo because I like the contrast of the hard, geometric shapes of the antenna, opposed to the soft curves of the bird, nature-made verses man-made. Also, I wanted to do a small painting, as more detail can be seen after the image is reduced to fit on a page. STEP TWO I opened the photographed image of the kookaburra on the antenna in a photo-altering computer program. I then scaled the kookaburra close to life-size, added a 2cm yellow grid on top and cropped away the unwanted background to form my composition. I ended up with…

• When photographing an object, try to capture it as close as possible for the detail, hence a telescopic lens is useful. • If the painting on a MDF board is larger than 50 x 50cm, I would glue a cross-bracing on the back to stop possible warping. • A wide sponge brush is good to use to reduce texture when undercoating a large MDF Board. Also, when still wet, very lightly run the brush in the same direction to smooth out any ridges of paint. • A good quality ‘Primer-Sealer-Undercoat’ house paint will do for undercoating the MDF board. The dearer the cost, the more pigment it has, so the less coats needed to cover the board. • To paint straight edges, it is important to have a smooth…

• 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…

• 2000gsm Rising Museum Board • Winsor and Newton Artist’s Quality watercolours and gouache: Cobalt, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Paynes Grey, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine, Sap Green, Cadmium Lemon, Van Dyke Brown, Oxide of Chromium • Aerocolour Liquid Acrylic • Winsor and Newton Series 7 watercolour brushes – sizes 000, 0, 2 • Tracing film • Masking fluid • Airbrush • Compressor • Masking film • Scalpel • Photo reference • Computer…

• Stepping outside your studio and looking at the world around you is often where you will find the greatest source of artistic inspiration. Lots of quick little sketches – no matter how insignificant they may seem – are great building blocks for larger ideas and final compositions. • Once I have a clear image in my mind and a tonal sketch on paper, the confidence to paint comes easily. • Take the telephone off the hook when doing wet-on-wet areas such as large background washes. • Having chosen and laid out the colours you wish to paint with, do a small rough painting of your idea. This, together with your tonal sketch, can help as a ‘memory bank’ for your final painting. • Keep at least three jars of…

• A daylight bulb is great for making sure that colours are true-to-life, and it provides a strong, clear light. I like working with two lights coming from different directions, helping avoid the shadows made by hand and brush. • I often carry a camera with an extra telephoto lens with me not just for dedicated photo shoots, but for those everyday moments. You never know when you may stumble across that beautiful lighting or interesting reflection. Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. • Once you think you’ve finished your painting spend some time just looking at it - walk past it, stand back, without brush in hand. Live with it for a time. This may give you an opportunity to see it more objectively and dispassionately and improve any…