Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Artists & Illustrators

Every month, one of our Fresh Paint artists is chosen from Portfolio Plus, our online, art-for-sale portal. For your chance to feature in a forthcoming issue, sign up for your own personalised Portfolio Plus page today. You can also: • Showcase, share and sell unlimited artworks commission free • Get your work seen across Artists & Illustrators’ social media channels • Submit art to our online exhibitions • Enjoy exclusive discounts and more Sign up in minutes at www.artistsand illustrators.co.uk/register…

1 DRAWING UNDERPINS EVERYTHING Andy Warhol is best known for his bold silkscreen prints, yet all the qualities that defined his most famous artworks were evident right from the very beginning. The reductive lines, the bold shapes, the voyeuristic fascination with people – these facets can all be seen in his 1950s drawings, such as Boy with Flowers [part of Tate Modern’s new retrospective], where the influence of artists such as Jean Cocteau and Henri Matisse are most apparent. Born in Pittsburgh in 1928, Warhol initially worked as a commercial illustrator, producing everything from shoe advertisements to record sleeves. Skilled draughtsmanship underpinned everything that he did. If drawing is not your strong point, don’t worry though. Warhol often traced around projections of photographs during his early years to get the…

• Brushes Winsor & Newton Series 101 round brushes, sizes 000 and 1; Daler-Rowney System 3 SY67 filbert brush, size 4; Creative Mark Polar Flo Wash-Mate 1.5” flat brush • Paints Bone Black, Cobalt Blue, Viridian Green, Van Dyke Brown and Diarylide Yellow, all Golden Acrylics; Brillant Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Payne’s Gray, Unbleached Titanium, Neutral Gray 5 and Quinacridone Magenta, all Liquitex Acrylics; Greyish Blue, Cadmium Yellow Dark and Quinacridone Rose, all Amsterdam Acrylics; Pale Terracotta and Titanium White, both Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylics • Mediums Galeria Gloss Medium, Flow Improver and Satin UV Varnish, all Winsor & Newton •Wooden panel, 20x20cm •White acrylic gesso •Graphite paper and pencil…

I have been fascinated by screen printing for years. I think it’s because I love the textural quality of old retro graphics and I’m also drawn to bold colours and strong lines. There are various ways to make screenprints. The simplest method is to cut out a stencil from newsprint and place it over the paper you want to print on. The screen is placed on top, the ink is pulled through the screen with a squeegee, and the newsprint will cling to the underside of the screen, enabling you to repeat the process with more paper and create a small “edition” (a run of more than one print). The newspaper stencil will act as a blocker to the ink. However, the newsprint will eventually degrade, and you will have…

When making quick oil sketches “after” the Masters, it is important to understand that the purpose is not to make a perfect copy. This article will not show you how to make copies using the same techniques as the Masters. This is a deliberate decision – by using modern oil colours and not using the complex layering technique used by many of the Masters, it is impossible to make a copy that would be indistinguishable from the original. I am not even going to give you a list of suggested colours or types of brushes. This is because I want you, at all times, to take the suggestions as an approach rather than as a manual. I assume that you have worked with oil paint and have your own preferred…

1. ASK YOURSELF WHY When approaching such an iconic subject, take the time to consider why you want to make a painting. Is it the painting that inspires you? Is it the image itself, or aspects of the techniques used? 2. USE ELEMENTS WISELY While an acknowledged masterpiece clearly has a huge amount to commend it, that does not mean you will find the same techniques useful. Think about which aspects of the original painting that you want to emulate – anything from the composition and brushwork, to the colours and medium – and which you will reject. 3. DON’T BE CONSTRAINED Be inspired by what has come before, but recognise it as inspiration, not instruction. Whether you choose to study the work of an Old Master or a contemporary…

PLACE YOUR BETSY As a self-taught artist I have always enjoyed experimenting – it is my way of learning. For a while I lived in Cornwall and was lucky enough to exhibit successfully in several galleries. A move to Devon and a change of circumstances meant I was unable to paint for a few years, so I took up photography. I joined a club and entered competitions. Then that inner voice that whispers “what if?” began niggling away again. I took some scans of my artwork and monoprints and began layering them with photos and played around for hours and hours. The whole process was addictive. I have enclosed an image based on Wheal Betsy, a derelict engine house on north Dartmoor. This I had printed on aluminium and it…

1 HE’S A MODERN-DAY WILLIAM MORRIS Kehinde Wiley made history in 2018 when he became the first African American artist to paint an official portrait of a US President. He placed Barack Obama against a decorative backdrop of leaves and flowers. Other works have included patterns literally copied from William Morris, but now he draws upon what he calls the British textile designer’s “ornate sensibility”. Appropriately enough, Kehinde’s first UK show will be at the William Morris Gallery. 2 HE IS CLASSICALLY INSPIRED Los Angeles-born Kehinde has been inspired by Classical European paintings of royalty and aristocrats, often asking models that he meets on the street to adopt the poses of Georgian society portraits. “I take the figure out of its original environment and place it in something completely made…

WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME PREOCCUPIED WITH COLOUR? I’d say the knowledge unfolded slowly. I enjoyed it as a child, but then what child doesn’t? I used to play with flowers in my mother’s flower shop and enjoy mixing combinations. HOW DID THAT BECOME A CAREER PATH? Colours came up a lot during my history degree, since I was looking into what 18th-century women wore to masquerade balls for my dissertation and they thought about colour a lot. Later, I had the idea for a column about hues, tints, pigments and dyes for Elle Decoration magazine. HOW DID THAT DEVELOP INTO YOUR FIRST BOOK, THE SECRET LIVES OF COLOUR? I was working in the books and arts department of The Economist while writing on the side, including the column for…

I only subscribed to your magazine a couple of days ago and I’ve since been asking myself why I hadn’t done this sooner. I was a serving police officer until a couple of weeks ago. But after a very interesting 18 years of service, at the ripe old age of 40, the decision was made to medically retire me. Sadly, due to injuries I received in the execution of my duty, I have been left with permanent physical and mental health disabilities. I lost the majority of use in both of my hands and I suffer with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). Prior to joining the police service, I was a keen artist, turning my hands to most things I tried. My career consumed my everyday life and my arty…

Michael J Austin The new Equus series by Michael J Austin is a masterclass in creating a small, tightly focused set of paintings. These five equestrian portraits have immense variety of character, yet they are tied together by their subject matter, as well as the use of plain one- or two-colour backdrops and the unusual portrait-format composition. “The mainly profiled aspect, nose down, I find perhaps the most serene and dignified equine portrait view,” says the Devon artist. “The sharp and solid nose bone provides a hard, sculptural edge to contrast with the soft yet taught muscles and tendons visible on the rest of the head.” Michael’s aim with the collection was to focus upon “all that is best about the horse as a sentient being and not just something…

Christopher Ryland graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1972. He has specialised in botanical painting since the early 1980s and has been a member of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) since 1995. The SBA’s annual exhibition, Plantae, runs from 2-7 June at the Mall Galleries in London. Christopher has held several solo exhibitions in London and East Anglia, most recently at Ipswich’s John Russell Gallery in 2017. His paintings have been featured in many publications and won several awards, including the President’s Award at the SBA’s annual exhibition in 2001 and the St. Cuthbert’s Mill Award in 2007. He also teaches art courses from his studio in Sudbury, Suffolk. ADDING VARIETY Flowers are a marvellous feature of the natural world, always surprising, so when you are painting them, they need…