Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i Artists & Illustrators

Peter Brown didn’t earn his nickname from staying indoors. The New English Art Club president is affectionately known as “Pete the Street”, a name that he earned thanks to his insatiable love for painting en plein air, whatever the weather. It is a practice that, even just in recent years, has taken him from the bustling banks of the River Ganges, via the towering skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan and back to the mean streets of Bath – a city he has called home since 1993. Yet while his previous exhibition titles have often celebrated this itinerant painting lifestyle – On the Road, At Home and Abroad, World Travels – his current show is called simply A Big Year. It’s seemingly both a wry joke that the restrictions have in fact…

1 INITIAL MARKS I found my way in slowly using a larger 1.5” brush, which brings a boldness with it. I planted down some darks on the left, indicating with often just a single mark the position of the edges between hair and skin and between neck and chin. I aimed to be economic, so as well as finding the edge of things, I pulled the brush across the paper to fill in an area of tone too. Each new mark was born from fresh observation and an effort to more closely reveal this face. Sap Green, Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson were used for the skin, with an addition of Ultramarine Blue when painting the hair. The drops of pigment help to pin marks in place and often anchor…

Over the centuries, artists have been obsessed with human facial expressions and how to portray them. The success or failure of a work of art that includes human beings can often depend on that one aspect of a painting, drawing, or sculpture. As everyone who has ever tried it knows, accurately portraying any of the countless human emotions by means of facial expression is incredibly, frustratingly difficult. With the slightest slip of the brush or pen or etching tool, a pleasant smile becomes a sarcastic grin. Anger becomes disgust. Tender regard becomes sadness or despair. And starting over is sometimes the only remedy. The Italian Renaissance artist Leon Battista Alberti wrote in his 1450 instructions for artists, On Painting, “Who would ever believe who has not tried it how difficult…

I enjoy painting water. And I don’t just mean small moorland streams or wide-flowing rivers. It might seem rather incongruous, but the humble puddle can be a wonderful thing. Quite often when walking and sketching the lanes near to my home in Devon, a once-unpromising subject can be completely transformed after a shower or prolonged spell of rain. Puddles form, unexpected reflections appear, and that unlikely subject suddenly seems to present a wealth of possibilities. This was the case one autumn afternoon in Suffolk. I’d always felt that the bend in this lane had the bones of a painting in it. The problem was that the road was such a large part of the scene with few redeeming features, so there was a danger its blandness would dominate any potential…

SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE Encouraged by Ann Witheridge's articles on the “Zorn palette” [Issues 419-422], I tried to paint an onion using this technique. I am a beginner at painting and I am sure it has lot of flaws, but the technique gave me great pleasure to work with. My sincere thanks to Ann for beautifully explaining the technique. Bani Sarkar, via email A TOUGH SELL I paint watercolours and I want to move to selling a small number of them. Something I’d like you to cover is how to prepare works for sale: there’s preparing the paper, getting a mount, packaging, strategies… I’m making it up as I go along, and it is a hurdle. I wonder if this is something you could write about? Or if you have recently,…

SKIN COLOURS Over mixing your paint can lead to dull, flat portraits. TOM CROFT explains a new, more colourful approach 1. IDENTIFY Begin by really looking for colour in your subject. Try to describe it with words first – this can help figure out what pigments to use. If you can’t identify a particular colour, then it’s likely to be a grey. Ask yourself if it is a green-grey or purple-grey, for example? Try also to decide if it’s warm or cool. Tone is also key. If the tones are correct, you can take liberties with the colour. You could paint someone entirely in purples, but if the tones and placement are correct then it’ll work. 2. MIX Once you decide on the right pigments, loosely mix them together on…

Fine china and tea have been a part of my life since childhood. As a Canadian living in the United States, I’ve found I’ve become even more nostalgic for my “heritage” as I’ve aged, and painting these teacups makes me feel more in touch with my family and friends who still live in Canada. There’s also the technical challenge of painting all of those patterns and the translucent tea that draws me in as well. For me, the process of setting up my teacups and choosing which objects and fabrics will work well with the focal point are as time consuming as the actual painting process. For this painting, Calming the Nerves, I wanted to use an analogous palette – one that uses adjacent hues on the colour wheel. Analogous…

The downward-looking pose is a tricky one, as it causes the face to be foreshortened. The features have fresh relationships to each other when seen from this angle. The eyebrows both sit below the ears, the chin sits well beneath the shoulder line. The top of the head tilts forward, giving the crown more volume, and the lower half of the face is foreshortened with the distance between nose and chin reduced. The chin sits back, the forehead protrudes. Now you’ve seen my demo, why not have a go at this fascinating pose yourself but just using a single paint colour. Doing so will force you to concentrate on careful observation and the accurate placement of the marks, without having to worry as much about mixing colours. WHAT YOU WILL…

Charcoal is an effective medium for producing textures, as it both comes in many forms and is easy to manipulate. I wanted to share a few of my approaches with you, beginning with how to use additive and subtractive marks, and then turning to more experimental techniques using charcoal dust and acetone. Typically, willow charcoal and charcoal powder lend themselves more readily to creating broad areas of tone and more atmospheric textures. They are the easiest forms of charcoal to smudge and “push” once on the paper. It is also easier to erase them, though you may never fully return to the initial white of the paper. I used Coates willow charcoal for this feature. Charcoal pencils and compressed charcoal sticks are denser than willow. They will make darker marks…

• Paper Two Rivers 300gsm paper, pre-stretched • Brushes Sable, sizes 4,6,8 and 14; rigger, size 2 • Watercolour Quinacridone Gold, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (Green Shade) and Cobalt Violet, all Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour; Green Gold and Burnt Sienna, both Daler-Rowney Artists’ Watercolour; May Green and Translucent Orange, both Schmincke Horadam Aquarell; Transparent Oxide Umber from Rembrandt Watercolour • Gouache Permanent Scarlet, Permanent Yellow Deep, Permanent Lemon, Cobalt Blue (Hue) and Burnt Sienna, all Turner Acryl • Pencils 2B graphite pencil; Derwent Watercolour pencil, Burnt Umber 54 •Masking fluid and rubber •Medium masking brush…

My first experience of walking into the Cast Halls of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia as a student was accompanied by the feeling that I had walked into the Renaissance. Though I had yet to understand the uses of that fine collection of early plaster casts, I felt as if I was in a space that encouraged reason, reflection and hope as a young artist. As the first academy of art in the United States, conceived of as early as the 1790s and chartered in 1805, the drawing curriculum at PAFA incorporates the concepts and tools of cast drawing as part of a solid grounding for the artist to this day. The founders’ first act was to purchase fine casts from Paris and Florence for…

If you are able to visit an art school with a cast collection or a major institution with cast courts such as the V&A, or you can simply find a figurative statue to draw in a local gallery or park, here are some simple tips to get you started. Sketchfreelyfromthecast at first, as if doing a gesturedrawingof a life model to assess the overall movement and large masses. Use the cast as a vehicle for sighting and measuring basic proportions of the whole and the smaller parts. Treat the cast as a vehicle for a visual roadmap for tilts, planes and relationships within the whole object. Evaluate large relationships of light and shade, including extremes of light, dark and the middle tones. Many French 19th-century drawing masters recommended squinting…

I would like to thank those responsible for setting up the weekly Lockdown Drawing Challenges and for keeping it running over the last few months. Although I didn’t enter every week, only six times in fact, it enabled me to get out of a state of deep depression and anxiety by having a task to set my mind to. I am very grateful. There has been some stunning and inspirational work; I imagine other people had a similar need to escape and express themselves. Lesley Rumble, Cambridge…

When painting the human head, looking down is one of my favourite angles. It feels to me as if a downturned head often has a pensive, inward-looking quality. It adds poignance and makes for a more satisfying painting as well as a better portrait. Alisdair assumed this position on the couch, sitting bathed in northern afternoon light. His lifted arm rested on the back of the couch and created a dynamic, diagonal slant from right to left shoulder. As I was standing at the easel and his head was lowered, the downward angle was marked. My curiosity was engaged. It is important to believe your eyes in these situations and paint what you see – not what you think you see. A clear, single source of natural light is helpful…

Did you know that Artists & Illustrators has an exciting online community of more than 22,100 readers who currently share their art? What’s more, for as little as the price of a coffee, you can join our Portfolio Plus scheme and sell your artwork commission-free and direct to more than 100,000 monthly visitors to our website. Follow the six easy steps and sign up for your personalised portfolio today at www.artists andillustrators.co.uk/register 1 CREATE YOUR ART We welcome artworks in all media and styles. 2 TAKE A GOOD QUALITY PHOTO You can use a camera, smartphone or tablet. 3 CREATE AN ACCOUNT Upload the photos and write about your art. 4 SHARE YOUR PERSONALISED PAGE Sell unlimited artworks, commission free. 5 RECEIVE A PAYMENT Arrange this direct and post your…

INGREDIENTS: •1 part damar crystals •3 parts low-odour solvent First a note on materials. I used Sennelier Damar Gum crystals for these recipes, but many other alternative forms of damar crystal are available. Make sure to choose an artists’ grade solvent. Do not use white spirit or normal turpentine as the fumes can be very bad for your health. I prefer 1 Begin by wrapping the damar crystals in your filter. The raw crystals have slight impurities, so suspending them in a cloth will make sure those unwanted elements do not end up in your varnish. Place the damar crystals in the centre of a laid-out muslin cloth and tie the corners together. A piece of string or elastic band could also be used to keep it tight. 2 To…

Layering tone can help build up richer textures and deepen dark shadows. These steps show the process of drawing fur textures, but this general process works in many situations. Look for the edges, shapes, and rhythms present in the components of the texture. 1 Begin by creating an initial tonal base. Use the side of a piece of willow charcoal to cover an area, then smudge it with a make-up removal pad to even out the tone. 2 For the darker areas, add another layer of tone. Instead of using willow charcoal for this, try the side of a charcoal pencil or stick of compressed charcoal, as they are denser. Unwanted marks can be blended afterwards. For paper with a strong grain, try to fill any white gaps. 3 Add…

Mark Adlington is one of the UK’s most skillful and collectable wildlife painters. Born in 1965, he grew up in Ireland and was captivated at a young age by Joy Adamson’s books about raising lion cubs. He went on to study art history at the University of Edinburgh and fine art at City & Guilds of London Art School. Mark has been staging solo exhibitions since 1999. In recent years, projects have included visiting the Arctic Circle to paint polar bears and spending three months in East Africa studying elephants. His latest three-year project, Lion, culminates in a book from Unicorn Publishing Group and an exhibition in conjunction with Pride Lion Alliance, which runs from 7-22 December at John Martin London. CAPTURING REFERENCES In a perfect world I would only…

I made two drawings from one cast, choosing a different approach to the subject in each. In the first drawing, I focused on the architectural and geometric aspects of the cast. I was trying to identify planes and proportions, as well as how they balanced one another, in order to better understand the cast. In the second drawing, I focused instead on identifying the large masses and the fall of light over the cast’s largest planes. I also wanted to study the contrapposto (or “counterpoise”) – the twist of the body that occurs when stood on one foot. Analysing specific characteristics in each drawing can make your studies more focused.…

WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST MEMORIES OF MAKING ART? Tracing things out of books. My dad was an engineer and he used to bring tracing paper back from his office – it was really luxurious in those days! HOW DID YOU BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR? I went to art college, but I gave up illustration for years and just made my own art on the side. I’d been making small handmade books and, about 10 years ago, I was asked to publish a compilation, John Broadley’s Books. So, I ended up falling into it again. WHERE DOES YOUR INSPIRATION COME FROM? My full-time job used to be at a press cuttings agency, so I used to see so many images. I really liked illustrations from the early 20th century, and also imagery…