Australian How To Paint Issue 39

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.…

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…

• 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…

• 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!…

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…

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…