Australian How To Paint magazine chooses a topic or style of art each issue and gives you a comprehensive guide for you to develop your skills. Over the series we will cover all major painting technques plus popular paint ideas.
Michael Hodgkins grew up with an exhibiting professional landscape artist, George Hodgkins, as his father. George took every opportunity he could to travel Australia in order to gather reference material and subjects for painting. He spent a lot of time on painting trips throughout coastal and outback Australia, and Michael was usually there too, helping his father. Inevitably, he emulated his father, as children do, and by age 10 had acquired his first set of adult Oil Paints. “I was basically copying my Dad’s style as best I could because that’s all I knew. I would produce small naïve oil landscapes and Mum would put them in the Gallery we had and they would sell,” he explained. As a young adult, painting was put aside and Michael’s career path took…
MATERIALS • Gessoed Canvas 36cm x 24cm • Winsor & Newton Artists’ OilColour: – Winsor Red– Burnt Umber* • Art Spectrum Artists’ Oil Colour: – Permanent Mauve– Cadmium Yellow Light– Lemon Yellow*– Burnt Sienna*– Zinc White– Titanium White • Langridge UnderpaintingMedium • Langridge Painting Medium • Brushes: – Hog Bristle Filberts size 6– Hog Bristle Bright size 8– Hog Bristle Flat sizes 1 & 2– Hog Bristle Fan size 2– Hog Bristle Round size 1 & 2– Synthetic Sable Rigger size 0 • Palette knives with5cm & 6cm blades * used in underpainting only STEP ONE A drawing is made directly on the canvas with a mix of Permanent Mauve and Zinc White, thinned down with fast drying Underpainting Medium. This is done using a size 6 filbert brush. The…
I am an Australian by birth and I have lived at Castlereagh near Sydney for 38 years where my studio is situated. I travel all over the Hawkesbury region of New South Wales (and beyond) to paint en plein air. I have attended six Bathurst workshops, and another four at Meroo in Kurrajong – run by CASS. I feel very strongly about the mood and the light of a subject. Drawing has always been a fascination for me, and I trained as a commercial artist after leaving school. I was employed in that field for around six years, and freelanced for a few more years; after which I worked as a potter for about 16 years. Some six years ago, I began to paint – after my two sisters-in-law took…
MATERIALS • Saunders Rough 300gsm paper. • 2B pencil. • Winsor & Newton watercolours: French Ultramarine; Cobalt Blue; Cobalt Turquoise; Brown Madder; Light Red; Raw Umber; Raw Sienna; Aureolion; Quinacradone Gold; Permanent Rose. • Brushes: Number 12 Raphael Sable and a Number 8 Escoda synthetic. STEP ONE I sketched a simple drawing to identify the main shapes. STEP TWO My first wash was from the top down, wet-in-wet. I painted with my board on a 30 degree angle. I wet the sky area, then added a soft wash of Raw Sienna followed by Permanent Rose then Cobalt Blue. I allowed gravity to do the work, allowing the flow to the horizon line; then went straight into the foreground with Raw Sienna – adding more pigment as I came down the…
Born in Dubbo NSW in 1981 and raised around the Mudgee/ Gulgong area of NSW, I have a deep appreciation and love for nature, the landscape and painting. From an early age I had always drawn in pencil and was always amazed and inspired by the natural world I was also deeply inspired by surrounding countryside around the Mudgee Gulgong Region of NSW. Sensations of light, space, colour and atmosphere pushed my enthusiasm to see more and represent it through my art. When I turned 16 I began to work in oils, inspired by my late grandmother who was also a competent landscape painter in her later years. The introduction of oils into my art opened a new avenue to explore my love for the landscape. Supported by family, friends…
STEP ONE You can first start by doing a light cobalt blue wash over the canvas. In this instance I haven’t used the wash. Secondly start by constructing a grid which will help you accurately draw the landscape scene. Try to minimise the grid as much as possible, as the more square the more complex the drawing becomes, the more errors can be made. Typical landscape scenes without buildings or structures do not require intensive grids. Once the canvas has been broken into grids, draw the prominent features of the background, middle ground and foreground. Use a light pencil or very light pen depending on how confident you are. STEP TWO Paint the sky in. This is a simple mix of titanium white, cobalt blue and a hint of medium…
