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Flowers in Pastel Part 2
The next stage after the white flower is coloured flowers. But these bougainvillea are a real challenge, as they have so many colours. Again, the best strategy is to do a tonal study, and take a black...
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Learning from the Masters
J J Hilder is one of my favourite Australian water colourists. One of my students found a tiny reproduction of ‘Dry Lagoon’ in the catalogue of the Art Gallery of South Australia publication,...
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Practising what I preach
The first thing I ask people to do when they come to my life drawing lessons is to draw without looking at the paper. At first they are shocked, then they start to laugh. When they start drawing,...
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30 Days of Drawing, Week 2: Form
A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to have a go at drawing an image that he was having trouble with. This is how I started, working from the photo that he supplied, below: My photo of this photo is a...
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30 Days of Drawing Week 3: Ditching the habits of a lifetime
When I teach life drawing, I try to gently move people out of habits that they have developed without realising, such as keeping the easel on your left when you’re right handed – you end up looking...
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30 Days of Drawing, Week 4: playing with Ideas.
In my previous blog, Week 3, I developed a life drawing into something else. The next day I played with it some more, and gave it a name: Adam. And I realised that most of the time, because I trained...
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Drawing from Memory
I have started my New Year resolution early. I decided that in order to not only exercise my brain but also to stimulate my visual perception, I needed to try drawing more from memory. It’s so easy...
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Life from the other side part 2
In April 2016 I was invited to attend a life models workshop run by Hannah McNicholl. Last Sunday I attended another one, this time run by Michael Crafter, who was one of the models who came to the...
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Still life in watercolour – how to rectify common mistakes
I’ve chosen two simple subjects for this still life, and their contrasting colours make a pleasing combination. I chose a green background that is darker than the pear, so it shows off both the...
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Life Drawing in Different Media
People often ask me what is the best medium to bring to a life drawing session. My answer is always: “Experiment.” I often improvise on the spot, as I can’t always find my favourite pen or the ideal...
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