Blog
Posts tagged with drawing-artist-blog
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Sentient Monster
2022-02-22 23:11:21 UTCThis is my latest artwork ‘Melancholy Opera’. My reference photo was taken standing under the Harbour Bridge at Dawes Point looking across the bay at the world-famous Australian Sydney Opera House. You can easily find artist’s impressions of the Opera House sitting in glinty sunshine with great splashes of…
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Operation Eyeball
2021-08-08 07:50:50 UTCHere’s a riddle: What do surfers, agricultural workers and rock stars have in common According to my eye doctor: pterygiums (I’ll help you… it’s pronounced tuh-rij-ee-um. As Mr Slager likes to tell me, “The pee is silent, like in swimming.”) In sunny Australia, a pterygium is jovially known as…
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Margaret Olley’s dust bunny
2021-07-05 21:49:25 UTCThe other week I dusted off my best plastic jewellery for an outing to the Tweed Regional Gallery in New South Wales. A beautiful, architectural award-winning gallery with views to the Mount Warning hinterland.
View from the Tweed Regional Gallery Included at the gallery is the Margaret Olley Art Centre…
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The art of naming art
2021-03-02 21:53:15 UTCDid you know the famous ‘Mona Lisa’ painting wasn’t known as Mona Lisa until after Leonardo da Vinci died Were you aware someone had the nerve to rename a Picasso? His descriptively titled, ‘The Girl With A Red Beret and Pompom’ was renamed to ‘Annabel’ by the nightclub owner who…
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Colored Pencil Touch-Up Texture and Titanium White - review and how to
2021-02-03 21:16:25 UTCDo you have the tendency to push a little too hard on your paper when working with colour pencil? If you do, you’ll know the more you smoosh your pencil into the toothy groove of the paper, the more difficult it is to keep adding layers of colour. It’s like…
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Pantone Colour of the Year 2021 - mouldy bananas
2021-01-06 21:24:54 UTCIn case you weren’t aware, back in the 1950s the Pantone company (not to be confused with Pantene) crowned themselves global authority on colour. They pride themselves on colour matching and standardising colour reproduction. Every year, Pantone announces their much anticipated ‘Color of the Year’. Their decision on colour claims…
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Artwork feature: My favourite child
2020-12-17 06:26:48 UTC“But parents don’t pick favourites.” LIES! Whilst frowned upon, every parent has a favourite child.
My cat knows she’s the favourite. It probably doesn’t help that Mr Slager and I tell her she’s a “smoopy, woopy, widdle, baby” moments before she slices our hands to ribbons.
Picking my favourite drawing…
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Art Spectrum Colourfix smooth paper review - colour pencil drawing
2020-12-03 05:49:00 UTCColourfix. It sounds like men’s hair dye doesn’t it. “In just 5 easy minutes completely cover greys…Keep livin’ the dream with Colourfix.” But since I know little of a man’s thought process when he decides to dye his hair, I’ll just stick to my riveting review on this paper. Happily,…
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Just move the pencil!
2020-11-04 22:09:21 UTCIn my previous blog post, 4 Things I wish I knew before becoming a professional artist I spoke about the outlandish “Curing Process” foisted upon me at the ripe old age of 17 . For those who haven’t read it, in a nutshell, an old man taught me the art…
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4 Things I wish I knew before becoming a professional artist
2020-10-21 21:45:49 UTCWhen I started my first corporate job at 17, a 60-year-old man with a dry English wit showed me the ropes. He didn’t show me how to do my job (touch typing, and girl Friday activities weren’t his strong suit). Instead, he showed me how things really worked. The sort…
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Dribbling my inspirational basketball
2020-10-07 21:44:16 UTCSome time ago I was asked, “Who inspires your art?” A thought-provoking question. Did I provide an enlightening answer? Consistent with other occasions I’ve been put on the spot, I blurted out tongue-tied sounds comparable to a dribbling b-b-b-b-basketball. I don’t know precisely what bounced out, but I’m pretty sure…
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My Tamagotchi needs feeding
2020-09-09 21:41:42 UTCThe Tamagotchi. A faddish keychain-sized electronic game created by the Japanese in the 90s. The premise: an egg would appear on screen, hatch into a pet, and you would proceed to spend every waking moment nurturing it from baby to adult.
To avoid being labelled a “bad parent”, you had…
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Artwork feature: Rinse Repeat
2020-08-26 23:12:15 UTCI’ve had this lovely photo of a Belgian laundromat since 2016. I remember thinking the neat and tidy teal display felt so peaceful at the time. Sitting in a little laundry in a quiet street of Bruges, watching our smalls swishing and swirling in the suds, the hum of dryers…
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Left-handed problems
2020-08-12 22:08:31 UTCThe other day I woke up with a pesky sore finger on my right hand, my do-all dominant hand. The pain persisted but of course I did nothing about it as I don’t like to admit defeat. Correction, I did do something. I began catastrophising my future as an artist.…
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Acid belongs in margaritas not art supplies
2020-07-29 21:52:07 UTCCurtains faded? White clothing yellowed? Face leatherier than a saddle-makers workshop? Yeah, these are the result of the mean old sun! As any annoying unwrinkled teen will tell you, ageing is a part of life. Sadly, artwork is susceptible to environmental ravages over time too. Even paintings by the Old…
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Dear diary
2020-07-01 21:11:08 UTCIn case all the car ads didn’t give it away, it’s the end of another financial year (“EOFYs” I believe is the expensive marketing jingle they’ve all come up with). EOFYs, the time we madly race around looking for faded receipts as feeble offerings for the tax office. I think…
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“Dab on a little Tarn-Off”
2020-06-17 21:43:44 UTCIf you’re an Australian that lived through the neon 80’s you’ll remember this ad, “Just dab on a little Tarn-Off and you’ll clean years of tarnish off in just seconds!” Is it just me, or is watching Rosemary Margan buffing off mucky neglect and bringing out the shine, strangely satisfying?…
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Baohong watercolour paper review - can it be used for drawing?
2020-06-03 21:32:00 UTCLast time I visited my local art supply store, the lovely shop assistant Laura interrupted my excitable game-show-style shopping to suggest I try out their newest watercolour paper by Baohong.
Me, buying ALL the art supplies! (Source: giphy.com) As this shiny new Baohong is being drooled over by watercolour…
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Artwork feature: the remains of Ephesus, and the missing swimsuit
2020-05-20 20:25:30 UTCWhen you’re unable to travel, why not revisit travels past. Today’s artwork feature and blog post comes to you courtesy of Turkey. No, it’s not a sponsored post for Steggles Poultry. It’s my recollection of the wonders of Turkey the country, its sights, sounds, and bombastic tour guides. As you’ve…
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The artist’s full body workout
2020-05-06 21:30:43 UTCSome years ago, the term “sitting disease” caught the eye of the corporate world and quickly became etched into irritating workplace speak. Everyone was an expert. People luxuriated in the sound of their own voices as they shamed their colleagues, “You know Carol, if you sit too much, you’ll end…
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I’m not weird, I’m just Baltic
2020-04-22 21:21:53 UTCWhile searching my list of half-baked blog ideas, Mr Slager, who was in the next room, sent me a very helpful email. I appreciate how dysfunctional this non-verbal communication sounds but sharing workspace in isolation has somehow made this method of delivery another “new normal”. He’d sent an article entitled…
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Artwork feature: I want to speak to the manager
2020-04-15 22:29:56 UTC‘I want to speak to the manager’ Thankfully I’ve never received this verbal slap in the face in any of my past employment. Although a delivery driver once bellowed down the phone at me to express outrage at driving up a newly built one-way street, something I had somehow surreptitiously…
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Park & Shop
2020-04-08 21:47:42 UTCWith the pandemic causing the topsy-turvy emotions of a cat that wants in, out and back in again, we decided to give ourselves a distraction in the form of a good old fashioned board game. We have Pandemic the board game but given the last time we played it we…
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Artwork feature: Japan, Nakabashi Bridge
2020-04-01 22:13:34 UTCOnce again, it is sakura season in Japan. Cherry blossoms, yay! A beautiful time of year that has been celebrated for several centuries. Regrettably this year, due to Coronavirus, it is recommended people stay home and watch previous blossomings online in the comfort of their own home with a glass…
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Google said I look like a man in tights
2020-03-25 22:34:00 UTCUnfortunately, quarantine doesn’t look good on everyone Only a few days into quarantine and already bemoaning the boredom? It’s a perfect opportunity to clean out the roof gutters or sequinned disco outfits you never wear, but for some reason you’re “just not feeling it”? I have a solution. Mr Slager…