The Early Days cont.....

Here at last are some more pictures to complete the early days. Though not an exhaustive list, this should give you a very good idea of where I started in my teens and how I have developed.

In the early days, I discovered I was a great copy artist. I found sketching easy and mainly stuck to black & white drawings, as pictured in this Cobb & Co Coach. I was fascinated with the Australian bush as a teen, probably as a result of travelling through so much of it as a child. When I saw this coach, I had to draw it!

This sort of drawing would take me several hours to a day to draw for an A3 size picture. The one shown is not the original drawing- it's a far inferior one to the original copy I did from a small picture out of the Women's Weekly, Australian Bush, Then & Now. I was 19 when I first attempted this and it took several hours to complete. But poor storage and a lot of moving ruined my first attempt. Still, I was happy with how this turned out, using very basic lead pencils. 

Though I heavily focused on black & white drawings, I did want to learn how to master mediums. Above is a horse head I did at age 16 in around 15 minutes or so with a cheap packet of water colour paints I had just purchased. I haven't touched up the missing section of the horse- it's a scar from many years of travelling with me!

Another experiment, this time with ink and a brush. My mother gave me a sketch book with heads and figures to encourage my creativity, and I remember attempting this one as I loved the way the light hit her face. As with the horse head, this work was created very quickly, and also bears scars from poor storage :)

People who knew me knew I was horse mad as a child & teen, so would often give me horse themed cards. I copied this one off a birthday card using the only available things at hand: a black felt tip pen, white liquid paper and a HB pencil. Working with felt tip pen is a great way to become a disciplined drawer- it's very unforgiving! I think that's where the liquid paper came in!

Though I got good at copying, I did feel limited and bored with my art. I wanted to create meaningful pictures and give a little more depth to my drawings and not just have heads or objects 'floating' on a page. In my early twenties, as a mother, I had found a subject matter that inspired me!

Top is the original drawing, and above is the restored picture ready for the charity auction. 

On a holiday with my mum and two daughters to Coochiemudlo Island off Brisbane, I snapped my youngest digging in the sand. I loved the picture so much, I had to recreate it. This was really the first time I can remember attempting distance in a picture. I used watercolour pencils as I loved the ability to draw and wash over certain sections for effect. 

I kept this picture for years before restoring it recently, and donating it to a charity, Wrapped in Angels, for auction last year, where it sold, framed, for around $120.

The picture below was another favourite captured memory: my two babies at Broom's Head, NSW. I loved this scene so much, and it was a bold attempt for me to recreate such depth and texture with watercolour pencils. It is, however, incomplete, but I was thrilled with the outcome none the less. 

The original below is what I used as my guide. Though I didn't succeed in being exact, I was happy with the outcome. I was challenged by the water to the left and the bottom right corner. Still, I was improving, and that's all that matters :)

There it is, a very condensed history of my art. More to follow- we're getting close to recent projects. I aim to show you my experimental art soon, and where that has lead me :)

Until next post, thanks for reading!