Country Cousins

The author of this demonstration likes to work in a clean, orderly environment with good quality materials – while her favourite music plays in the background.

- Jenny Hartley

I had been out to Colby dam, near Toowoomba. I had seen this old gate beside the road and stopped to photograph it. What I saw inspired me and the idea for this painting of ‘Country Cousins’ was born. From when the initial idea was formed, the process of composing the thumbnail sketch and the selection of different kookaburra photos took a considerable amount of time … before I was ready to transfer my drawing to the prepared, stretched watercolour paper.

STEP ONE

I usually enlarge my original drawing on my photocopier to the correct size, ready to be transferred onto the 78 x 54 cm stretched piece of 300gsm Arches watercolour paper. I prepared the back of the drawn picture with a soft graphite stick and copied my drawing onto the watercolour paper. This gave me a faint image to work from. I redrew any pieces that were missing and then started preparing my palette. On a scrap piece of art paper, I painted swathes of various colours before deciding on my palette.

If I want to depict a warm scene, I will choose predominantly warm colours. I always work out the colours I will use in each painting before starting – this gives me unity throughout the painting. I prefer to use a limited palette; using transparent colours with minimal staining qualities.

STEP TWO