E-BOOKS
Each time Chris does a workshop or demonstration, Carol takes notes and photographs and records the process in an e-book between 12 - 30 pages long and full of process photos, tips, and art philosophy. They are formatted with a black background to make the images stand out and are a wealth of information.
They can be purchased for $6 each or 3 for $15. Just send us a message on the contact page saying which titles you would like and we can give you the bank details to pay for them. They will be e-mailed to you as a pdf file.
Here's some feedback from Kerry who has 3 of the Oils e-books:WOW !!! Your e-book is outstanding! What a fantastic record of Chris’s demonstration. Brought back Chris’s demonstration and a lot of things that I had forgotten and even things I’d missed at the w’shop. Thank you sooo much. I’m really looking forward to finishing my acrylic underpainting and feel that with the help of your e-book I now have a structured outline to follow. The images are invaluable in that they add immensely to your text and let you see what you’re aiming for when you pick up the brush. Can’t wait to get started and can’t wait to receive your other e-books! 22/7/2015..and from Alex from the Peninsula Art Society:The books have just arrived, many thanks. They will be a nice addition to our library and hopefully inspire our members. I loved your choice of background paper. It makes the paintings pop out and none of the vibrant colours are lost. I must also complement the writer. You kept it nice and simple in easy to follow steps. As I said the books will be a nice addition to PAS library. 7/1/2016
Pastel E-Books:
NEW
Stockmen, Horses, and Cattle:
Size: 12 pages
The Painting: Getting the Adrenaline Pumping
Techniques Covered:
- Simplifying animal shapes
- Practice drawing
- Building a narrative
- Designing the scene with thumbnails and sketches first
- Keeping an image loose and portraying movement and dust
- Using light and dark for highlights and shadows
People in the Landscape in Pastel:
Size: 13 pages
The Painting: The Swanston Street Fruit Stall
Techniques Covered:
- Understanding the appeal of figures in a painting
- What to look for in a photographic reference - tones
- Simplifying the drawing of figures
- Finding the narrative in a scene
- Playing ‘god’ – deleting, adding, moving and dressing figures to improve a composition
- Figures in perspective
- Determining and developing a focal point
- Working pastels around the painting to build up the colour
- Refinements and final adjustments
Figurescapes in Pastel in Pastel
Size: 18 pages
The Painting: ‘Mick & Dom’s Story’ – a scene in Shop Street, Galway
The information in this e-book complements and extends what is covered in ‘People in the Landscape’
Techniques Covered:
- Photographing subjects that tell a story and editing the photo
- Using basic shapes to construct figures
- An exercise for improving your sketching ability
- Under-painting using watercolours and/or pastel with methylated spirits
- Recognising and dealing with mistakes that might creep into a composition
- Putting body language into the key figures
.jpg)
Vibrant Pastel Landscapes:
Size: 12 pages
The Painting: Lawson’s Creek Hay Shed
Techniques Covered:
- Achieving vibrant scenes by pushing colour and tone beyond reality or what a camera sees
- Perspective in a drawing especially of buildings – single point and double point perspective
- Painting from a photo – digital processing before working from an image
- Sketching the important shapes
- Underpainting to establish tones
- Applying pastel – from initial layering with loose and light strokes to final detailed touches to lift vibrancy
- Recognising and developing the narrative in the painting
.jpg)
Boats and Large Ships
Size: 14 pages
The Painting: The Tug and the Tanker
​
Techniques Covered:
- Drawing Boats
- Considering Composition
- Using elements from more than one photo
- Laying down base colours with pastel and methylated spirits
- Adjusting and correcting as you go/ Experimenting with unexpected colours
- Adding detail to finish the painting
Painting Small Boats in Pastel
Size: 16 Pages
The Painting: Small Boats in Newcastle
​
Techniques Covered:
-How to draw boats using simple shapes
-Important elements of composition in an image
-Getting proportions between reference and paper right
-Underpainting on light pastel paper with acrylics
-Using strong tones (darks and lights)to draw the eye
-Making adjustments to balance colours and shapes
Things to consider when painting reflections
Coastal Scenes: Buildings and Boats
Size: 13 pages
​The Painting: Staithes Waterfront
​
Techniques Covered:
-
Breaking down complex boats and buildings to simple shapes
-
Applying two point perspective, vanishing points and centre points to a picture
-
Measuring lines rather than gridding a picture
-
Underpainting with inks to establish tones
-
Layering of pastels and working around a painting to ensure tones are correct and colours sympathetic
-
Dealing with problem areas and putting on finishing details
Coastal Urban Scenes
​Size: 13 pages
​The Painting: Across the Bridge: Staithes
​
Techniques Covered:
-
What glazing is, why it is done and how to do it
-
Basic photo editing
-
Simplifying the drawing
-
Pushing the colour and the tone
-
Why he uses black paper
-
Laying down base colours
-
Establishing soft and hard edges
-
Placing neutral colours beside bright ones to make the brighter ones stand out even more
-
The importance of seeing what is there
Elements of a Good Paining
Size: 14 pages
The Paintings: The Fordham Bridge; Warrnambool Heritage Museum
Techniques Covered:
-Subject Matter, Composition, Shapes, Tones, Balance and Point of Interest.
-Direction, Colour, Human Interest and Narrative and busy and calm content.
-Getting reference photo and paper in proportion
-A simple way to get the drawing done
-Getting the tones in with acrylic paints
-Laying down base colours
-Building up colour
-Refining the painting while still keeping it loose
The Red Outback: Glazing With Pastels
​Size: 15 pages
The Painting: Winton's Timeless Splendour
​
Techniques covered:
-
What glazing is, why it is done and how to do it
-
Basic photo editing
-
Simplifying the drawing
-
Pushing the colour and the tone
-
Why he uses black paper
-
Laying down base colours
-
Establishing soft and hard edges
-
Placing neutral colours beside bright ones to make the brighter ones stand out even more
-
The importance of seeing what is there
-
Dealing with problems
Outback Landscapes
Size: 13 pages
The Painting: The Dragon’s Back
​
Techniques Covered:
-Getting proportions of photo and paper right
- Working with tonal shapes
- Considering composition
- Layering of colour with pastels (glazing) to achieve vibrancy
- Dealing with problems that arise in a painting
Vibrant Impressions of the Red Outback
Size: 18 pages
The Paintings: After the Rains: The Dragon's Back The Track to Silverton
Techniques Covered:
- Starting with a basic sketch of tonal (dark, light and mid-tone) shapes
​- Starting with light paper and using pastel and methylated spirits to lay down base tones or simply starting with black paper
- Using different pastel strokes
- Keeping the painting impressionistic; avoiding photo realism
- Establishing focal points
-Working around the painting to add texture and refine shapes
- Making finishing adjustments and adding highlights
- Layering pastels rather than blending to produce vibrant colours
Oils E-Books
Introduction to Tonal Painting in Oils
Size: 13 pages.
The Painting: The Old Gum Tree
​
Techniques covered:
- An exercise to enable you to focus on tones and their shapes in an image
- Measuring & matching the proportions of a canvas to the reference image
- Making your own canvas boards
- Laying base colours with acrylics
- Mediums for use with oils
- Laying out and mixing colours on the palette
- Applying oils wet-in –wet
- Refining the painting when it is touch dry
- Making grass with an old credit card
Townscapes in Oils
Size: 12 pages
The Painting: Early Morning in Maldon
​
Techniques Covered:
- Using plastic sheet protectors on the reference image to mark
​ location references and key lines of perspective
- Perspective in a street scene
- Laying down the shapes of tones first – from darks to lights
- Working oils wet-in-wet from the top of the painting to the bottom
- Mediums for cleaning brushes
- Adding a car in the street
- Choosing colours for shadows and sunlit areas
- Hinting at detail without putting it in
- Getting the veranda posts straight
Town Scene with People in Oils (Chilton)
Size: 15 pages
The Painting: Early Morning in Chilton
Techniques Covered:
-How perspective works
-Simplifying the human form
-Drawing a complicated scene in simple steps
-Underpainting with acrylics to get strong tonal contrast and establish some base colour
-How to apply oils using the wet-in-wet method
Things to consider when putting the finishing touches on a painting
Coastlines in Oils
Size: 15 pages
The Painting: ‘Coolum Rocks’ Techniques Covered:
- How to paint waves
- Outlining the key features
- Using tones to establish aerial perspective and make one headland recede and the other appear closer
- Getting mood into a scene
- Techniques for painting wet-on-wet
- Using colour and tonal variation to hint at detail which really isn’t visible
- Applying paint with the knife to create foam and breaking waves
Painting Steam Trains in Oils
Size: 16 pages
​Techniques Covered:
- Getting perspective right in the drawing
- Simplifying the shapes
- Drawing wheels
- Including figures to get interest and a story happening
- Underpainting tones
- Choosing colours
- Changing direction when a painting isn’t working