"The Secret of Drawing" Episode 1: "The Line of Enquiry" 2005

A video worth watching (suggested to me from one of my trainers, Ivan Prsa).  However, I have had plenty of inspiration from many of these artists, including DaVinci.

Here are some examples where I have done things in a similar style to some of the aforementioned artists.  The ones below are what I had done back in the early 1980's when I was still in High School.  The first one is of our school shoes (one of my classmates called them 'duck shoes' because they looked like the flippers on ducks).  The latter three were all of Princes Highway, in Kogarah (NSW) and some of the buildings which have changed quite a bit over the last three decades.  In this case, it was a depiction of time and place (the St George-Sutherland Shire area during the 1980's) - to think that building used to be a surf shop, amongst other things and actually still stands, though thankfully, not in that vivid orange colour, though).  And I was reminded of these times because I was able to capture it with pen and ink, charcoal and pencil, just like that British artist who did the urban and suburban landscapes of his town in the midlands somewhere (if my memory serves me correctly, I think it was Coventry).

The next few pictures are done much later, fast forward 8 years' on - to 1990, where I spent a few months at the Julian Ashton academy, in The Rocks.  Most of my works during my time there were done from plaster casts (see the 'Evil Eye') and still lifes (though occasionally, I got to do actual life drawing - where they actually used nude models).  This was my attempt to emulate the 'classic' artists of the renaissance, like Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Boticelli and the like.

And 20 or more years' on, here are my more recent landscape drawings.  These are inspired by Norman Lindsay and his cartoon drawings of koalas (and regardless of what anyone says, they are *not* bears!!!)  The inspiration here is from the gum trees outside my flat (apartment).

The picture just above depicts a gum tree (stringy-bark) that is no longer there and had been cut up and wood chipped into tiny pieces).   There are plenty of these trees in and around my area, but this particular one is just one example of what can go if don't manage to capture these moments in time.  For whatever reason, they had to cut down the tree (in case it would fall down during a storm perhaps), but even so, there are forever new buildings going up and the landscape is constantly changing, which makes me wonder how long will I be living where I am now.