Stage 1. Pencil and ink outline

Stage 2. Start sketching with something familiar.

Stage 3. Lots of glassine paper protecting the artwork at all times, apart from progress photos.

Stage 4. A lot more detail was achieved in the boat shed with the larger scale artwork.

Stage 5. Lots of interruptions at possum park created a slow progress.

Stage 6.

Stage 7. I snagged a new workstation to make my life a bit easier since the desk in my art gallery was way too small for my new commission. Plus, there were just too many things going on that I couldn’t control in the gallery. And honestly, people just love to get all touchy-feely, with the art not me.

Stage 8. I use the iPad and a hard copy of the photo to work from. You can also see the little scratch pad I use to test the strength of the ink before I make a mark on the paper. The trouble with ink is you can’t make mistakes. Well more accurately you can easily make mistakes, you just can’t fix them.

Stage 9. Mixing it up a little with the boulders, first I created ink washes then I created some line work. Which is opposite the way I created the boat shed. First Line work then I added the ink washes.

Stage 10.

Stage 11.

Stage 12.

Stage 13. Applying masking fluid with a brush on to the watercolour paper. Wherever there is masking fluid the ink won’t interact with the paper. Once masking fluid is removed this should create some white areas that will look like stones under the water, fingers crossed.

Stage 14. Painting a light wash over masking fluid. You can see the masking fluid has a slight yellow tint so you can see it.

Stage 15. About 40mins removing masking fluid to reveal white stones.

Stage 16. White stones after masking fluid removed.

Stage 17. The base of each stone I added a little grey tint and some shadows, along with various black and grey stones. I also added a few more ripples on the water and some more line work.

Finished artwork

Stage 18. Close up of boat shed

Stage 19. Close up of Cradle Mountain.

Artist Chris Osborne proudly displays the finished artwork. Next came the six hours spent diligently working out all the rules and regulations for shipping to the states, alongside setting up the necessary accounts.

Then came the moment I had been anticipating—rolling up the artwork for shipping. After watching numerous YouTube videos, I discovered that rolling a test sheet of watercolor paper around a small tube with glassine paper is the most effective method. I only wish I had learned this sooner; it would have saved me three weeks of sleepless nights worrying about the process. It’s all part of the experience—live and learn.