I’ve never used oil paints before, concentrating on scratchboard and pastels mainly, but I’ve always fancied having a go at what is probably the most traditional form of painting, so I got myself a set of artist quality paints and I’d inherited a set of bristle brushes and set to work. I chose Impalas as they fit the colour palette I had and because the female Impala has just about the most exquisitely shaped head of any animal I know. I was struggling with it as brushes seem to me to be alien things in my hands but I bought a couple of extra synthetic ones which seemed much more natural and this is the result – my very first oil painting

I have quite a few white scratchboards (covered in white ink, not the traditional black) and though I’ve ended up with some reasonable results, I’m always experimenting with different mediums for colouring them. Ampersand’s ‘Claybord’ has a slightly rough ink finish and I thought I’d try using coloured ballpoint pens to see what result I could achieve, not getting my hopes up too much. It’s just a cheap Chinese set from my local newsagent with 16 colours and I’m really quite happy with the result and it opens up some possibilities. This is a Cassowary at our local zoo in Adelaide from one of my many trips there. I’ve used a simple muted coloured pencil background to give it some environment and set the bird off nicely.