Tuesday Art Chat with Kerri

Can a drawing really make a difference?
In this episode of the Tuesday Art Chat Podcast, I’m exploring how wildlife artists can use the art we already love creating to raise awareness, tell the stories of threatened species and even support wildlife conservation.
This topic was inspired by our latest Draw for Wildlife event, where 135 people came together online to draw a juvenile green sea turtle named Elliott — and together we raised $1,350 for Turtles in Trouble Rescue.
One turtle. One drawing. Two hours creating together. And a very real contribution to a small wildlife rescue organisation.
But fundraising is only one way our art can make a difference.
In this episode, I also share the stories behind some of the animals I’ve drawn, including the Greater Gliders that live here on our farm, Gouldian Finches and my K’gari dingo paintings.
We chat about how simply choosing a threatened species as your subject can introduce people to an animal they may never have heard of before — and why telling the story behind your artwork can sometimes be just as important as the artwork itself.
How Draw for Wildlife raised $1,350 for turtle rescue

Why wildlife artists are in a unique position to raise awareness

Finding threatened species living in your own area

My personal connection with Greater Gliders

Gouldian Finches and how captive populations can give us a very different impression of what’s happening in the wild

Why conservation art doesn’t always need to show suffering

Using beauty to help people connect with wildlife

Adding simple information cards and QR codes to wildlife artwork at exhibitions

Supporting conservation organisations without creating more work for them

Why I donated 10% from sales of my K’gari dingo paintings and prints to d

You’ve put down the final pastel pencil, stepped back from your painting and finally decided…
It’s finished!
But what happens next?
In this episode of the Tuesday Art Chat Podcast, I’m talking about everything that happens after the last stroke — from deciding whether your artwork really is finished to protecting, storing, photographing and framing your soft pastel paintings.
These are questions I’m asked all the time, and they’re things we don’t tend to think about while we’re busy learning how to create the artwork itself.
We’ll chat about why I like to walk away from a painting before officially calling it finished, why I personally don’t use fixative on my pastel paintings, and the simple way I protect finished artwork using glassine and flat storage.
I’ll also explain why photographing every finished artwork has become one of the most valuable habits in my own art practice. You may not plan on selling prints or entering competitions today, but that photograph could become incredibly useful years from now.
Then we’ll get into framing — including the simple framing system I use, why I standardise my artwork sizes, how I reuse frames for exhibitions, the importance of a pastel gap, and why you should never tape your artwork down on all four sides.
How to decide when your artwork is really finished
Signing and recording your finished paintings
Whether you should use fixative on soft pastel
Using glassine to protect pastel artwork
How to safely store and transport finished paintings
Why you should photograph every artwork you create
Simple tips for photographing artwork accurately
How I edit and save my artwork photographs
Framing soft pastel behind glass
Mats, glass and creating a pastel gap
Why I standardise my artwork sizes and reuse frames
How to mount pastel artwork correctly
Making budget frames look more professional
The simple finishing routine I use with every painting

If you’d like something you can keep beside you in the studio, I’ve put all of this information together in my free After the Last Stroke ebook.
It will walk you through how to protect, store, photograph and frame your finished soft pastel artwork, so you know exactly what to do once those pencils finally go down.
Download your FREE After the Last Stroke guide
And remember — before you rush off to start your next painting, take a moment to enjoy the one you've just finished.
Every finished artwork is another little marker of how far you’ve come.
Happy creating,
Kerri x

Kerri shares a practical book chat on Austin Kleon’s Keep Going, focusing on how artists can stay creative when time is tight, motivation dips, and life gets noisy.
This episode is especially useful if you want simple, repeatable ways to keep making art without waiting for the perfect mood or perfect schedule.
In this episode, Kerri explores how the book’s ideas apply to real artistic life, from routines and lists to play, gifts, and seasonal creativity. She also reflects on what it means to keep creating for the love of it, not just for output or income.

Kerri Dixon takes listeners back to the 1800s for another Meet the Masters episode, focusing on Mary Cassatt and the practical lessons her work offers modern artists.
The episode is especially useful for pastel artists, but the takeaways apply just as much to composition, mark making, and deciding where detail belongs.
Kerri explores how Cassatt balanced smooth blending with loose, visible strokes, used colored paper as part of the artwork, and made ordinary domestic scenes feel worthy of serious art.
She also connects Cassatt’s approach to wildlife and nature art, showing how historical practice can solve very current creative problems.
You can watch the video chat on Youtube

How to Take Reference Photos With a Painting in Mind
In this episode, Kerri Dixon explains how wildlife artists can move beyond “good photos” and start collecting reference images that actually support a stronger painting. She shares a practical way to see, capture, and design compositions, using her own zoo photography and studio editing process as examples.The focus is on reference photos, composition, and lighting, with a clear message: the camera records the scene, but the artist makes the painting.

Key topics
In this episode, Kerri Dixon introduces the idea of taking reference photos with the final artwork in mind, not just snapping a nice wildlife picture.
She explains why it helps to look beyond the animal and scan the full frame for distractions, background shapes, light, poles, fences, and other elements that affect composition.
Kerri shares a meerkat example from Australia Zoo, where moving slightly to the side removed a boab tree that looked like it was growing out of the animal’s head.
She emphasizes collecting options rather than hunting for one perfect image, including wide shots, close-ups, verticals, horizontals, and different angles.
Kerri talks about photographing details like fur, ears, feet, tail, shadows, grasses, and environmental textures so later studio work has more information to draw from.
She explores how lighting can make or break a reference photo, especially directional light, edge highlights, eye highlights, and strong shadows that reveal form.
She also notes that soft overcast light can be valuable too, depending on whether the goal is mood, form, color, or clarity.
In the studio, Kerri describes using a rule of thirds template in Canva, Photoshop, or Procreate to test different crops and placements before drawing.
She reframes the rule of thirds as a guide rather than a rule, encouraging artists to experiment with centered compositions, negative space, and subject placement.
Kerri closes with a simple three-step mindset: see it, capture it, design it, then use multiple photos to build a stronger artwork and a stronger artistic voice.