Matthew Bell Wildlife Art | About The Artist

Matthew Bell is South Africa's highest selling wildlife artist by units sold, and has made a name for himself both in South Africa and globally with his captivating drawings of Southern Africa's wildlife, and the beautiful prints and other products he creates from them

"Africa is in my blood and is the only place I have ever wanted to live. This beautiful continent and its fauna and flora is where I get my inspiration from and what gives me a real connection to each and every artwork I create"

Matthew was born in April 1989 in Nelspruit, a town in Mpumalanga province in the north eastern part of South Africa. He has always had a love for the bushveld in this area of the country. Nelspruit is just a 40 minute drive from the well known Kruger National Park, as well as many other game reserves, and inspiration for his wildlife art was never far away.

In August 2015 Matthew relocated to Cape Town where his hobby soon became a full time business.

“A couple of years after moving to Cape Town, I started to draw more often again. I started up a Facebook page for my art which got a really good response. A few months later I took a bunch of drawings I had recently completed to a market to see if I could sell one or two of them. The response was incredible and that weekend I sold almost everything I had! I then realized that I could actually be onto something. So, a month later I quit my job that I had at the time to spend more time on my art. Four years on and my art business has gone from strength to strength, with the demand for both prints and originals increasing all the time. Also, my drawings are definitely getting better and better over time!”

One doesn’t come across pencil art nearly as often as painting but pencil is the only medium Matthew was ever interested in using.

“I love working with pencils and have never really considered using any other medium. My drawings are very much about the finer details and perfectly capturing my subject and all the feelings and emotion within it. With pencil, I feel I can do this by being perfectly in control, not missing a single detail.”

Each drawing is ‘constructed’ using many layers of pencil, whether colour or graphite. These normally start with the lightest colours, working into darker layers as the drawing progresses.

A slightly textured paper, Fabriano Academia 200gram, is what he uses for the original drawings This helps to make the layering more effective. Almost as important as the actual subject in Matthew’s artwork, is the blank space surrounding it. This places all the focus on the subject and creates an impact unique to Matthew’s work.

All my original drawings are created using pencils. Graphite pencils (the HB's etc.) are used for the non-colour drawings, and colour pencils for the colour drawings. I have a wide variety of pencils which have accumulated over the years, some good quality ones, some 'cheapies' - which I actually quite enjoy because they are usually harder and allow for an even higher level of detail. Aquarelle pencils with their bright colour and Polychromos with their smooth application are two personal favorites
Brand wise, Raffine and my Faber Castell Aquarelle pencils are the ones I probably use most often
I wouldn’t say there is a specific process that I follow when creating my drawings. Over the years however, I have probably developed certain skills and ways of doing things with my art which makes it quite unique and has allowed me to greatly improve.
I use a slightly textured, acid free 200g paper called Fabriano Academia for all my originals
My prints are printed on a 350gsm bright white, smooth Colortec paper. This uncoated paper provides a lovely finish for both black & white and colour prints and helps to accentuate all the small details in my drawings

My style is realism but not photo-realistic. In other words, I draw my subjects with great detail and in a very realistic manner, but ensure that one can still always see it is a pencil drawing and not a photograph and that the final piece has all the character of an artwork.
Apart from the actual subject, one of the most important aspects of my art is the negative space. I never add a background, my subjects are always surrounded by the white of the paper. This ensures all the focus is on only the subject. Also, it’s very seldom that I will place the subject in the middle of the paper. I will always leave more space towards the direction in which the animal or bird is looking, and this is an effective way of using negative space and also creating an aesthetically pleasing artwork.
Two of the most important aspects of my drawings, I would say, are the eyes and my method of ‘drawing in layers'. Firstly, eyes are the most important part of any animal or bird drawing. If you get the eyes right, the rest will follow. The eyes are what brings the drawing to life, giving you a connection with the animal. This is why I often start with the eyes, and once I am happy that the eyes are right, I know the drawing will be a good one. That tiny white dot of light in the eye is the most vital part of any one of my artworks!
Secondly, I find it vital to focus on drawing in layers. Don’t immediately put pencil to paper in the colour you wish to apply, but instead start much lighter, slowly, building up layers and working in the darker bits until you have the desired color (end layer). This creates depth and enhances realism and is a vital part of my drawing process
This depends largely on what I am drawing, and how big the drawing is. Generally, my originals are about A4/A3 size. To draw an animal this size takes roughly between 15 and 25 hours but can be less or more depending on the above factors. I often struggle to sit and concentrate for very long periods at a time, so this is usually over a period of about 3 to 4 weeks. Birds take slightly quicker to draw than animals. I find that animals with fur - leopards, wild dogs etc, are the most time consuming to draw as each strand of fur has to be 'individually' drawn, and built up layer by layer
I do draw from photographs but most of my reference photos I get from photographers or field guides who work in the bush. They have the massive camera lenses and are able to get the best photos! I am very picky about which photos I use to draw from, and will look through many hundreds before I find one that I am happy will make an awesome artwork
I think it’s as vital to choose the right reference image as it is to actually execute the drawing well. Some of my drawings have more than one animal in them and quite often these are not one photograph, but rather a few I put together to then use as a reference. One has to be careful here, especially when ensuring that the light is the same in the different photos so that once combined, the drawing looks natural and as if it is all part of the same scene
I come from a family of artists, so luckily for me art was definitely in the genes. I have always been drawing. Funnily enough when I was younger, I would most often draw cartoon characters and pictures with hundreds of tiny people in them, a bit like Where’s Wally. It was only a bit later on that I started more consistently drawing birds and animals. However, I soon realized this was what I really loved drawing. So I focused on this genre, getting better and better with each drawing. If I compare the drawings I am creating now to only two or three years ago, there is a huge difference and I feel that I am improving all the time!
As mentioned above, when I was younger I would draw a variety of different things, not only wildlife. But now wildlife is all I am really interested in drawing. It’s what I enjoy most and what I am best at. I am increasingly honing my wildlife drawing skills with each new original wildlife art piece that I complete

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37 Durham Avenue, Salt River, Cape Town, 7925

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Learn more - Q&A with Matthew