Friday 7 July 2017

View on the Kasbah of Ouarzazate


After so many weeks working on a project using charcoal, I wanted to paint again! So I brushed away the dust from my palette and started browsing through my 'inspiration gallery'. That is a collection of reference photos that were made by my husband, my children and me. 

This time inspiration came from Morocco, my son Martijn visited that country as a tourist almost three years ago and gave me some of the photos he made there.
One of the trips he made was a visit to the historical Kasbah of Ouarzazate, a monument.
The view is great and a challenge to paint. The colours of the buildings have only a little bit of variation so I had to exaggerate that variation to give depth to the structure.
There was a hint of green and grass in the landscape so I used that as well.
And the cactus on the rocks in the foreground. 

This is my first cactus and it was a bit of a challenge, especially as i am still mixing my greens from blues and yellows. I had to find the right mixture here and that meant experimenting with my colours. The green of the cactus is made up with two different mixtures of a yellow and a blue and a grey mixture for the shadows. Each mixture is applied on the dried paint I had already used, this technique allows me to suggest the shapes of the cactus leaves. Of course it is not perfect yet, but for my first attempt the result is satisfying.

For the grasses and the dry branches on the foreground I used my Watercolour Sticks. They are nice for drawing thin lines and when used dry on dry the lines are uneven because of the structure of my paper.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 





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