The mud flats of Voorne in winter - a charcoal drawing

 

When we were walking along the mud flats of Voorne a last week, I made several reference pictures and I also made and posted a watercolour painting. In that blog post I mentioned that there also was a lot of grey in the landscape and I would do a charcoal drawing after another picture of the views we had.

This is not a charcoal drawing on a white background, as I had in mind when I wrote that. Instead I have chosen a sheet of watercolour paper with more structure than the paper I usually use for my charcoal drawings and I made a blue watercolour underpainting as a base for the drawing. The paint is not applied evenly but there is a gradient from top to bottom.

On that blue background the willow charcoal turned out a bit too black to my taste so I added some hints of colour to the mud flats and the dunes on the horizon with my Tinted Charcoal Pencils. 

Using my fingers and a piece of tissue paper to blend the colours finished this drawing, the last one of this year.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing can be found in my Tumblr blog

Holterberg - a watercolour painting

 

Last autumn we were close to the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' - one of our Natural reserves - and we made signposted walks every day. Every walk was in a different area of the Natural reserve and we did see the 'Holterberg' on one of these walks. I have made some reference pictures of a beautiful and inspiring spot there and while we were still on vacation I made a charcoal drawing after one of these pictures.

The second picture was made from another angle and today I used it to make a watercolour painting.

In the foreground there could be a path or just forest ground, marking the edge of the hillside. There were lots of fallen branches and autumn leaves on the forest ground, and in between the leaves there are patches of moss and grasses. All these are suggested, only the biggest branches are painted as they were.

There are some young pine trees and young birch trees at the sides of the path and on the hillside, and I have tried to capture the bright green colours of these small trees. 

Once again, the picture I made for publishing is not exactly like the painting where the colours are concerned and I had trouble adjusting it. If I shift to more yellow for the colours of the trees I will lose the blue sky and if I try to make the sky more blue (like I painted it), I lose the brightness of the trees. Quite a dilemma here so I have decided to lose a bit of both.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog

The mud flats of Voorne in Winter

 

Last weekend we went for a walk along the Natural Reserve 'Slikken van Voorne' or the mud flats that have formed south of the Maasvlakte. The Natural Reserve is not open to the public, but the outskirts are good for a nice walk. 

There are footpaths and a signposted walk so we had a nice afternoon with great views and some nice fresh sea air. And some unexpected rain but not too much. 

As it was almost the shortest day, the sun was low and the reflections of the light on the water were great. I made lots of reference pictures and had a hard time selecting the best for the painting I wanted to make.

The view is great and somewhere on the horizon is also the next island, Goeree, with its sand dunes. The horizon of my painting is not horizontal because of that.

In my summer painting of the Mud flats I have painted only these mud flats, with the streams of sea water that are in between.

This time I also wanted to show the clouds that did bring the rain, but also the beautiful colours in the light shone beneath them and was reflected in the water. 

Because of the clouds and the time of the day, the sand of the mud flats was dark and almost grey, with a hint of colour from the light. I have made some pictures during this walk that only have shades of grey as I did not have any sunlight at that moment. These pictures will be good references for a charcoal drawing. (to be made in the future)

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Amaryllis

 

One of the flowers we have in our homes in winter time is the Amaryllis (or Hippeastrum) and we usually buy a bulb that will grow a stem with flowers in the warmth of our living rooms. This is mostly a Christmas related thing, but sometimes the flowers come early or even later.

This year I have a bulb with flowers that are almost white, but earlier this month I got a dark red one in a bouquet and of course I have made pictures of both of them.

For this charcoal drawing I have combined the pictures of both flowers into one composition, positioning them as if there was a bouquet with three stems.

Of course I could have made a watercolour painting, but there are a lot of paintings made combining white and red flowers, so I decided on a charcoal drawing.

Maybe I will make a painting later, but the beautiful dark red colour of the flowers I got in the bouquet early December is not easy to mix and I think I will be disappointed by the results I will get.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing can be found in my Tumblr

Air

 

One of the Facebook groups where I regularly post my artworks does have challenges. In fact, there are a lot of Facebook groups with challenges, but many of those do not inspire me to go to my studio and paint. This group however does have challenges that inspire me to think about the theme, make a painting and post it.

This time the challenge was about Air. In Dutch, 'air' is translated to a word that also means 'sky' and after some thinking I decided that this was to be my approach of the theme.

How to combine the two interpretations of the word came to my mind easily. Hot air balloons in the sky was to be the subject of my painting.

What makes the balloons float is 'air' and they can be seen in the 'sky'.

During summer and autumn they can be seen floating over our flat country when the temperature, the wind and other conditions are right and I really love to see them.

The composition is completely imaginary, the landscape is what can be seen in The Netherlands and the balloons are from the memory of having seen them.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this painting can all be found in my Tumblr 

Gold, frankincense and myrrh

This year the December challenge of 'Goed gezien - Goed Bekeken' is Gold, frankincense and myrrh which are the gifts of the three Kings - or Three Wise Men to the new born Jesus.

Of course these gifts symbolise much more than a present for a new born baby, they also stand for the positions of King, Priest and Prophet that were to be the future of Jesus. Another explanation is that these gifts are what is needed for a funeral; myrrh for embalming, frankincense for a nice aroma and gold to pay for all other things.

The three kings themselves symbolise the three continents Asia, Africa and Europe and that can be found in the shapes of their head coverings. Some imagination is needed here because I have only painted the outlines of the three kings, wrapped in cloaks.

The star had to be there as well, I would not forget that and its light shines on the scene in the night. The little manger is there also, a bit of cloth hangs out and this suggests that the gifts are already given and the three kings stand aside (wise as they are) so they will not wake the sleeping baby. 

For this work I have used my heavy black cardboard again and my white gouache, all the colours are done with a variety of pencils.  Deciding about my composition was not easy for this one, I had some help from my mother to establish the proportions.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work can all be found at my Tumblr blog.

Sallandse Heuvelrug - Starry night

 

In my previous post I mentioned that I live in a built-up area and the sunsets can only be seen well from a high place. In the area where I live there also is always light, from homes, from street lanterns, from industry and we can even see light from greenhouses that are far away.

So a starry sky is not visible where I live, only the strongest, brightest stars can be seen in the right circumstances.

When we were on vacation, that 'light pollution' was far away and we did take the shortcut out of the vacation parc to stand on the road at the edge of the field to watch the stars a few times. Of course there were clouds and we were close to some trees, but I enjoyed the view very much. We did not take any photographs, so this painting is entirely from memory and imagination.

In my painting I have included some trees as they are in winter. These trees help the viewer to understand where up and down are in the painting.

The clouds are placed behind the trees - so these are visible - and the stars can be seen through a hole in the cloudy sky. I have used my memory and imagination for the stars and what is in the painting is not a real depiction of the starry night in my country.

For this painting I have used a black paper for my background and painted in white gouache.

The details about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this painting can be found in my Tumblr blog

Sallandse Heuvelrug - Sunset

 

During our short stay near our Natural reserve the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' we walked to the vacation homes of our children for dinner at the time of sunset. One of these days we had a great sunset so we took a shortcut to a road outside the vacation area and stepped away from the trees to have a good view. My husband had the camera and he made some nice pictures.

Of course I wanted to paint this beautiful sunset and here is the result.

I have challenged myself by choosing Grain Torchon paper, which holds the water a bit longer than the Grain Fin paper I usually paint on. There were some clouds that looked great, so I had to paint them as well.

For the foreground I relied on my memory. A camera always gives a dark, almost black foreground when you make a sunset picture, while in reality there is a lot to be seen. In this case there were fields that were harvested recently, so we could see dark earth with some lines made by the machines.  For the painting I have changed that foreground a little bit.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this watercolour and the availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog

Itchy

 

While we were in our vacation home, I did already spend a rainy morning to draw one of the squirrels that came to eat the peanuts we put out on the table that was on the terrace.

Of course we made lots of reference pictures of the two (or more) squirrels eating and sitting on that table and one moment one of them got itchy.  Very itchy.

I made a picture as soon as I saw him scratching his chin (I think this was a 'he' because this was the biggest one), but his foot moved so quickly that the movement was still in the picture. 

Of course I wanted to draw or paint this little scene and I have chosen to draw first. I am not very experienced in painting or drawing animals so this is to get the shape of the squirrel right. For the drawing to be right, it must look like a squirrel and I had to practice that.

For this drawing I used a small size paper and my watercolour pencils and again I have layered the colours until I was happy with the result.

The information about the paper and pencils I have used, the size of my drawing and its availability can be found in my Tumblr blog 

Sallandse Heuvelrug

 

At the end of one of our recent walks on the Natural Reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' we saw a path that looked like it was constructed that very same day. Most of the times the paths in our nature have damaged sides, some bits seem to have been 'nibbled off' or bits of soil are on the path. Not to mention the uneven parts where tree roots have lifted the path up a bit.

This path was totally undamaged as far as we could see and that unusual sight was photographed by my husband. Looking at his picture, I decided to use part of it as a reference for a nice autumnal watercolour painting.

The light between the trees in the background was hazy, maybe because there had been rains in the morning and at the moment we walked there we had warm sunshine, so the moist from the morning was evaporating.

I have limited the colour scheme a bit, to match the leaves on the trees with the colours of the forest floor, some nice warm orange-browns and a bit of warm yellow.

The bench was there in the picture and I decided to paint it as well, the composition could do with some horizontal lines. Now the painting is finished I think the bench in that spot adds a touch of mystery. Who or what will come out of the misty forest to look at the resting wanderer?

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The school mushroom

 

The name of this charcoal drawing comes from the place where my husband made the reference picture: the schoolyard of the primary school where he is a teacher.

The schoolyard has some areas with wood chips and in this time of the year there are lots of mushrooms growing there. Most of them are trampled by the playing children, but this one had a spot where it could grow a bit bigger. My husband spotted it and made a picture.

Of course I wanted to make a painting or drawing using that reference picture. As the mushroom is grey, I decided to make a charcoal drawing.

The wood chips and bamboo grass are only suggested, as the mushroom is my subject.

For this drawing I have chosen a small piece of paper, approximately size A4.

The information about the materials I have used, the (framed) size of my drawing and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Orange Mushrooms

 

During our short vacation very close to our Natural reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' we did go for a signposted walk every day and made lots of pictures - as I mentioned in earlier posts. Of course I made reference pictures of the mushrooms, there were some large groups of them on the forest ground and their colours were great.

These were bright orange against a brown forest floor filled with leaves, branches and dried pine needles so they did stand out very nicely.

For my watercolour painting I have rearranged the mushrooms a bit to make a good composition. The forest ground is a bit different as well - for the same reason.

I started my painting with a background in orange shades and added salt for structure. 

When all was dry, I started placing the mushrooms, using my reference picture for the shapes. The forest floor was only suggested, it would take too much attention if I painted all those little details.

Later I decided to add the same greyish blue in the background that is also used in the colours of the foreground.

Of course I could have added much more of the mushrooms, but this was a relatively small but bright coloured group (I have seen much larger groups during our walks) so I have made my composition with those that were in my reference picture.

The information about the paper and paints I have used for this watercolour painting, its size and availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Yellow mushrooms

 

This November the challenge of 'Goed Gezien-Goed Bekeken' is 'Colour in Nature' and with autumn at its end we surely have had more than enough colour in nature to inspire us. 

But when do you really get inspired by colours in nature? When they stand out against a contrasting background of course, so I chose to make a painting after some pictures my husband made during our last walk on the Sallandse Heuvelrug a few weeks ago.

On some chunks of grey bark that were stacked close to the path grew some very orange-yellow mushrooms and they did stand out beautifully. The hoods were cracked, so a light yellow colour was shining through at some places and even before the challenge was published I knew I wanted to paint these mushrooms.

For my watercolour I chose to leave out all the distracting details of the tree bark and lay emphasis on the mushrooms as they were my subject.

The structure of the bark is still suggested by changes in colour and some lines where the shadows were and depth is created by adding some warm colours to the pieces of bark in the foreground. This was a bit of a challenge, because the whole scene has not more depth than thirty or forty centimetres. 

Once again I have tried to find the name of the mushrooms and failed.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this painting can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Sallandse Heuvelrug - Coniferous trees in backlight

 

  

This time of the year, the sun is not as high in the sky as it is in summer, so it is possible to make a picture of a tree in backlight early in the afternoon. My husband Peter was inspired by the scene and made several pictures - that inspired me to paint. Of course my watercolour painting is not meant to be an exact copy of the beautiful pictures my husband made.

The reference pictures were made during one of our walks in the Natural reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' in the eastern part of our country.

The picture I made from my watercolour painting is not perfect, in this season it is really  hard to get the colours right. The picture does give a good impression though and maybe the one I uploaded to my Flickr page is a bit better. 

For this painting I chose a large size paper so I had all the space I needed for a nice clouded sky, a landscape with moorland, woodland in the background and the trees of course.

The picture I used for reference had the sun exactly behind the trees, so there was as good as nothing of the needles and branches 'lost' in the light. The moorland is very dark in the picture because of it being in backlight, I wanted to change that to how the landscape looks when you see it with your own eyes.

I did use brighter colours for the sky and landscape than the reference picture had, the trees are painted in very dark colours, as close to black as I could mix them.

The result of my efforts is what I hoped for, a watercolour that suggests the atmosphere of a sunny autumn day in a beautiful landscape.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this work and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Holterberg (Netherlands) - a charcoal drawing

 

When we were making walks the walks during our short stay on the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' - one of our beautiful Natural Reserves - we did not only make pictures of the mushrooms we found, there were also some landscape pictures, because the landscape really is gorgeous.

One of the walks passed by the Holterberg, not really a mountain, but a hill, like the other hills of this area it was left behind in the landscape after the last Ice Age. In this area the moorland is reconstructed, so trees have been felled, the soil that had become too nutrient-rich is scraped off in order to give the heather plants a chance to grow and prosper again.

The reconstruction was not recent at this particular spot, so there are some trees left and a lot of heather is growing already, but in autumn, after the flowers have gone, these plants are very brown. Next spring there will be fresh green leaves and in the end of summer beautiful purple flowers, but now the plants are not so exciting. 

The structure of the landscape, with hillsides, a road and the trees still did inspire me, so I took a reference picture and the next day I made this drawing.  I was really happy to find out that the people who made the walk with me (my husband, my daughter and her friend) recognised the spot when they saw the drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this charcoal drawing can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Autumn Leaves - mixed media drawing

During the last week - our short vacation in one of our Natural Reserves - the colours of the trees were changing from green to autumn. We passed by a lot of beautiful trees during our walks and the area where we had our vacation home also had lots of trees that were in autumn colours. The most beautiful ones were those of the northern red oak (Quercus rubra) that was introduced in Europe about two hundred years ago as a decorative species.

Of course I wanted to paint in these colours, but I did not bring all my paper with me, so I decided to make an orange underpainting with watercolour and make a nice drawing of some of the leaves with my water soluble pencils. 

The composition was made using more than one reference picture and I have used the watercolour quality of my pencils to make the leaves even more colourful. After the first layer of pencil, I used a bit of water to intensify the colours used. 

After that had dried, I added more layers of pencil until I was happy with the result.

The information about the paper, paints and pencils I have used for this mixed media work as well as the size and availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Squirrel with peanuts

 

Our vacation home on the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' was surrounded by bushes and trees, one oak tree that had already dropped lots and lots of acorns.

I had brought a bag of peanuts, to attract birds and of course I hoped for a squirrel. 

The peanuts were scattered on the table that was on the small terrace next to the vacation home and the waiting started...  

There were birds, robins, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds and there were squirrels. 

At least two different red squirrels (as could be seen in the colours of the tail) visited our table. They came separated from each other, they did chase each other in the trees, so I think they weren't the best of friends at that moment. On at least three occasions my husband took the camera in his hands, got seated on a chair inside the house and started making pictures.

As this was my second attempt at a squirrel (the first was made almost fifteen years ago), I started with my Sketching Crayons on a nice dark brown heavy paper.  The sketching crayons don't have a nice sharp point, like a pencil and that made my task a little harder than expected. So this is another lesson learned.

This squirrel really had a tail that was as good as black and I tried to reproduce the changes in the colours of his (or her) fur with the use of the different browns I have in my box of sketching crayons. The nose was a reddish brown and the colour changed to black at the tail. The other squirrel was not only smaller, but also had a nice red tail. 

On the back of this squirrel was some reflected light and I used my grey crayon for that. Of course this was not really easy and the result is far from brilliant, but there are more pictures to work from in the next weeks (or months) to improve myself. 

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Birch bracket - another one for my mushroom collection

 

Last week we had a short vacation in one of our most beautiful Natural Reserves, the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' and we had the right weather for a signposted walk every day.

This time 'we' also included our children, children-in-law and grandchild so there were a lot of cameras active during the walks. We had a very safe arrangement, with every family in a separate vacation home and the walks were made with a maximum of four adults.

During that short vacation I also brought my 'mobile studio' so I have made some paintings and drawings. This is the first one, a watercolour painting of a beautiful mushroom, a birch bracket or Fomitopsis betulina. My husband made the reference picture. There are also lots of pictures of other mushrooms, but I wanted to do something different and chose this one, growing on a birch tree.

Because I had to find out what the conditions were in our vacation home (drying time, light etc.) I started with a small painting and I simplified the scene as much as possible. This part of the tree was very dark and rough with some moss growing on it and the bushes in the background were too far away to be painted with lots of details. I still have trouble with painting moss - this time it is a green spot on the bark of the tree. The dark colours of the tree were not so much of a problem, when the layers had dried I have added some structure to it, to make clear this is not a pine tree.

For a first painting in a new place (the vacation home) it is really not a bad one. But when I am at home again I will definitely make better paintings in my own, familiar studio.

The information about the paper and paint I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in the link on the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

In the woods

 

This year is a year for mushrooms, they appear everywhere and most of all in beautiful pictures on tv shows. So of course I am inspired to paint and draw mushrooms and this time I have been looking in my archives of reference pictures.

The picture for this mixed media drawing was made several years ago and I still did not paint from it, because the mushroom (I have been looking for its name, but I still have no idea what kind of mushroom it is) is grey, almost translucent. It reminds me a bit of a jellyfish with the lines going to the middle and the semi-transparent quality of the hood.

Then I remembered I could do a drawing with my Conté Sketching Crayons, as there is a grey one in my set. I have added some more colours from the set to this drawing and I tried to add some more colours with my Graphitint pencils and a Tinted Charcoal pencil. After spraying fixative, the colours of the pencils dominated the grey hood, so I added more Conté to it, fixative again and repeated these steps one more time. The Graphitint is more dominant than I expected,  I have learned a lesson for the next time. 

The forest floor, with branches, some feathers and pine needles is only suggested here by layering Conté Crayons (smudging them with my fingers) and pencils until I had the desired result. 

This time I worked on coloured cardboard, this is a heavy paper and I have chosen a small size, because I had only one mushroom as my subject. For a group of mushrooms I would have chosen a larger sheet of paper of course.

The information about the paper, pencils and crayons I worked with, and the availability of this drawing can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Autumn in mixed media

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Against the rules' and the Dutch word for rules can also be read as lines.

So I had a choice for my work, because against the rules (of anything) has already been done, so I could not do anything original at all. 

I discussed this with my mother and daughter for inspiration and I combined the ideas they gave me with some inspiration that grows in my garden.

Against or crossing the lines is a nice option so I made a drawing of chestnuts and dried grape leaves, both from my own garden but not in the same spot and added lines from Autumn - related songs.

The text lines are not complete, I made them 'fall of the paper' and of course they are not written on the lines that are made to write on. I copied the idea of an exercise book used in school to learn writing and made lines using blue and red pencils - just like there are blue and red lines in the school notebooks I am referring to.

Unfortunately it was not possible to make the perfect picture - the lines I made are straight, as I used a good ruler and the paper is white. There is some change in colour and deformation in the picture that I cannot correct without losing the colours of the drawing.

The information about the paper, ink and pencils I have used, the size of the work and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

A box of floof

 

Some months ago I decided I wanted to start improving my skills in painting cats and I asked my daughter Mariska for some pictures of her two furry companions. She shares her home with a European shorthaired cat and a Ragdoll cat. 

This picture, of her Ragdoll cat inside a big brown box is my first attempt at painting him.

Of course I started making a sketch after the reference picture and with some corrections that went well. The real challenge is to make the drawing again on watercolour paper, in a slightly different size. That could have gone better, but using a soft pencil and a soft eraser the corrections do not damage my paper.

Painting the fluffy fur was also a bit of a challenge, but in this case is was sufficient to make a very soft edge where the fur ends and the box becomes visible. Because his face is so dark and in the shadows, the nose and cheeks cannot be distinguished by a change in colour. 

The whiskers are painted with white watercolour paint. Maybe a white pencil would have had better, whiter results, that is an idea for the next painting.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Autumn mood

 

Now it is really autumn, not only on the calendar but also outside, with rain, wind and dropping temperatures. The inspiration to paint flowers is far away now, I have been browsing my archive of mushroom pictures for  this watercolour painting.

The reference picture was made a few years ago and I have forgotten where this was. It was a forest - but we have been walking in many forest or woodland areas over the past years.

This is a large group of mushrooms and those in the foreground were already withering when the picture was made. They were growing on a piece of dead tree that was on the forest ground.

For the background I have chosen colours that are also seen or used in the mushrooms. The mushrooms are painted in way that is very close to reality.

The information about the paper and paint I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Rose hips

 

After the beautiful rose flowers have withered, there is another thing that inspires me to paint and that is the beauty of the rose hips. During a short walk close to our home I made some reference pictures of rose bushes with lots and lots of rose hips and I have made a mixed media work inspired by these pictures.

I have changed the colours to a yellow background, anticipating the autumn colours. The background is made using watercolour paint and a lot of water. Gravity did most of the work here. 

After the background had dried, I decided on my composition. When I make a watercolour background using this technique, there is a lot of 'chance' in the result so I place my subject on the best spot of the under painting.

Only one branch situated on the side of the bush, with some leaves and lots of rose hips is my subject, but I have added the suggestion of more branches and leaves for the sake of my composition. This is all made using my watercolour pencils.

For the branch and the berries I have layered the colours to achieve the results I wanted.

Because I have used textured paper, this will always be visible, but where I have used more layers of pencil the texture of the paper will be filled completely without leaving white parts in the shape of the berries, leaves or branches. I like to work with these contrasts.

The information about the paper, paints and pencils I have used, the size of the work and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Groynes in the river

 

In the rivers near my home are groynes to regulate the current and to mark the channel for the many ships that use our rivers for transport. When the rivers are closer to the sea they have quay walls and thechannel that can be used for transport is almost as wide as the river itself.

I like the parts with the groynes better, they look more natural, even though you often cannot walk there, these areas are often protected.

The september challenge of  'Goed gezien - Goed Bekeken' is "You can find me by the river" and I have decided that these groynes (that can be found by the river) are my subject for this challenge. I have been looking for reference pictures in our photo albums and I have combined some memories in this composition.

As the river and the groynes are my subject, I have simplified the bushes and fields.

The fact that I have tried to improve my skills in painting water during my painting vacation has helped me here, I had much more confidence about the river so it was not overworked.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Timber

 

When we are walking in a woodland area, we always see stacks of timber waiting for transport. This time, walking in the 'Kralingse Bos' - a woodland area in Rotterdam - we saw a stack with some really old trunks that were already in decomposition in it. It had been raining, so part of the wood was almost black and there were a lot of herbs growing near this stack.

I felt inspired to make some reference pictures and climbed around this stack of timber to have pictures from all sides. 

The idea of working with charcoal on tinted cardboard came while I was making these pictures but when I was trying to find the right composition my husband suggested I should try to add watercolour pencils (these are the only coloured pencils I have).

Of course this was an experiment for me and a challenge. The chosen composition is almost abstract and that is not my usual style.

I selected a sheet of tinted cardboard  in a medium brown colour, so I could add some darkness with the charcoal where needed and the light green of the leaves would still be visible.

I started drawing the leaves and stems of the herbs with the pencils and added charcoal later. While I was working, I found that I could work with the pencils over a surface with a little charcoal on it, so I could add some depth in my drawing.  The patches of moss on the timber were not so easy, I have to practise a bit more on that.

The timber is done with charcoal and at first I despaired if it would ever be right, but halfway I got courage - things were looking good and I grew more and more confident about the way I had to draw these sawn off tree trunks.

This was an experiment for me and I am very happy with the result. 

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing  can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Mushrooms - end of summer

 

My first mushroom painting of this year. 

There will be more mushroom paintings in the next months as I hope to make some nice reference pictures during our walks. The reference picture for this watercolour was made by my husband a few weeks ago.

The picture shows some large white mushrooms and dark green nettle leaves. 

As the mushrooms were pictures from above, it was not really easy to paint them as recognizable mushrooms. I have added some extra leaves, stalks and shadows to turn this scene into a better painting. Yes, there was a challenge here.

The contrast between the light mushrooms and the darkness of the soil and the nettle leaves was what made my husband make the reference picture in the first place so I have done my best to emphasize that contrast in my painting. 

I have used a small size paper and some dark colours that are relatively new for me.  The result is what I hoped it would be and I am inspired to use these colours more often.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Butterfly - end of summer

 

Several weeks ago I started painting the visitors to the flowers that inspire me to paint. That resulted in two paintings with bumble bees and a question to my daughter for reference pictures of butterflies (as these are not waiting for a picture to be made using my phone). She sent me some beautiful pictures to begin with and this one inspired me very much.

This beautiful butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) is not on a flower, but surrounded by dry, fallen leaves as happens in the end of summer, when the trees are already losing their foliage because of heat and drought.

Using the reference picture (thank you Mariska) I made a composition with the butterfly ant the leaf it was sitting on and surrounded them with leaves from the picture, but not exactly as was shown in the reference. 

I took great care to make the leaves look fallen and dry and keep the butterfly in the center of attention. Some of the leaves are not as detailed as possible but to my idea this improves the composition of my  painting.

The information about the paper and paint I used, the size and availability of this painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

City vs Nature - 2

 

When I was looking for inspiration and references for my first 'City vs Nature' work, I was looking for a city skyline and trees. I found something much more inspiring and I used the images I found but the first idea was still there, wanting to be painted.

So today I looked at city skylines and city scenes for inspiration and painted a city scene that is imaginary, but inspired by a lot of real cities. Once again I did not paint a lot of details because I wanted to draw over this painting with charcoal.

The trees in this scene are not there, which is exactly what happens in reality when big cities are built. I have outlined the foreground branches and the trees in the background on the left and filled in the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

The watercolour painting behind the charcoal had to stay visible, I have used the right amount of charcoal to reproduce that feeling of greyness that seems to be present in all big cities.

This mixed media was an experiment for me, it is the first time that I have been filling the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

Covering all those sharp angles and staying away from the spaces that had to stay untouched by the charcoal was a challenge. It made me use a piece of tissue instead of my fingers to rub out the charcoal.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this work and the availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Heat

 

The August challenge of Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken was 'heat' and we have had a lot of that.

Of course I had to find a way to paint that and during the week of my painting vacation I did see leaves falling from the trees and bushes, as if it were already autumn.

The inspiration was there, now I only had to paint it. 

The monochromatic indigo watercolour of a branch I made in my vacation week had the image I wanted, but it was not 'hot' enough, so I decided to make a fiery red version using a red and two orange shades.

The leaves are almost shaped like flames and I added some falling leaves to emphasize the effects of the hot and dry weather we were having these past weeks.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of the painting and the availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

The mud flats of Voorne (Netherlands)

 

The last day of our week full of lessons and advice from our teacher Ad van Aart I wanted to make a watercolour painting after the reference pictures I made during a walk in our beautiful nature.

My husband and me went for a walk at the South end of the Maasvlakte, where over the last decades some new nature has formed where the sea used to be. The mud flats are not accessible for public, these are resting areas for birds and seals. When we were there, the seals were out, but some birds were feeding near the water.

The lesson of using only two elements in my painting (water and one other) is applied here as well, so I have only painted the mud flats with the streams and the sea in the background. The horizon is at the top of my painting.

The advice I got from Ad for this painting was mostly about preserving the light in my painting, the sunshine on the water and on the wet sand in the background were important features to remember while painting. Where there is sunlight, there also are shadows and that is what I used to define the shapes of the sand banks and mud flats. 

This painting took me almost a whole day to paint, drying time was long as the air was damp and I had chosen a larger size paper.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Reflection, Iceland

 

Improving my skills in painting water also means painting reflections in water and our teacher Ad van Aart had the perfect picture for me to paint from (thank you!). 

This is another scene in Iceland and looking at all these pictures (to select the perfect one to paint from) made me want to visit Iceland as well. Maybe that can happen in the future.

The reflection in the picture was almost a perfect mirror image, so the challenge was to show that slight imperfection in my painting, but I should not overdo it. The black volcanic rock still is another challenge, as I should not overdo that either.

Of course things were not perfect at first, but watercolour can be forgiving and I could remove some of the blackness that was too much and the result is a landscape painting of which I am proud.

The rock in the foreground was added last, we decided this rock should be in the painting (it was there in the reference picture) because it improves the whole scene.

This painting was quite a struggle, it took me a long time to complete this one. Because of the hot weather we had all week I took my time, there was no need to rush things and ruin a painting. Maybe the weather was also slowing me down for another reason, the drying time of a wet surface was longer than expected on such a hot day. 

As said, I am happy with this painting, the result is worth the effort I put into it and I definitely have learned something while painting this scene.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Branch, summer

 

During our week of lessons there was an afternoon off, but it was too hot to go for a walk in the surrounding forest. So I stayed at our residence and painted a small watercolour using one of the 'blind contour drawings' of the first day for inspiration.

It had been hot and dry for weeks now and the trees were already losing their leaves. Those that did not yet loose leaves, had them hanging down from the branches.

For this small watercolour I chose to use only one colour, make a light background first and then paint the shape of the branch and the hanging leaves with a stronger mix (of paint and water).

Only when I saw the painting like it is now, I decided that it did not need any additions like the berries that were on the branch I had been drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting are in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Waterfall, Iceland

 

The plan to improve my skills in painting water also led to half an hour viewing pictures our teacher Ad van Aart had made in Iceland, with waterfalls, melting ice and more.

I was allowed to make some 'screenshots' from his laptop with my camera and use them to paint from.

This beautiful waterfall was the first to be painted and the mist beside it was an extra challenge. 

Ad told me that the foreground plateau ended abruptly and that the waterfall dropped much deeper than was visible from the point where the picture was taken.

The black volcanic rocks of Iceland are another challenge to paint, the dark colour is very different from any other landscape I have ever painted.

So I did take my time for this one, also because we still had very hot weather and the heat could not be avoided, the shadows of the trees did not bring any refreshment.

Of course I needed some guidance with this one - that is why I go to a week of painting lessons - but I learned that painting a waterfall is just looking good at the reference and reproducing that on my paper. Of course this is not an exact copy of the picture, but I have got the rocks behind the water in the right place and that what matters most.

Again I was surprised, honoured and happy that one of my fellow students wanted to buy this watercolour. 

The information about the paper and paints I have used can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com