A walk in the forest, Dwergter Sand (Germany)

 

Last week we (my husband Peter and me) were in Germany for a short vacation. As usual we went on Monday and returned on Friday so we had only a few days to explore the landscape, views and restaurants.

Monday afternoon, after several hours in the car, we went for a walk just behind the Parc, in the Dwergter Sand. When leaving the parc, you enter the forest area, so that is really great. We did buy a map with several walks to select from and we used that map well during our stay.

The first walk was 'close to home' and we did see a lot of the landscape, fields, patches of forest and a little stream nearby. Of course several pictures were made for reference.

This scene was selected because the sunlight was really highlighting the small hill in the foreground while the trees all were very dark - perfect for a charcoal drawing.

For this drawing I started with a watercolour under painting made with a few colours and left to dry overnight. This approach is perfect for the bright, sunlit hilltop to stand out in the final drawing. 

In the morning I added the charcoal and after I used fixative once I also added pencil colours (and a second layer of fixative) because I was not really happy with the foreground.

The drawing was now what I hoped it would be and looking again after several hours I was even more pleased with it.

The paper I have used did not really react very well to the wet watercolour, next time I will use heavier paper for a watercolour under painting.

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