Tree bark - 2 a graphite drawing

 

Last summer I made several reference pictures of tree roosts, tree bark and whole trees for later use. Of course I can always paint a tree and I have experimented with the tree roots during my painting vacation. These works were made as a start, to gain confidence for working with that subject.

The tree bark pictures are used now and I am experimenting with a watercolour under painting and combinations of pencils for the drawing. Using a small size watercolour painting I make an under painting in only one colour that can already suggest the colour of the tree bark. When that is dry I start drawing the patterns of the tree bark.

This time I have not only used a Graphitint pencil for the drawing, I also used a dark matt graphite pencil to achieve the dark shadows that are in the reference picture. The tree is another coniferous tree and again I do not know the species.

The reference picture is only used as a guideline for the direction of the lines in the tree bark and I have indicated the darker areas. After these were drawn I used my memory and my imagination to get the result that you can see, only looking at the picture when I really thought I was going the wrong way.

The results are what I hoped for and of course I will make more of these drawings in the future. Maybe one day I will make a watercolour painting of tree bark, but first I need to get more familiar with this subject.

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

Winter in the polder

 

This week we had snow, temperatures below freezing point and great views! Driving was not too tricky so when I had to go to one of my children I drove through the polder of the Alblasserwaard (Netherlands) instead of taking the highway. In fact I prefer that route always, driving is more relaxed and it is a shortcut.

Of course I had to drive, but I could also enjoy the views of the snow on the fields and I decided I wanted to paint that. This painting is an imaginary landscape, I did not stop for a reference picture. The few parking places along that route do not have the nicest views.

A polder landscape always has some ditches, pollard willows - most of them are smaller than I am except for the branches - a line of trees and bushes on the horizon. When you look in the right direction there is a chance of a village with a church and don't forget the reeds beside the ditches.

So I arranged all these elements under a blue sky with some clouds looking for balance in the composition and I painted the landscape using the colours I remembered, dark brown for the trees, white and a nice grey for the clouds, blue sky and a brownish yellow for the reeds.

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

If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Tree bark - a graphite drawing

 

The patterns of tree bark are beautiful! Last summer I have been drawing and painting the bark of a redwood tree, this time I have made a drawing of the bark of another coniferous tree - I do not know which species.

The reference picture was enlarged so I could concentrate on the structures of the tree bark.

For this work I used a small sheet of watercolour paper and made an under painting with a nice granulating colour and let this dry naturally. After that I picked a Graphitint Pencil and started to draw the lines and shadows of the tree bark. Because I only used one pencil, I had to think about the values, the original reference picture has more colours in the tree bark than only shades of brown.

The darkest shadows were touched with a brus with a little water, to 'awaken' the water soluble graphite tint of the pencil and darken the shadows even more.

This experiment has turned out nice, at least for me. The results are what I expected and in the (near) future I will make more works concentrating on the structures of tree bark. 

Maybe I will be a bit bolder in my colour choices and add more techniques and materials after a while, but I will have to find out what I really want first. And that can only be achieved by making more drawings or paintings.

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

The base, beech tree - another work, another technique

 

Another work using the tree roots of the beech tree we saw near Vaals (Netherlands) last October. As I did not know when I would have the time to make this work (we planned some nice things to do) I made a blog post with the first two works and decided to wait with the third work until later.

This work is also based on the charcoal drawing I made first so the reference picture was not used for the graphite drawing.

For this drawing I have used some colours of the Tailor shaped water soluble graphite that I discovered earlier this year. The shape of these graphite 'sticks' works nice and as it is water soluble only water and soap are needed to get my fingers clean.

I used two shades of brown, only the light shade is washed with some water. White is used for the sunlit parts of the tree roots.

All information about the materials I have used, the size of the drawing and its availability can be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artworks, please do contact me.

The base, beech tree

 

A few months ago, during our short vacation in Vaals (Netherlands) we made some signposted walks. I have already posted paintings of the views over the hills but of course I have also made reference pictures of trees and tree roots.

This beautiful beech tree had some nice exposed roots, the sunlight caused some highlights and shadows so I had to make a watercolour painting of it.

For the painting I have used only two colours - and not the most obvious ones - for an experiment in 'does this give my painting the atmosphere I want it to have?' and the result pleases me.

Before I made the painting I first made a charcoal drawing

This drawing was used as reference for the painting, just like I did during my latest painting vacation in August. 

And again, the atmosphere of a charcoal drawing is very different from a painting, even with a very limited palette. Still, the results are what I hoped for.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of both the watercolour painting and the charcoal drawing and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.