Near the 'Herikerberg' (The Netherlands)

 

This week my husband and me went for a short stay in the Eastern part of our country, close to the border with Germany. We made a nice walk over the 'Herikerberg' near Markelo (Netherlands) and made several (reference) pictures. For the reference picture of this watercolour I was seconds too late at every attempt, the sun just came through the clouds and disappeared again very quickly. So the light spot in the clouds is from my memory.

In fact I looked at the reference only briefly, mostly for the structure of the larch trees in the foreground. The placement of the branches and twigs  is different from any other tree. The larch trees lose their needles in autumn, so the branches were bare.

As it had rained the day before our walk, the trees were very dark and the fact that they were back-lit added to that dark brown colour. The rain had also left a lot of water, there was a light fog under the trees that would lift later that day.

The result of my painting is what I had hoped for, an atmospheric view of some woodlands in our country after a rainy day.

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

Tree trunk - pencil drawing/study

 

This week we (my husband and me) went for a walk near Markelo (Netherlands) and we made several reference pictures of the landscape. My pictures are mostly showing trees, including this tree trunk, in the middle of the path. We stayed a few nights in a hotel and I did only bring paper and pencils with me - and a water brush for extra possibilities.

The tree trunk was partially overgrown with mosses and there were the remains of autumn leaves on the trunk and on the path. The roots were visible between the autumn leaves, very dark brown because it had rained during the night.

For the drawing I chose my Graphitint Pencils, using the dry colours but also adding some water which activated the colours that are 'hidden' in the dry pencil marks. The water was mostly used on the areas with mosses and the remains of the autumn leaves. 

After I had used the water and activated the colours, I let the drawing dry and added more dry colour, repeating the process until I was happy with the result.

The reference picture is still inviting me to try this subject using other materials, so this might not be the last time you see this tree trunk in my works.

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

The Beech District - illustration for a challenge

 

The February challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is to design an impossible building. That really is a challenge, because there are so many buildings that are 'impossible' and more are designed and have appeared in great art works. So I really had to think hard this time. 

My first idea was really nice, a huge sphere with one or more houses inside which can roll in the wind, an internal structure with little balls and ball-bearings keeping the buildings horizontally at all times. But as I do not have the training for such technical drawings I had to think of something else.

My husband suggested a bird's nest like the weaver birds make and that helped. 

Of course I made a tree first, with the ladders to the 'nest houses' hanging down. Then I had to make an enlargement showing the nest house, which I also 'opened up' to show the interior.

For this work I have used watercolour paint, line markers and watercolour pencils and I named it The Beech District, (De Beukenbuurt in Dutch) because I think the tree might be a giant beech tree.

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