During our last walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' we had a lot of morning fog, but for a few moments the winter sun was strong enough to break through the fog and the clouds. At one of these moments we were close to one of the creeks and of course the sunlight and the clouds were reflected in the water.
As there was not much colour in the whole scene (except many shades of grey and some green in the fields) I decided to make a charcoal drawing, like I did with the other reference pictures that we made during that walk.
This is one of the first times I tried to make a reflection while working with charcoal and having to think about black and white only makes it easier to place the reflections, but using colours (like in a watercolour painting) helps making the locations of the sun, clouds and their reflections in the scene a bit more obvious.
I will have to work on that - and I am looking forward to it.
The details about size, paper used, availability etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The last day of 2019 was a very foggy day. We started in the morning without a view from the windows but that got better in a few hours.
We (my husband and me) decided to go for a short walk in 'De Biesbosch', a Natural Reserve very close to where we live. This is a very wet area, formed during a flood in the year 1421 and the tides can still be experienced here.
We had a lot of mist and a bit of sunshine during our walk and at one point we could see the reeds and the creek close by, but the woodlands behind the reeds were almost the same shade of grey as the foggy sky.
There was no wind, so the water in the creek was completely still and everything was reflected as clearly as possible on such a foggy day.
Of course some reference pictures were made!
I decided to make a charcoal drawing of this scene, the shades of grey were inviting me to choose that technique.
There was another reason for charcoal, making a charcoal drawing is faster than watercolour, and I did not have the time to prepare a sheet of paper and paint a watercolour painting. That is for the weekend, as my days off from work are over.
The details about the paper I used, the size, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
A walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch', close to my home is always nice. This time we saw this broken tree trunk, a left-over after a storm.
I used the pictures we made for a watercolour painting, concentrating on atmosphere, following the advice that was given to me during my painting vacation.
I have painted most of this painting in the wet-in-wet technique, layering paint to make the shadows deeper. The trees in the background are only suggested now and the field has only a few shadows to suggest different grasses.
The broken tree is the last thing I have painted, taking care to suggest (not to show) most of the details.
All of this looks easier than it is, layering dark colours is something that needs to be done with great care; a bit too much water in the brush and all previous layers will disappear.
The structures in the trees and bushes were shaped by paint and water, a result that cannot be reproduced.
It really is an exciting experience when this happens the 'right' way.
The next weeks, months, years I will practise this technique as much as possible, mostly because I do love the paintings I get in this way.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
