Peek a boo!

 

Very often my husband and me make a walk a in our neighbourhood passing some streets before making a small round in the park and returning home through some other streets. One time we walk clockwise, another time counter clockwise and we do not always walk the same streets to have a different route as often as possible. We pass by a lot of gardens and also there are small areas with low bushes that are maintained by the public services of our home town. 

During one of these walks I saw a black and white cat trying to hide in those bushes but as it was late in autumn, there were not many leaves left to hide behind. It was a very nice scene, so I politely asked permission to make some reference pictures. The cat did not walk away (as they often do in such cases) and even took a more beautiful pose for the picture. Of course I said 'Thank you very much' before walking on.

For this drawing I have used my Tinted Charcoal Pencils, they have the right colours for an end - of - autumn scene and my model has the white of the paper and the black of one of the charcoal pencils that are included in the set.

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

Dark clouds over...

 

Very often there are the most beautiful dark clouds in our sky, especially when you are inside. On one occasion there were only clouds (no rain yet) late in the afternoon and I went out to make reference pictures. The first picture I made also showed the light of the shed in the back of the garden and its reflection in the window of the shed's door. That light reacts to a motion detector and my leaving the house did the trick. I decided to use that picture as my reference for a watercolour painting.

Of course my pictures were not very good, the clouds are perfect, but the visible part of our (small) garden are only dark shapes. For the painting I looked outside for reference and combined that with the atmosphere of the reference pictures. 

Getting the fence right (perspective, vanishing points etc.) was not easy and I am still not confident that I did get it right, but as not many of those that read this post will be visiting my home to check I just post the painting as it is. The fence is old and weathered and I am happy that I did paint that characteristic as true to reality as possible.

The atmosphere created by those dark cloud are my real subject and the result is as I hoped it would be.

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.

Village church - Sauerland

 

The reference for this watercolour painting is a sketch I made over nine years ago during a vacation in the Sauerland, Germany. I needed a Facebook challenge about painting churches or chapels to find this sketch again and make a painting.

For this painting I changed the season to a snowy scene in winter - at least I hope this is what a snowy day in winter looks like in the Sauerland. I live in a very flat country and do not really know how high hills (or low mountains) look like in winter. 

The sketch I made all those years ago was very limited, it only showed the church, one other building and lots of bushes and the lines of the hills in the background. Such a limited sketch allows for a lot of 'artistic licence' when making the final painting.

Using a limited palette and a lot of the mentioned artistic licence I made the painting I wanted to make.

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.

The walkers

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me were walking in a nice forest area and I got inspired by the shapes of our shadows on the forest floor. I made a reference picture 'for later use'.

This month the challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'the Walker', inspired by the fact that many people started going out for walks during the pandemic. (We already were frequently going out for walks in our beautiful nature, so nothing changed for us) The picture of our shadows on the forest floor was the ideal reference for this challenge so I started planning my work.

On a small piece of watercolour paper I made an under painting using the colours of the forest in autumn, brown, orange and shades of yellow and green. After this had dried, I added splatters of the same colours and let that dry again. Using two shades of brown Conté I added the shapes of the shadows that were cast by my husband and me but also the shadows of nearby trees and overhanging branches.

The structure of the paper is still visible in our shadows, I have blended the Conté into the paper and tried to create the blurry lines of the shadows cast by the trees and branches. 

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

Deelerwoud - moorland

 

A few weeks ago we (my husband and me) were for two nights in a hotel so we could go for some nice walks in our Natural Reserve 'De Veluwe'.

Our first walk was in the 'Deelerwoud', a beautiful part of the Veluwe and also protected. The walk passed some moorlands and we used a shortcut between the 'large' and the 'small' moorlands. Halfway that shortcut were some large trees and some benches for tired walkers at a viewpoint.. As it had been raining recently we did not sit down, but we enjoyed the view and I climbed on a fallen tree trunk to make some reference pictures. 

Because I was under the trees, some low branches are in the picture as well. These foreground branches are perfect to show the distance of the trees in the background. The foreground has mostly yellowed grasses and in the middle ground a bit of the moorland is visible, dark now that the plants have lost their flowers. 

The cloudy sky only adds to the autumn mood - it had been raining lightly during our walk - and I really wanted to paint this scene, the colours of this beautiful landscape were really wonderful and I do want to visit that area again.

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.

Light

 

Winter is coming, so the November challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is OverWinter(ing). That can be about going to a warmer climate for the winter months or about going out and coming back to hot chocolate and other comfort food or.... what may inspire us.

All those activities have in common, that we are looking for the light, because these are dark months with shortening days and grey skies. 

So I remembered a very old picture made by my daughter Mariska which shows a lot of candles burning in a church (or cathedral) in which the light and warm colours of the candles are a beautiful contrast to the cool colours and darkness of the building.

Of course I have simplified the scene a bit for my watercolour painting, but the idea is still there; the warmth of the candle light contrasted by the grand, dark building. 

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.

Dead tree - watercolour and pencils

 

More than a week ago my husband and me were on a very short trip to our Natural Reserve 'De Veluwe' and we started with a morning walk in the  Deelerwoud. After the rain had (not completely) stopped we had a great walk with beautiful views. We even saw some deer that were too fast to be photographed but we do have the memory.

Not far from the starting point of our walk we saw a really big dead tree, still standing as if nothing was wrong. Because there was no bark left we could not determine what tree it was, but it probably was an oak tree - looking at the shape makes that very plausible.

My husband had already made the picture before I could ask him and of course I wanted to paint that tree. And that is exactly what I did not do.

Because the tree was lighter in colour than most of the background I would have to paint around it and so I decided (also inspired by our current climate crisis) that I would paint around the shape of the tree and leave that negative shape as blank as possible.  I could either leave it untouched or add some pencil marks if the painting 'asked for it'.

After the painting was done I decided that the pencil marks would add to the result so I used three colours of my water soluble pencils to accentuate the shape of the tree and the branches. The tree still looks very much like a negative presence and that is what I wanted it to be.

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