Vordenstein - a charcoal drawing

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me went for a walk in Park Vordenstein, not far from Antwerp, Belgium. The walk was a nice one, the parc area has a lot of different landscape/garden types and there is also some information to be found along the route.

At one point we were close to the chapel that belonged to the castle and I made a picture to use as reference for a drawing and or painting.

This is the first work made using that picture, a charcoal drawing showing the landscape that attracted my attention.

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

Pumpkin Field 2

 

That one reference picture I made of the pumpkin field (when I was on my painting vacation, during a short evening walk) has potential for more than one composition.

For this painting I selected an area with a lot of leaves and some (almost hidden) pumpkins and made a watercolour painting that is all about those large leaves. 

On the background I started drawing the leaves and pumpkins until I thought the composition was nice. Painting these leaves, their stems and the pumpkins was next. 

For all the shades of green I mixed different colours into a 'green from the tube' and the result really pleases me.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artwork - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Pumpkin Field

 

During my painting vacation there always was time to do other things than painting. After dinner we often went for a short walk, sometimes in small groups, sometimes alone. This year the weather was great for those walks, not too hot and no rain so we could walk the fields and forest paths easily.

During these walks I made pictures of the forest and one of the pumpkin field we passed one evening. That picture was used as reference for a charcoal study and a watercolour painting.

I started with the charcoal and pencil study to find the right composition

and I already had decided I would make the pumpkins stand out by giving them their natural colours with watercolour pencils. 

The drawing is - compared to the reference picture - 'wrong' in the meaning of how I used the black of the charcoal. In reality the leaves are the darkest greens, the stems of the plants are a lighter shade of green. In the drawing the stems are dark and black, the leaves are grey. But this works really well, so I decided to make my watercolour painting just like I had made the charcoal study.

For the composition I left out some of the pumpkins and the sheet of watercolour paper is filled completely with the image I wanted to paint. In fact the watercolour paper is just a bit smaller than the paper I used for the charcoal study so I did not have to make my drawing smaller or larger for the painting.

After I had decided on the colour I wanted to use for the background, the leaves and the stems of the pumpkin plants I could start painting.

The result is what I hoped it would be.

The information about the materials I have used for both works, their sizes and availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Between ebb and flow - Hoek van Holland

 

Now my painting vacation is over, the August challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' needs my attention.

The challenge is about the sea, 'between ebb and flow' and I just had the right reference picture for that challenge. My husband Peter made it a few years ago in the hour of sunset at the Pier of Hoek van Holland when some huge container ships were coming into the Port of Rotterdam.

Coming in or leaving the port is always between ebb and flow, ships must make sure they don't miss the tide and that is why I thought of this reference picture when I found out the theme of this month's challenge.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Forest Bath

 

The last day of my painting vacation had arrived and I wanted to make one more painting with an unexpected addition to the landscape. A forest scene was what I wanted to paint and then there was that 'What if...' moment again. What if I place a bath tub in the forest? Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart loved the idea and references for both the forest and a bath tub were found.

This time I had a vision of what I wanted to paint so I did not make any thumbnail sketches. The composition was sketched on the paper with the plan to paint the bath tub last, adding this unusual item to my forest scene.

Painting a birch forest in watercolour is a bit more challenging than any other forest - we have to keep the trees white and cannot paint them dark over a nice background - so that took some time and attention. I enjoyed every moment!

For the bath tub I selected a special set of colours so it would stand out between the natural colours of the forest. 

The result is what I hoped for. Not my usual kind of landscape, but I had a lot of fun painting this one.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

The ladder

 

During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart gave me the challenge to add something unexpected to my landscapes. That started a lot of thinking, some crazy ideas and of course it resulted in some paintings.

The idea of adding a ladder to a landscape was suggested to me and after I accepted the idea, we went through my reference pictures to find a 'matching' landscape. This very empty looking landscape with a single sunlit (winter) tree at the side of a path was perfect. The original landscape is in The Netherlands, close to the town of Deventer and because of the emptiness I never really used the picture as a reference before.

First I made some thumbnail sketches to find the right ladder in the right position for the best result and after that I started painting. The colour of the ladder was decided after the landscape was finished, it had to stand out but not too much.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

In the wind

 

While the painting vacation was continuing, I had to think of more landscapes with a surprising element to paint. One thing that came up was a real memory of an Autumn leaf blown in front of the lens while we were making a picture of a group of buildings.

When I told our teacher and coach Ad van Aart that memory he suggested to make some thumbnail sketches first to find the best composition for this work. In these sketches I varied with the size and place of the city/village skyline, the size and place of the leaf and the filling of the shape of the leaf. We both thought that a big leaf, only outlined with the landscape still visible was the best composition.

I tested this in a larger drawing

using water soluble graphite in a very limited palette. 

I went looking for a real leaf as big as I could find and that is the one I outlined in both the drawing and the painting. If a bigger leaf would have been found, I probably would have made the watercolour painting larger, now I adjusted the size of the paper to the size of the leaf - which is a maple leaf.

The information about the materials I used in both works, the sizes and availabilities of both works and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.