Peacock - a pencil drawing

 

A few days ago the prompt in the Sketch A Day app was 'Peacock' and after looking for some references I decided to draw the head and neck of a peacock with my watercolour pencils on a black background.

As I did before, after the first layer of pencil I used a bit of water to 'awaken' the colours and after that had dried I added another pencil layer for depth.

I still have the idea that I am not really good at drawing animals, but with a reference for the proportions and overall shape I get nice results. 

My to-do list for the coming years is about getting more practice and building confidence.

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.

Pine cone - a pencil drawing

 

The reference picture I made of this pine cone was waiting to be used for a painting or drawing and with today's prompt in the Sketch-A-Day app the drawing is made.

I used my new Drawing Pencils for this one, this time on a tinted paper.

Making the drawing was nice and relaxing, the result is what I hoped for.

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.

Parc Vordenstein

 

Last summer we (my husband and me) went for a walk in Park Vordenstein in Belgium. The parc is on an estate and has nice paths for walking, woodland areas, fields, a pond and a small corner with cattle. After the walk there is the Orangery for coffee, tea or a lunch. We had a nice day.

Of course I made several reference pictures for later use and I did not do much with these until today. In one of the woodland areas we saw these two dead trees - there really are two of them, the smallest one is almost hidden in the background.

Of course I could make a charcoal drawing or a Conté drawing of the dead trees, but in this case I wanted to make a watercolour painting. They stand in the green bushes with green and 'red' trees in the background and I liked the difference.

For this painting I used some colours that are new for me and the sunlight on the leaves of the bushes is suggested by using fine salt on the wet (damp) paint.

I am happy with the result. The new shades of green are nice to work with and the salt did what I hoped it would do.

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.

Winter in the forest - a pen-and-ink drawing

 

My first pen-and-ink drawing since I started painting and drawing. 

Of course I have used line markers before, but always as a part of the materials needed for the desired result. I got a set of line markers in a 'goodie bag' and I decided to try them on some basic, smooth paper with a prompt from the Sketch A Day app.

The theme was 'Nature' and so it is no surprise that I made this wintery forest scene. 

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.

Tree - a pencil drawing

 

A few months ago I bought a new set of pencils, a quality I had not used before, but the range of colours attracted me. These Derwent Drawing Pencils are for drawing landscapes and animals, exactly my kind of subjects.

The first drawing I made with these had to be an subject I know - a tree. Last weekend we went for a signposted walk in 'Voorne's Duin', starting and ending at the visitor's centre 'Tenellaplas' a large pond in the dune landscape.

The weather was fine for a walk like this and I made several pictures, not only of trees, but also of the dune valleys we passed through.

This tree with part of its roots exposed attracted my attention and inspired me to draw.

Testing the pencils that are new for me I found out that they work easily, I have been mixing by layering more than two colours in one spot. I have also been using the white of the paper or completely covered the paper with colour in some parts of the tree trunk, the branches and the roots.

These colours cannot be 'awakened' by adding water - as can be done with the watercolour or Graphitint pencils - but I am happy with the result I get with these pencils. As said, the range of colours is limited and designed for landscapes, trees and animals but that does not really bother me.

After I finished my drawing I have used some fixative (as was advised on the website) and my colours did not change at all.

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

Tree roots - a Conté drawing

 

Last spring we (my husband and me) went for a signposted walk in the 'Mastenbos' (Belgium) where I made several reference pictures for my paintings and drawings. Some have already been used to make nice watercolour paintings and this time I wanted to draw these tree roots.

The tree had fallen and the roots were exposed which is not usual, most of the times you see a large amount of soil and earth attached to the roots. That means all the soil had been removed - by rain or wind or both - from this fallen tree.

I made some reference pictures when we were there and I selected the best one for my drawing.

Only the roots are visible here, the sand that had fallen off and the tree trunk are not in the drawing.

That decision was made during the drawing process. I started with the roots and gave them as much details as possible with crayons and looked at the result. Nothing else was needed, so I signed the drawing, used fixative and called it finished.

The result is what I hoped for.

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. 

Snowdrops - a drawing

 

In my front garden are snowdrops, in fact two different types of them. These are the first to have flowers and I made a reference picture for this drawing.

Last time I went to my favourite Art Supply store I bought a set of 'try out' papers with different colours and different textures in a small size.

On one of those postcard size sheets I made this drawing, testing the colours on the tinted background.

The Graphitint pencils show 'different' colours when treated with water so I also tested that. After I had applied water and let it dry I added a second layer of the white pencil to deepen the colour a bit.

This was a nice experience, having these small size sheets of paper make it easy to test materials, colours etc with a simple subject - like these snowdrops.

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