Two dead trees - a graphite drawing

 

This is the third work inspired by two dead trees  we saw in Voornes Duin, a Nature Reserve at our coastline. In my previous post I wrote that I wanted to experiment with colours and here is the result.

Using water soluble graphite I made a drawing in unusual colours, just to see what the result can be when I do things like this.

I really liked making this drawing and I also changed my first idea to stick to one colour only when I saw the result after applying water to the trees. The left tree has more colours, to make the difference between both trees clear.

This work has the same size as the charcoal drawing and that means not the whole left tree is visible. The background trees are also not shown in this work, I wanted to concentrate on the dead trees in the dune valley again.

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.

Two dead trees - a monochromatic watercolour

 

In my previous post I have written about these two dead trees, that we saw them last winter in Voornes Duin, a beautiful Nature Reserve at our coastline and that I intended to make more than one work inspired by the sight of these trees.

Here is the watercolour, a monochromatic painting using only Sepia on a panorama sized paper to show more of the left tree than is possible on a 'normal' size paper.

This time I have only painted the dune valley the trees were in and the trees themselves. There is no background for the reason that I wanted to focus on the trees this time. The ground they are standing on and resting on is important to understand what I have been painting.

This is not the last work inspired by these two dead trees. I intend to experiment a bit with colours, just see my next post.

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.

Two dead trees - a charcoal drawing

 

After having painted and drawn solitary dead trees for several years, this time I have two dead trees that looked like they belong together.

In reality they are standing there together a bit away from a signposted walk in Voornes Duin and it is hard to tell them apart. As we are not allowed to leave the path, I had to make a picture from a distance.

At first I made my drawing of only the left tree, but looking at the result I decided to add the other one for the balance in my composition.

The left tree is stretched out to the left side for at least twice the length that I have depicted in this drawing and I want to make another drawing or painting of the whole tree - or at least as good as I could make my picture. I might want to use my panorama-sized watercolour paper for that and make a painting of these two and the surrounding landscape.

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.

Yellow blossom

 

The little blossoms in my painting are really very small, I first only saw the little round balls on the branches of the bush we were passing by, but some of them were opened and the flowers are beautiful little bells.

The bush is a common sight close to our home, in the 'public' green areas between blocks of houses these are planted and grow nicely. The people from the landscaping department take care of these bushes and unfortunately I do not know what the name of the plant is. It is most probably from the Berberis family that has up to 500 different plants.

To make a reference picture I had to adjust the camara on my phone and I managed to get a good reference for a painting.

Inspired by the colours of the bush I made a background and after that had dried I added the branch that I photographed. 

At this point I decided to add more colour, mostly in the lower part of the painting, suggesting branches and leaves by creating an uneven layer of colour. In this part I also added some flower buds, these are only suggested with little amounts of yellow.

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.

Blossom - pencil and paint

 

Every walk in the parc area close to our home has new blossoms, leaves and other signs of spring and of course I make pictures of all that beauty as references for drawings and paintings.

This time a little white blossom, left alone on the branch after a strong wind and I really have no idea what tree or bush it grows on.

On a black paper I first made an initial drawing with my Watercolour pencils and after that I painted the flower with Metallic watercolour paint. That is a new material for me so this was an experiment. The paper I used is not fit for much water, so I was very careful with that.

After the paint had dried I used my pencils again for depth and the details of the little blossom.

For the leaves and the branch I only used pencils, no water, to show that the blossom is my subject but it does not exist alone.

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.

Photography evolution - drawing for a challenge

 

The April challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about 'my generation' and we have to draw, paint or otherwise show what is special to our generation. That is not an easy task, so I took my inspiration from the picture added to the description of the challenge and changed the subject from books to photography.

My father was a good amateur photographer who did use black and white for a relatively long time. So I grew up with camera's and black and white pictures. Later we had colour pictures. And now we all have a camera with photography apps on them.

I made landscapes with water soluble graphite pencils and watercolour pencils, the phone just shows some apps on a fantasy background. And a camera much like I remember having myself. 

On all the elements of the drawing I used water to 'awaken' the colours.

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.

Sand

 

Today's prompt in the Sketch A day app is 'Sand' and that made me go through my reference pictures of patterns in the sand at the beach or elsewhere. I found this one, made by my daughter and waiting to be used for over six years now.

On a watercolour paper I made a watercolour underpainting using the colours of the picture.

After that had dried I made the structures using my pencils and I picked the watercolour pencils only because I have the widest range in colours and shades of that quality in pencils. I knew I needed some shades of grey this time.

The structure was created by strong wind over not completely dry sand and the sun gave some nice shadows. The reference picture is almost abstract and I liked that idea for today's prompt.

Using the pencils I could make the best of the structure of the paper and I am really happy with the result.

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.