Rowan - a watercolour painting

 

After the Conté drawing I had made of the rowan bush I wanted more. 

So I prepared a sheet of watercolour paper with a gold-yellow background and started drawing the composition of my Conté drawing using a brush and paint. For a plant like this, no pencil drawing is really needed (for me) and I loved the small changes this method gave me.

The leaves were painted in the same colour scheme as the Conté drawing: with a dark brown and a red earth colour. 

After cleaning my paint water and returning to my work I decided the berries were not needed here, the branch looks like the birds have already eaten them. The Autumn colours of my palette make that very probable.

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 Flickr account.

Rowan - a Conté drawing

 

Last week my husband and me went for a not so very long walk (because it would be a very hot day) in a forest we never visited before, 'De Krochten' in the province of Noord-Brabant (Netherlands). 

We enjoyed the walk, surrounded by buzzing insects but not in danger of stings and lots of shadow under the trees. Along the path were many rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) bushes and I looked for a nice branch to make a reference picture. I have always liked to draw or paint branches with berries on them.

Today I made a drawing using my Conté Crayons and tinted paper. Of course these are not the natural colours of the plant, but I liked to try a different set of colours. Of course I do not have green Conté Crayons (yet), which urges me to be more creative in finding other colour schemes. After the branch and leaves were drawn I decided on the colour for the berries.

There are more layers in the front leaves and berries, the background leaves have one layer of Conté and the shapes are only indicated.

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 Flickr account.

Kelp forest - for a challenge

 

This month the challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about the world under water. This month I have been on a painting vacation, in my own country, far from the coast and in a time when the rivers are almost too dry for ships to pass. So I had to imagine something.

A kelp forest was my idea but I had to look for (free) references to make my painting. The kelp forest is imaginary - from memories of documentaries - but for the shark I needed a reference.

In this work I also used metallic watercolour paint, for the shark and the top of the leaves where the light strikes them. 

The information about all 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 Flickr account.

Variations on an acorn - a pencil drawing

 

The last half of the last afternoon of my painting vacation was dedicated to something easy as in not a very serious subject compared to what I have done the rest of the week. Of course I made the most of my subject, an acorn found under one of the big oak trees near our residence.

When I did show my plan to our teacher and coach Ad van Aart he said something about going extreme with the subject and that is what I tried to do.

I had brought my whole box of watercolour pencils and I wanted to use them. The green acorn was the first on the paper, using the colours of the subject for my drawing. I also added some water and applied more pencil layers after that had dried for depth in my colours. The shadow is only one pencil layer.

After that I started the bigger drawings, using colours that are also in the first drawing, but not 'as the original is'. Looking at my drawing now, it may show the autumn colours of that acorn if it would have been on the tree for so long.

I am happy to say that I did surprise Ad with my final work, he did not expect me to do something like this. It was fun, making a surprising composition out of a subject that does not look great as first sight.

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 Flickr account. 

Ruins 'Kloster Allerheiligen' - three works

 

Almost ten years ago we visited the 'Kloster Allerheiligen' in Germany and I made some pictures for painting. The works I made were never doing justice to the ruins so I decided to focus on other subjects.

This painting vacation I wanted to revisit these pictures and try to make something better. Of course our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me.

At first I made a drawing using pencils and a fine liner (the third work from above) to get the composition right. 

The second work (in the middle) is done with Chunky Charcoal, suggesting the day or the spiritual presence that can be felt in such ruins. I really liked the fact that straight lines are not really possible with this material and I got the feeling/atmosphere I was looking for.

Then came the suggestion to do a night version of this scene. The buildings are to be grey and the sky is to be black. Here I had to find out where the light comes from and create a credible drawing. With this very black charcoal that was a bit of a challenge, a mark made is a mark on the paper that can only be 'erased' with more black around it. 

The results are what I hoped for and maybe I will never do a watercolour painting of ruins like this, because the straight lines that are to be found in architecture - even in ruins - usually make me very unhappy.

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

Stone circle - five works

 

During my painting vacation I was looking for a way to paint/depict the spiritual feeling I can get at certain sites. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me find my 'voice' in this.

After the cap stone and the dolmen I needed a new subject and I made up a stone circle.  The work at the bottom is a first try on composition. It is not quite finished but the other participants of the painting vacation called this stage interesting so I just left it this way. For the composition I did not need to go further.

The second version is made with willow charcoal to explore the spiritual feeling. Following this version I made one with Chunky Charcoal which is much darker than Willow charcoal.

The watercolour versions are made on panorama size paper, the stones on the left and the light coming from them shining to the right. First only Indigo and a second painting with an earth colour on request of Ad.

The charcoal drawings and the watercolour paintings do show the spiritual feeling I wanted to show in these works. All four are different, but the idea is there. I am really happy with these results.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these works and their availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Flickr account.

Dolmen - five works

 

The second project in my painting vacation was a dolmen, capstone and supporting stones or at least what is left of the structure.

The first thing I made was the pencil drawing as a study for the composition and to get an idea of the structure of the different stones. After that came the Conté drawing on Terracotta paper as a 'mood' study.

Then out teacher and coach Ad van Aart suggested a second Conté drawing, with less stones for a better composition. That is the one on the grey paper.

After that study I reduced the amount of smaller stones to three and made a watercolour painting in natural colours. The grey-blue and the earth colours ate what is to be expected in a landscape.

There was more to be tried with this scene so I reduced the supporting stones to the absolute minimum of two - as suggested by Ad - changed the direction of the paper from 'landscape' to 'portrait' and used colours from the 'Twilight series' of my palette.

The results are what I hoped for. As mentioned in my previous post, this week I intended to paint the spiritual feeling that a dolmen is holy ground and my watercolours really reflect that feeling.

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