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.

Beach Rockanje - a charcoal drawing

 

A few weeks ago we (my husband and me) went for a walk to the beach of Rockanje and we had foggy, grey weather. I have made a watercolour painting trying to depict that grey atmosphere but did not quite succeed. I wrote about that in this post.

This time I picked my charcoal to try to get that atmosphere. I have used my Willow charcoal and some Tinted Charcoal Pencils to get the atmosphere I wanted, using a different reference picture.

At the 'point' in the landscape some concrete bunkers were made in the dune edge during World War II and these bunkers are now in the sea. That shows how the sea takes from the land over the years.

These bunkers are now used by sea birds as a resting place and we walked as close as we could towards the waterline - it was ebb-tide and the remaining sands were very watery - and I made some reference pictures with my phone. The quality of these pictures is bad for a picture but usable as a reference.

The result is what I hoped for, a grey day at sea.

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

Blossoms in bud - a pencil drawing

 

Walking home after having done some shopping I saw these small buds on a bush by the footpath. Of course I made some reference pictures for a drawing.

These white blossoms or buds look best on a black paper and I chose medium size for this branch.

Using my new Drawing pencils I made this work. These pencils work great and I am still exploring the possibilities of layering and mixing colours and saturating the colours when I don't need mixing - like with the white petals.

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.

New Leaves

 

The March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about changes coming with the new season. Nature wakes up.

For my painting I made some reference pictures during a short walk in the park area close to our home. These references have been waiting about two weeks before I had time to paint, but here it is, my submission for the challenge.

On a coloured background I painted the branch with fresh leaves, not all green yet. Some trees and bushes have leaves that start with another colour and become green after they had some sunlight. Often the 'base colour' is a reddish brown, but these had a purple/mauve base.

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