Shattered - the watercolour painting

 

Last week we had a prompt 'shatter' in the Sketch A Day app and after I had made a sketch for the app I explored the theme a bit further with a charcoal drawing which I posted here.

In my blog post I wrote that I wanted to do another work with this theme and that is what I did today, a watercolour painting.

The view is not the same, the drawing was from the inside, looking at a blue sky and this is from the outside, looking in through the shattered window, seeing darkness.

This 'what if' came up during a conversation about the charcoal drawing and my idea to explore the theme further. Thinking about the possibilities of both views, this one attracted me much more than the other one.

So I stretched a paper, let it dry and started planning where the hole in the window had to be. Around that hole I drew the window, added the stones around the window and started painting. On the wall some branches of a climbing plant can be seen, without leaves.

This is the result I was aiming for all the time, I will not paint an 'inside looking out' version any more. Sometimes you have to do the not so very great drawing before you can find what makes you really happy with the work you made.

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.

Shattered - a charcoal drawing

 

A few days ago the prompt in the Sketch A Day app was 'shatter' and after some thinking I made a pencil sketch about a broken window with a blurred view. In this drawing there was a stone on the ground to explain the shattered window.

The sketch was for the app and I wanted to do a bit more with the idea/theme so today I made a charcoal drawing on a small size paper. 

It shows (I hope) a window in a wall covered with some dull wallpaper. The window is not showing the view correctly, everything is blurred. Only the hole in the window gives a view to a blue sky. The blue is Conté. For this drawing I left out the stone, leaving the cause of the shattering of the window open.

I am not yet done with this idea, maybe later I will have time for a bigger work either in charcoal or in watercolour.

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.

Little mushrooms - a pencil drawing

 

During our very short stay in the East part of our country we saw these little mushrooms on a stump of a dead tree. They were creating a natural composition that I could not ignore.

Back in our hotel I made a drawing on black paper, using multiple layers of pencil to create the desired depth in colour for the mushroom heads. The dead tree trunk is only suggested to give the mushrooms all the focus they deserve.

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 m y Flickr account.

Beech nuts

 

It does not happen very often that we see the beech nuts still hanging on the tree. This time we did see that and I made a reference picture for a drawing and maybe even a painting.

We were on a short vacation in the Eastern part of our country and we saw this during a walk in a Natural reserve.

Back in our hotel I made a drawing of these cute little beech nuts using pencils on black paper. I did not use water to deepen the colours, that was not what this drawing asked 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 Flickr account.

Heidenopfertisch - three works

 

During my painting vacation I explored methods to draw and paint the feeling I have when I am near Dolmen sites, ancient burial places that feel sacred to me. I have been continuing that the past weeks at home and I have published my charcoal drawing about a week ago.

Both my charcoal drawing and the watercolour painting I made now are based on a pencil study I made much earlier - and it shows that it has been in  my studio for some months now

as it has some splashes of watercolour on it.

The painting I made today is made again with the idea of light coming from the dolmen, to show how the atmosphere feels at such places. 

This time I have used a granulating colour for my sky and I tried to get the most out of that effect. I also used that colour for the shadows under the stones to unify the painting.

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

Drierivierenpunt - before sunrise

 

Last week my dear colleague Ingrid van der Kuijl made on her way to work a beautiful picture of the dark clouds over the water of the 'Drierivierenpunt' or three-rivers point. 

That point, where three rivers meet near Dordrecht, Netherlands has been painted over at least four centuries. Several years ago I also made paintings, mostly daylight scenes.

It did not take much to get permission to paint with the picture as my reference and so here it is, my watercolour impression of the 'Drierivierenpunt' in the morning, before sunrise.

Of course painting did not go as easy as I liked and I  keep wondering what goes 'wrong' when I don't paint for a few weeks because after such a period - with drawings, no watercolour - my materials seem a bit reluctant to cooperate.

After a bit of a struggle with paint, humidity and other things this is the result and I really like it.

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

Heidenopfertisch - a charcoal drawing

 

During my painting vacation I made several pencil studies after the reference pictures I made of the Dolmen in North Germany. Not all were used that week and one of them was the base for this work.

I have been looking on maps where I was that day, more than three years ago, and found this dolmen is the Heidenopfertisch, near Visbek.

A reference picture from another angle has been the start of many works that week, but this time I used another study. In my pencil drawing one of the big stones looked as if it was broken and I used that to create the atmosphere I was looking for..

Continuing with the feeling that a dolmen is somehow a sacred place I tried to depict that. 

The chunky charcoal is perfect for night scenes so the landscape and the sky are as good as black. Only the stones are grey, as I wanted them to be.

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 Flickr account.