Nighttime conversations

 

When the end of October is near the challenges (mostly on Facebook) are about ghosts, spooky things and so on. It took a long time (and some conversations with relatives) before I had the inspiration to paint this watercolour painting.

My daughter suggested a misty forest, I thought about a spider and its web and my mother added the idea of a black cat. All that combined would make a nice scene for me to paint. Most of this is completely imaginary, only for the cat I have used one of my own reference pictures. 

For the spider's web I have used a small white wax crayon, so the lines would resist the watercolour. Not all the wax lines did resist the watercolour though so in the end I added some lines a bit with small amounts of black paint. The result is suggesting the white lines are shimmering in a beam of moonlight. 

The black cat I was painted using a mix of black and a greyish blue colour as animal fur always has variations in its shade because of the light. That suggested beam of moonlight will also have touched the cat so I had to include that in my depiction of the cat.

I have enjoyed painting this little scene and I was happy to have experimented with wax resist again - there is a lot to learn with that technique.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found at my Tumblr blog.

Iceland - Autumn colours

 

Of course the nature in our own country is very beautiful, but sometimes I want to paint something different, if only because that is a challenge for me that helps me improve my skills.

This time I got inspired by a documentary about Iceland and its nature and I wanted to paint that. My memory of the scene had to help me while I was sketching and later while I was working on my watercolour painting. 

Iceland is very volcanic and this scene showed a stream flowing in a typically volcanic rock formation. The lines of the black rock or solidified lava are beautiful visible and all I had to do is paint... Of course it's not that simple. 

Solidified lava is very black and usually watercolour artists don't use much black in their paintings, as the colour is 'not natural'. This time I decided to use Ivory Black for the rocks and as that has a slightly brown shade I added a light blue to create the colour I needed. There was a lot of light falling on the lava rocks so I left patches of white, added some blue and made the shadow parts as dark as possible.

The vegetation growing in that landscape (probably mosses) are showing brownish orange autumn colour with bits of red and patches of brown and that was mostly painted wet-in-wet.

Painting this landscape - without any trees in it - was a small challenge and an experience that I liked very much. The result is even better than I hoped to achieve.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this watercolour painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Cedar cones - a white on black painting

 

During a nice forest walk in the 'Kaapse Bossen' we made pictures of mushrooms, of trees and of each other and we were looking out for 'Christmas Card inspiration'. We were looking for pine cones, larch apples or any other combination of needles and the fruits of the same tree and high up in a tree we could see some cones that were as good as white.

My husband (who had the camera) made some nice reference pictures for me and I have been thinking about 'how to paint these' because the background was very blue and that would not do for a Christmas card. After some thinking I decided to paint these white cones and some of the branches they were in on a black background, using a combination of white gouache and watercolour paint. 

Working on a white paper and painting a blue background using watercolour would mean that the cones would not stand out so beautifully as they did when the reference picture was made.

The black background unfortunately means that this painting will not be used for a card as the printing companies cannot handle all that black.

Zooming in on the picture revealed that the cones were not all white, but a shade of beige with a lot of white resin which created the white appearance from where we were standing. It was a tall tree, so we could not see details from ground level. I chose to paint them white, using a shadow colour to create the characteristic shape of the cones because that was what did attract our attention and gave me the inspiration for this painting.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this work and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Larch twig

 

During an autumn walk in our beautiful nature I already was looking for inspiration for this year's Christmas Card. I was looking for pinecones on a branch with some needles as well, but these were all high up in the trees and not easy to photograph. 

Somewhat  lower than where most pinecones were to be seen I found this little larch twig with needles and larch apples. This was also good for what I wanted so I picked it up from the ground (no tree was harmed in the process) and as I held it, my husband made several reference pictures for me.  After that I put it back where I found it and looked further for more inspiration - which I found and will be the subjects of later paintings.

From the pictures that were made I selected the one I liked most and made this watercolour painting on a small size paper. As the twig was my subject I made a light blue background and made a drawing of the most important lines of the twig using a water-soluble pencil. After that I painted the twig carefully, with as little water added to the paint as possible.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this watercolour painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Autumn in the foreground

 

For this month's challenge I had to paint for the theme "My little sister can do that too" so there was a bit of thinking before I could even find any inspiration. The theme is the same as this year's School Art Project of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' and we have to try to paint like little children. Not an easy task...

Looking back to my painting vacation I decided to make an abstract background with poured watercolour, using two shades of blue. It took some time to dry, this time I made my background indoors and with lower temperatures. I have also chosen to use a different quality of paper, adding another uncertain factor to the experiment.

During a short walk I picked up two autumn leaves in different sizes and I drew their outlines with pencil on the dried background. Using some autumn colours I painted the leaves, letting the colours mix on the paper. The blues of the background also mixed with the colours of the leaves. On this paper that happened easier than on the cotton paper I used last summer. 

After this had dried (with a little help from my hair dryer) I added another layer of leaves, outlining them with a pencil and filling the shapes with two shades of Graphitint pencils.

If I had a little sister, she probably could do this too, but I am not certain if I have painted like a child. I did have fun though, maybe that counts as well.

The painting was not really planned in advance, I started with the blue poured paints and the leaf shapes, placing the leaves on the surface and creating the final composition happened while working. The pencil layer was added to cover the white of the paper without adding more colour that would have been 'too much' and ruining the nice composition of the painted leaves.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this work and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Megalith - another watercolour painting

 

In my previous post I mentioned that I wanted to know what would be the difference between rough paper and paper with a smoother texture. So today I have painted the same scene, using the same colours, on a different paper. Both paper are cotton papers of the same weight and the same brand so the only difference is the texture. And maybe the conditions of the room I use as my studio (temperature, humidity of the air) and my being more or less relaxed while painting.

The difference is mostly in the sky and clouds where I wanted to paint wet-in-wet for nice colour transitions and tonal differences. The clouds had to be dark and I achieved more darkness than I dared to risk yesterday, but the brushstrokes matter much more on this paper than on the rough paper. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to correct that ending with a painting that is almost overworked.

The colour difference in the foreground happened because I did make some changes in how I applied the colours. More blue near the horizon and just a little brown in the foreground. Because of the texture of this paper I could add some more details without ruining my nice wet-in-wet foreground.

The stones are painted with less paint and corrections. That worked well for the small one on the right, but the standing stone might have been a bit darker.

Both watercolours are different and that was to be expected. In both paintings are some things that could be improved and in both paintings are things that are very good. The conclusion of this weekend is that because of the difference in paper texture both paintings cannot really be compared and have to be judged for their own value.

This painting also 'works' well so I am happy with today's result. Now I will not wonder 'What if I had....'  anymore and I can move on to other subjects.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Megalith - watercolour painting

 

As written in my previous post, I have also made a watercolour painting using the sketch I made inspired by a documentary about megaliths.

There was time to select a sheet of paper, soak and stretch it, let it dry and paint so this is the result of today's work. The paper I chose has a rough texture which stays wet or moist much longer than smoother papers so the colours can blend beautifully as is required for the clouds and the grassland. Painting details on rough paper is more difficult because of that same quality so this watercolour painting is much less detailed (compared to the charcoal drawing) because adding more detail would definitely have ruined the foreground. 

In fact it is 'not fair' to compare a watercolour painting to a charcoal drawing, the charcoal can get much darker - almost black - than watercolour, even if I apply several layers of paint. Using the fine structure of the paper, a lot of details can be suggested with a stick of charcoal which is not easy using wet paint on a wet or moist sheet of watercolour paper.

Maybe I should paint another watercolour on paper with a finer texture, so I can see the differences between the two watercolour paintings. That should be a much better  comparison than when I look for the differences between two techniques that are based on very different materials.

In fact I am really happy with the results of today's work, 

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog.