Water tower at the 'Spoorwegmuseum' - Conté drawing

 

This week we went to visit the 'Spoorwegmuseum' in the town of Utrecht and we were in the company of the grandchildren, their parents (of course!) and two guest children from France. The museum has many locomotives, trains, wagons and other material that has once moved over the rails in The Netherlands. 

Besides these there are also lots of information and modern trains - as a model - a simulator, some old rails and a workplace from the steam age.

That workplace shows the building as it was - we cannot really enter it, but we can look - and part of that is this old rusty water tower that inspired me to make this drawing.

This time I have also used Conté pencils, both for the colours and for the lines.

Because I was relatively far away from my subject when I made my reference picture, the building is not as detailed as it might be but as the water tower is my subject that does not really matter to me. Now the building is clearly the structure that has the tower on its roof.

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 Tumblr blog.

Leiwener Kapellchen

 

During our short vacation in Leiwen last May we made some nice walks. The first walk, in the evening after we arrived, passed by some landmarks between the parc where we were staying and the Moselle river. One of these is this little chapel, the 'Leiwener Kapellchen'. We looked at it from a high spot on the hillside and we made some reference pictures.

One of these references is used for this watercolour painting. Of course I changed the composition a bit to make the chapel stand on a 'good' spot following the rule of thirds.

From our point of view there was no sky in the reference picture, only rolling hills that may be hiding the river. As it was spring, the vineyards were mostly bare, the leaves had yet to grow on the vines.

This makes the structures of the vineyards visible, parallel lines with plants and a lot of bare soil. Not all fields are planted in the same direction which gives the much needed variation for my painting.

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 Tumblr blog.

Little animals in the grass - a pencil drawing

 

After my first experiment with black paper, grass and little animals I wanted to do more in this theme. 

This time I experimented a bit more with my materials, I used graphite pencils for the grass. On black paper that gives a silvery grey result, much different from the results om white paper. The stems with seeds and the two insects (a butterfly and a grasshopper) are done with my watercolour pencils. This time no water was added to 'wake up' the colours.

This still tastes like more, so when I have an hour or less free, I can do more with this theme. I can look at other little animals like spiders or snails, bees and much more.

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 Tumblr blog.

Twins

 

A few weeks ago we went for a nice signposted walk in the 'Mastenbos' (Belgium) where I made several reference pictures of trees, dead or alive. These birch trees are very alive and I really wanted to paint these.

The July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about a favourite place in summertime. My favourite places in any season are the forest (for a walk) and behind my panting table or easel to paint. I thought this work combines both as it is a painting I made after I had a nice walk in a forest.

These twin birch trees were really very close together and I made more than one reference picture to select the nicest one for a painting.

I enjoyed painting these trees and the result is what I hoped it would be.

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 Tumblr blog.