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. 

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.

Corner stone - a pencil drawing

 

The theme for the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is all about 'your creative journey' which can be read as creativity while travelling. I have already made a painting that could be the start of a new path in my artwork and now I have used a picture my husband made for me from his hotel room in Paris.

The view was not inspiring me to do a painting, but one detail did catch my attention. The red brick wall had two beautiful stones on the corner and I made this drawing of one of them adding the structures close to the stone to show its 'natural habitat'.

The stone itself is as detailed as I can get it, using watercolour pencils, water, more pencil for the depth and contrast I want to get.

The wall and the roof behind that wall are only suggested.

Of course this is not a perfect work of art, but I really wanted to draw details like this for some years now so this is the first in what I hope may become another new path in my art journey.

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.

Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) - a pencil drawing

 

These days the bindweed (Calystegia sepium) shows its white flowers everywhere in our neighbourhood and I made some reference pictures for a drawing.

Using my Drawing Pencils I had to find a way to show that the white of the flower is not so very white at all. Using light colours I shaped the flower and added the darker background later.

The colours of the flower are created by the shadows in the petals and the light on them. Not to forget the reflected colours of the grasses around it.

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

Mushroom - a pencil drawing

 

The reference picture for this drawing was made last Autumn by my husband Peter who had the camera. I wanted to make a drawing or painting using this reference but never really found the right inspirational moment.

Now I have made this drawing, using my Graphitint pencils for the mushroom and some Graphic pencils for the surrounding grass.

Making this was nice and relaxing, not a very difficult subject and ready in a short time.

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.