Pumpkin Field

 

During my painting vacation there always was time to do other things than painting. After dinner we often went for a short walk, sometimes in small groups, sometimes alone. This year the weather was great for those walks, not too hot and no rain so we could walk the fields and forest paths easily.

During these walks I made pictures of the forest and one of the pumpkin field we passed one evening. That picture was used as reference for a charcoal study and a watercolour painting.

I started with the charcoal and pencil study to find the right composition

and I already had decided I would make the pumpkins stand out by giving them their natural colours with watercolour pencils. 

The drawing is - compared to the reference picture - 'wrong' in the meaning of how I used the black of the charcoal. In reality the leaves are the darkest greens, the stems of the plants are a lighter shade of green. In the drawing the stems are dark and black, the leaves are grey. But this works really well, so I decided to make my watercolour painting just like I had made the charcoal study.

For the composition I left out some of the pumpkins and the sheet of watercolour paper is filled completely with the image I wanted to paint. In fact the watercolour paper is just a bit smaller than the paper I used for the charcoal study so I did not have to make my drawing smaller or larger for the painting.

After I had decided on the colour I wanted to use for the background, the leaves and the stems of the pumpkin plants I could start painting.

The result is what I hoped it would be.

The information about the materials I have used for both works, their sizes and availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Tree roots 2 -watercolour paintings and a charcoal study

 

During my painting vacation I wanted to focus on the structures made by tree roots, visible on well-travelled sand paths. For this I made several reference pictures and this scene is the second we picked to work from. The reference pictures were chosen by our teacher and coach, Ad van Aart, together with me. Compared to the first one, this reference picture offered more and different challenges for me as an artist.

After I had made the charcoal study

the composition of the watercolour painting was decided. In this case I had to fill the whole sheet of watercolour paper with the composition of the drawing, not leaving extra white areas.

For the painting I worked on dry paper, leaving the lines of the roots untouched. The mosses and grasses were painted and the shadows on the forest floor were painted using darker mixes than the sunlit spots on the top left.

After these first layers were painted, the shadows on the tree roots were painted and after that was decided that it was a good idea to indicate the structures of the roots as well.

A second painting was to be made, with a more 'dramatic' atmosphere than the first one.

To make a painting look more dramatic, a monochromatic painting always works good. For this one I decided to use Indigo, because of the possibility to work from very light to really dark. Again I worked on dry paper, leaving the structures of the roots untouched. The shadows of the roots on the forest floor were painted and the shadows on the roots themselves, where they crossed, were also indicated.

This painting is much more abstract than the other ones I had made this week. One of the other painters liked it so much that the painting was sold.

The information about the materials I have used for the watercolour paintings and the charcoal study, their sizes and availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Tree roots 1 - Watercolour and charcoal study

 

For this painting vacation I planned to make watercolour paintings inspired by the patterns of tree roots in the paths we take when walking in the forests. We always use signposted walks, so the paths are very well travelled. Several reference pictures were made during our last walk in 'De Soesterduinen'.

Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me to select the reference pictures I was to work from this week and this one is the first. They get more difficult after this one, although tis also was a nice challenge.

After I made the charcoal study

we decided that the composition was good, so the watercolour painting had to be placed on the paper in the same proportions. The initial sketch on the watercolour paper took some time, but painting was relatively easy. During the painting process we decided on adding the shadows of the roots and some more patches of green, to complement the green moss in the top left corner. In this way the painting is not really abstract, but the result works very well.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of the watercolour painting and the charcoal drawing and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Sequoia (detail) three paintings and a study

This summer I had my painting week again and out teacher and coach Ad van Aart did send me to a beautiful sequoia tree for my first painting. The tree is too big to paint completely, but I wanted to concentrate on details this summer, in this case the beautiful structured bark.

First I made some reference pictures, then I made a charcoal study:

After that I made the watercolour on top, using the original colours as good as possible. Something went wrong with the composition, the study has the tree placed nicely on the paper, leaving white spaces but the watercolour ended up on the whole paper, the wite spaces at the bottom of the tree were gone. The difference in proportions of the watercolour paper and the paper I use for the study made the mistake possible.

So we decided that I had to make at least one more watercolour painting and I changed the size of the watercolour paper I am using so the composition would be placed better on the paper.

The first watercolour was made using only shades of brown - not the original colours of the cedar tree, but the result is really nice.

For the second watercolour I used a very different idea, I made a monochromatic painting using indigo.

The results are nice, this is mostly done as a series of studies, to compare the effect of different paper sizes, composition and colour schemes.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of the study and the watercolours and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.