Walking! - collage and Conté drawing

 

The March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'In our family...' the theme of the Books Week that is happening each month of March in The Netherlands.

In our family we like to go for a nice walk, preferably a forest walk.

For my contribution I have made a collage of walking maps, the legenda of these maps, some titles of the walks, a bit of a description and of course the icon for a restaurant (coffee cup) from old magazines on tinted cardboard and sprayed that with fixative for Conté Crayons. 

On that layer I started drawing a forest path with the Conté Sketching Crayons, but I had to use more layers of fixative before the crayons really did 'hold' on the magazine paper. For this I was prepared, I did read about it somewhere in the past.

After some layers I found that there was a difference in paper quality that could not be covered up with fixative so I let that be part of the experiment's results.

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

Little white mushroom

 

During one of our forest walks last month we saw this little white mushroom, standing all alone. It was early in Autumn and this was one of the very few mushrooms we did see.

With my phone camera I tried to make a nice picture, even using the 'Macro' setting, but everything was sharp in the picture except the mushroom. That happened a few times and I kept the best as my reference pictures.

The background was full of dead leaves, patches of earth, mosses, small stones etcetera so I decided to only suggest a messy forest floor instead of showing all the details. The little mushroom is my subject so it has to stand out a bit.

Of course the mushroom was not completely white, some of the colours in the background are reflected on the white surface. These colours are used to paint the structure of the hood.

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.

If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Forest walk - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

Last weekend we visited the Natural Reserve 'Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide' again and followed the signposted walk 'Bos' (forest), a walk we have not done for years. 

Things have changed along that walk, it is much more interesting now after the forest area has had some maintenance. Trees have been cut - several of these are still on the forest floor providing food and shelter for smaller animals - and more light and bushes are growing now. We enjoyed our walk very much, not only because the trees give shelter from the sunshine and it is always cool in a forest area.

Of course I made several reference pictures, the dead tree trunk has been posted earlier, this time I made a watercolour painting of that nice forest area, with lots of trees and a forest floor with lots of different plants and bushes. A bit of sunlight was also visible in the reference picture and I hope it can also be seen in the painting.

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

Forest walk, Dwergter Sand (Germany)

 

During our short vacation in Germany we had a nice time walking in the forest close to our vacation home. On walking distance there was an 'Experience path' with a forest theme. The signposted walk had over fifteen information panels about forests, trees, nature and forest management and we learned some new things in the hours we spent walking.

Of course we had the camera with us and some reference pictures were made, even though we were in the same forest area as the evening before. The forest in springtime is a nice place to be and of course different from autumn or winter. 

For this watercolour I have tried to mix the bright, fresh greens of leaves in springtime by using a light blue and some bright yellow shades. As the herbs and bushes are still growing, the forest floor is visible, with patches of green scattered on it.

The fact that we walked in a cloudy afternoon is probably the reason there are no recognisable shadows, just a patch of sunlight in front of us on the path and the forest floor.

I have tried to paint a forest in spring mood and I think I succeeded well.

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

A walk in the forest, Dwergter Sand (Germany)

 

Last week we (my husband Peter and me) were in Germany for a short vacation. As usual we went on Monday and returned on Friday so we had only a few days to explore the landscape, views and restaurants.

Monday afternoon, after several hours in the car, we went for a walk just behind the Parc, in the Dwergter Sand. When leaving the parc, you enter the forest area, so that is really great. We did buy a map with several walks to select from and we used that map well during our stay.

The first walk was 'close to home' and we did see a lot of the landscape, fields, patches of forest and a little stream nearby. Of course several pictures were made for reference.

This scene was selected because the sunlight was really highlighting the small hill in the foreground while the trees all were very dark - perfect for a charcoal drawing.

For this drawing I started with a watercolour under painting made with a few colours and left to dry overnight. This approach is perfect for the bright, sunlit hilltop to stand out in the final drawing. 

In the morning I added the charcoal and after I used fixative once I also added pencil colours (and a second layer of fixative) because I was not really happy with the foreground.

The drawing was now what I hoped it would be and looking again after several hours I was even more pleased with it.

The paper I have used did not really react very well to the wet watercolour, next time I will use heavier paper for a watercolour under painting.

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