Shoes - for a challenge

 

The February challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about Shoe happiness. Are we happy with our shoes or do we buy new ones in pursuit of that elusive happiness? That is what the challenge is about and we (many of us are women) have to make it visible.

Personally I love beautiful shoes, like the red one, but sometimes you just need something a bit more robust like the blue ones. Of course there is a superlative degree, even in shoes but I do not go hiking in mountains, so I do not have an example for my drawing.

For this mixed media work I first made the watercolour under painting and after that had dried I drew the outline of the red shoe, the drawing is life-size. Using watercolour markers, pencils and a fine liner I tried to show the different materials used for the red shoe. After that the blue shoe was added - again life size and the same materials were used to draw it. The results are not doing justice to the originals, but this was the best I could do with the materials I decided to use.

Who cares? If I do not show the reference shoes, this is a nice mixed media drawing of two very different shoes that can make the wearer very happy on different occasions. 

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

A Winter's friendship - for a challenge

 

On the last day of the challenge of one of the Facebook groups I am in I found inspiration and time to make something for the challenge. We had to make a work in winter mood, including a snowman. 

So here is my contribution: a winter's friendship between a snowman and a scarecrow. 

They are in a field that has only some stubbles left after the harvest. A line of low bushes gives them some protection against the wind, but not as much as they would like. Even the crows are gone, so the scarecrow is happy with the company of his new friend - though the friendship will end after the arrival of spring.

For this work I have started to make the drawing of both friends, then I painted the background with watercolours. For the snowman and scarecrow I used my pencils. 

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

Tree stump - pencil drawing

 

Last weekend we (my husband and me) were walking a signposted walk in the Soester Duinen (Netherlands) and at one side of the path was this tree stump. The tree had been sawn off long time ago and the moving sand had left holes under the remains of the tree trunk and the root system but what was left still looked great. So I made some reference pictures and later that day I made this drawing.

For the drawing I planned to use several shades of brown, but while I was working I changed my mind. Sometimes less is more and a drawing in only one (neutral) colour can result in a stronger image than the use of many colours ever will. 

So here it is, a monochromatic drawing of the remains of a tree.

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

As free as....

 

A few months ago we saw three storks in the sky while we were on the road to.. (that I do not remember exactly) As my husband was driving, I took the camera and made two reference pictures from the driving car before they were too far away.

The drawing is made for the May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' which has 'Animals in the lead' as its theme. I really had to think about that one, wait for inspiration to hit me.  And then I saw another May challenge, in a Facebook Group with  'Freedom' as its theme.  Also not one of my most favourite themes. But then it happened...

The proverb 'As free as a bird in the sky' gave me the inspiration I needed and I combined both themes in this work.

Using the reference pictures I made a new composition, enlarging some of the stork images and keeping some other small. This drawing is made with several types of pencil on a watercolour under painting, made up with two shades of blue in the hope to reproduce that very blue sky we had that day.

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

Peat Moor, Molbergen (Germany)

 

Not far from our vacation home lies the Peat Moor of Molbergen. This used to be exploited, but now it is turned into a Natural Reserve with an educational twist. There is a 'learning path' with information signposted in the first, dry area of the Moor. We walked that path, learned some things we did not know yet and made several (reference) pictures. The area is beautiful and as there were some darker clouds that day, the reflections in the water were inspiring me to paint and draw.

As I did only bring drawing materials and some watercolours for an under painting, I started with a dark greyish blue and made my drawing with charcoal. Pencil was added in the foregrounds where some light coloured grasses were important for the friendly atmosphere of the drawing and in the reeds on the other side of the small peat lake.

The reintroduction of high water levels did cause some trees to die and the remains of those dead trees are reflected in the water which had not even the smallest hint of a ripple that morning.

Even though I have used heavier paper for this drawing, the watercolour under painting is not as nicely graduated as I hoped it would be. As I have used a very dark shade of blue, I could not hide the imperfections of the under painting with the charcoal  - a lesson learned for the next time.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing 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.

Forest Edge

 

During our short stay in the Eastern part of our country, we also found a nice signposted walk near Bathmen. The walk was very informative about the history of this area as we passed several old buildings, some former barnyards and the stream that was used for transportation. There also were patches of what once were forest areas and near one of these forest edges we stopped for our lunch and to make some reference pictures.

For this work I have made a graduated watercolour under painting on smooth paper. Once this had dried, I started drawing the trees and the shadows on the ground with charcoal. After that I used my Graphitint pencils for the green grasses and mosses on the ground. A white Graphitint pencil was used for the sunlit sides of the trees. Some extra white was created with an eraser. 

The bright colours of the Graphitint Pencils only showed after I had used the fixative that is needed to keep the charcoal in place, so the amount of pencil colour applied was an uncertain element, but the result is what I hoped it would be.

When I saw this forest edge, I knew that I wanted to make a mixed media work with charcoal and pencils. The scene is not really very exciting in itself, but I did see possibilities in the shadows and the patches of green moss under the large trees to make my work a bit more interesting.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing 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.

Reed lands

 

Another challenge was announced a few days ago: Artists and Illustrators Magazine has started a 'Lockdown Drawing Challenge' again, with a new theme every week. This first challenge has 'lockdown walks' as its theme and I made some reference pictures during a walk close to my home, in the park 'Noordhoekse Wiel'. In this time of the year, the most prominent feature of that area are the reed lands, with reeds that are higher than I am and some bare trees and bushes standing between them.

For my 'lockdown drawing' I made a watercolour underpainting with the colours of the sky and the shapes of the distant trees and an indication of the shadows in the foreground.

After that had dried, I used my pencils to draw the tree and bushes between the reeds and the reeds themselves. In the foreground are reeds that were broken and lying on the ground, I have used a lot of different colours for the stalks of the reeds to indicate a wide row of reed plants. Of course I added more shadow colours until I had so many layers of pencil that I could hardly add another colour.

After I had made my reed land as dense as I could achieve, I started adding the plumes and the last details to the tree branches and to finish it all I used some fixative.

The information about all the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work are all in my Tumblr blog

Autumn Leaves - mixed media drawing

During the last week - our short vacation in one of our Natural Reserves - the colours of the trees were changing from green to autumn. We passed by a lot of beautiful trees during our walks and the area where we had our vacation home also had lots of trees that were in autumn colours. The most beautiful ones were those of the northern red oak (Quercus rubra) that was introduced in Europe about two hundred years ago as a decorative species.

Of course I wanted to paint in these colours, but I did not bring all my paper with me, so I decided to make an orange underpainting with watercolour and make a nice drawing of some of the leaves with my water soluble pencils. 

The composition was made using more than one reference picture and I have used the watercolour quality of my pencils to make the leaves even more colourful. After the first layer of pencil, I used a bit of water to intensify the colours used. 

After that had dried, I added more layers of pencil until I was happy with the result.

The information about the paper, paints and pencils I have used for this mixed media work as well as the size and availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

In the woods

 

This year is a year for mushrooms, they appear everywhere and most of all in beautiful pictures on tv shows. So of course I am inspired to paint and draw mushrooms and this time I have been looking in my archives of reference pictures.

The picture for this mixed media drawing was made several years ago and I still did not paint from it, because the mushroom (I have been looking for its name, but I still have no idea what kind of mushroom it is) is grey, almost translucent. It reminds me a bit of a jellyfish with the lines going to the middle and the semi-transparent quality of the hood.

Then I remembered I could do a drawing with my Conté Sketching Crayons, as there is a grey one in my set. I have added some more colours from the set to this drawing and I tried to add some more colours with my Graphitint pencils and a Tinted Charcoal pencil. After spraying fixative, the colours of the pencils dominated the grey hood, so I added more Conté to it, fixative again and repeated these steps one more time. The Graphitint is more dominant than I expected,  I have learned a lesson for the next time. 

The forest floor, with branches, some feathers and pine needles is only suggested here by layering Conté Crayons (smudging them with my fingers) and pencils until I had the desired result. 

This time I worked on coloured cardboard, this is a heavy paper and I have chosen a small size, because I had only one mushroom as my subject. For a group of mushrooms I would have chosen a larger sheet of paper of course.

The information about the paper, pencils and crayons I worked with, and the availability of this drawing can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Moors

After a lot of rainy days we had one day with sunshine and so we went for a walk in the Natural Reserve "Kalmthoutse Heide", which is on the border of Belgium and The Netherlands, not far from where I live.
Of course there was a lot of water on the paths and in the moors and I made some reference pictures of these (almost) flooded moors. 
The first picture I took was just water and grass, no horizon, just for the reflections and what was below the water surface. During the rest of the walk I thought of how I would paint this scene and I made a plan.

On heavy black paper I painted the blue background of the water with the reflections of the sky and I indicated the grasses with some dark colours where the shadows and the wet areas are and light colours where the grasses are growing.
After that dried completely  I used watercolour pencils and a Graphitint Pencil for the blades and for extra texture in the wet areas of the groups of the grasses. This was the stage where the painting started to look right and I am really happy with the result.

The scene is almost abstract and I liked to do this painting - for a change. Usually I paint landscape scenes with a horizon, this time I focussed on a detail.

The description of the paints and pencils I have used, the size of the painting and the availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Port-en-Bessin, seaview

Our short stay in Normandy (France) had one bright sunny day and we used that to walk towards the village of Port-en-Bessin, walk around the small harbour and enjoy the view towards the sea and the coastline.
We could walk on the jetty that shelters the harbour and we had great views, helped by the sunshine. There were no clouds and no fog that day - only a bit in the morning.

We made lots of pictures again and I chose this view towards the west - with the chalk cliffs, the sea and the beach covered with seaweed for a mixed media work.

The underpainting is in different shades of blue watercolour and the cliffs and beach are in watersoluble pencils.

This was another 'experiment' for me, trying out my materials and finding out how I really love to use them. This certainly was fun to do and I will probably do more in this technique - someday.

The details about paper, paint, pencils, size etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Time for mushrooms again!

Now autumn is really here, after a few days with a lot of rain there are also mushrooms everywhere. That gave me the idea to look into my reference pictures again, looking for a nice mushroom to paint or draw. These reference pictures are mostly made by my husband (he holds the camera most of the times we are walking) and I keep them until I get inspired to use one or more of these pictures.

This time I chose a 'false chanterelle' for my model-of-the-day. As usual I had to look in a book about mushrooms to know the name of this one.

On a sheet of paper I made a watercolour under painting, using the earth colours in my palette. For this under painting I have chosen to use study quality paints, one of the reasons for that is they are gathering dust now and that is a waste of good paint. These may not be the best paints but nevertheless they are good quality and can be used for an under painting like this.
The under painting has only one layer of paint, so the pencil work can stand out against it.

For the mushrooms and the grasses I have used Graphitint pencils (by Derwent) and only the mushrooms have had a touch of water, changing the colours a bit and filling up the little wells in the paper. The grasses are a bit ragged now, and that is exactly what I wanted them to be this late in the year. Two of the mushrooms had some lines drawn with a Line Marker, but these do not really stand out much. The difference is visible, but very subtle.

Working on this drawing was fun and I am happy with the result.

The details about the paper and all the colours of watercolour and Graphitint pencils I used can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Autumn leaves - pencil drawing

The composition sketch I made for my last watercolour painting was used again in a mixed media experiment.
For this work I have used a study-quality watercolour paper that I chose for its texture. I have used three colours to paint a watercolour underpainting, finding that this paper would make me move around the paint with each new brushstroke, leaving white paper if I was not careful. That is why I decided to leave the diagonally striped pattern as it was at that moment and start my pencil work. 
Now I have created a background that is exiting and new to me.

This time I did not draw the whole composition at once, I started with a few leaves, gave them colour and added more leaves. Some leaves turned out a bit bigger than the original sketch but I did not want to use my eraser too much, the background painting might get damaged. 
That is why I have not all the leaves of my original composition in this drawing, but I have balanced the composition as I continued.

The (rough) texture of watercolour paper always is a part of the result and when that happens to a pencil drawing I am really happy with the results. This paper has a texture that is even more distinct than my usual paper and I wanted to see what would happen.

Because the background also contains a brown colour, it was hard to get any contrast with my pencils and I had to use all my supplies for this result. The pencils do blend on the paper of course and I have mixed colours until I had the shades I wanted, using both Watercolour Pencils and Graphitint Pencils. Because of these last pencils I had to wait after I had used fixative to get the final result - the Graphitint Pencil work changes colour when it is wet.

I have learned a lot again this day and I will certainly make pencil drawings on watercolour underpaintings again, I like the result of this experiment and I feel encouraged to continue in this technique.

The details about the paper, paint and pencils I have used can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Hedge bindweed, shades of orange

This is the last painting I made while I was in Milonga, taking lessons from Ad van Aart.
For my yellow painting I prepared a composition with the shapes of leaves, flowers and buds of the hedge bindweed and selected a section for that painting.
During a few moments spare time I coloured the leaves outside that section of my sketch and that inspired my teacher to suggest that I should paint the whole sketch in this fashion.

So I made a drawing of the whole sketch on my watercolour paper and taped the inner section before making an orange background. I used three layers of paint to achieve a nice background. Then I started painting the shapes of the leaves, buds and flowers that were in the orange section of my paper, using dark brown colours that were also in the background.
After this was dry, I removed the tape and started to draw the lines of the shapes inside the 'white' section with Graphitint pencils. When water is applied to those lines they change colours and the pencil lines can flow out a little. I have used that for the leaves and buds inside the white section. For the flowers I added another colour of Graphitint pencil and I have applied water here as well.
The lines that give the flowers their shape were put in last, on completely dry paper.

While working on this one, I closely looked at my composition, some lines and marks that were not planned initially were added to make the painting as perfect as possible.

This one was hard work, mostly on the composition part but again I have learned a lot and I will be doing more like this at home, in my own studio.
There are more variations on this theme to be explored and I am really looking forward to all the possibilities that lie in front of me.

More information about this painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Croissant with Blackberry jelly - for a challenge

The amateur art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has for each month of this year a challenge and I am planning to participate in all of them.
The February challenge is 'Breakfast' and I decided to make a picture of my Sunday morning croissant with homemade blackberry jelly before I had eaten all of it and use that for my painting.

Of course there is more to my Sunday breakfast, like tea and some more bread but this is my bit of luxury every weekend and I take my time to enjoy it.

I have made a mixed media painting, adding metallic pencil for the knife and some Graphitint for the bits of jelly on the knife. There is also some iridescent medium on the knife and the edge of the plate. 
The iridescent medium does not really show in a picture like this, it is only visible when looking at the watercolour painting from a side.

Painting in answer to a challenge or a contest is always a good thing to do because in these cases I paint subjects I do not usually choose. In this case I have surprised myself, the croissant looks much better than I thought it would.
So now I am looking forward to the next challenge - March.

More information about this painting (materials used, size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

About me... (mixed media)

This is in answer to a challenge by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the amateur art association of which I am a member. There will be a challenge each month this year and the January challenge is to depict 'yourself' as good as possible.

That is not an easy task, so I started thinking. The boiling kettle with things coming up that are important to me is a nice alternative to a self portrait.

What is coming up in the bubbles are a palette and brushes of course and a book with a cup of coffee (or tea) are also included. My walking boots and a compass which stands for the signposted walks I like to do with my husband are also visible, as well as a shawl (I almost always wear one outside the house and sometimes even inside). And my baking and cooking passion is depicted with a cake. In some of the smaller bubbles are stars.
The kettle is placed in a forest landscape, the trees are also essential to me.

I have used watercolour, of course, but I have also used a lot of my pencils and charcoal for the underside of the kettle, where it is blackened by the fire.

In this painting I have used the kettle with all the different bubbles as an image for my various hobbies and passions and I have used the landscape setting because that is my most important subject when I am painting.

It really was fun making this up, sketching and painting/drawing this, but I don't think I will do this very often.

More information about this mixed media painting (all the materials used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Our chestnut tree - end of summer

It's about time for an update on the chestnut tree in my front garden.
The chestnuts are falling off early this year, probably due to the hot and dry summer we had here. They fall inside their shells this time, sometimes in small groups with a part of the branch they were growing on.
Most of these will end in school, as my husband is a (primary) school teacher. 
I have 'saved' some of them and used a chestnut in its shell and a bit of a branch for a drawing.

For this drawing I have not made a sketch, the model was on my drawing table and I have used it directly. 
I have chosen some colours from my Graphitint Pencils and my Watercolour Pencils and combined them, mixing colours like I do when I am painting, until I had the results I was looking for.

More information about this drawing (size, paper and colours used, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

At least they are Ginger!

In some of my earlier blog posts I may have mentioned that I am member of Doodlewash.com, and that sometimes I use the prompts they supply to get inspiration for a painting. 
For the month of September (2018) the prompts are based on really existing remembrance or appreciation days. Today it is Ginger Cat appreciation Day so I just had to try to paint one or more Ginger cats!

I used the references from 'Plaisirs de Peindre' Magazine that I have used before to make drawings. The drawings were not so hard to do, watercolour is quite a challenge when it is about the cats. The tree trunk they are climbing on was easy.

I have tried to use different colour mixtures, based on Burnt Sienna to make two different cats. Ginger cats come in all sorts of colour mixtures, some of them have a lot of white in their fur, others are in shades of an orange-brown with more or less stripes.
The cat on the left only got some sense of roundness after I had used pencils, as all the paint I applied continued to flow out to become a very flat looking surface.
I do not know what caused that problem, maybe the colours I used to mix the shades of 'Ginger' for the fur. 

With this painting I have tried to paint animals - a subject I usually avoid. That said, the results are not very bad and I might want to do this more often to become more experienced and (I hope) better. 
This painting was done mostly for the fun of planning and painting a watercolour of two Ginger Cats.
There are more remembrance days in Doodlewash's list for this month so there will be some more paintings that I would not usually do. 

And the title of the painting? That comes from the Dr.Who fans.

More information (size, materials used, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com