The old one - 2 a pencil drawing

 

In my previous post I wrote about the big oak tree we saw at the Mantingerveld (The Netherlands) when we made a signposted walk in that Natural Reserve.

The tree was too big for my watercolour paper so I made another attempt to show it. This time I used pencils on 'mixed media' paper, which is more smooth than the watercolour paper I use. Again the tree does not fit on the paper, but I can show its size a bit better now.

The format is landscape, so I can give more space to the very long lower branches. The tree trunk is made smaller compared to the watercolour (in absolute figures, not compared to the branches) so there would be more space to show the branches. Using pencils also means that I can make the details smaller without losing the structure of the subject.

As said, again the tree does not fit on the paper and there are only a few groups of leaves visible, only where they are in front of the tree trunk and the bigger branches. I did not fill in the background with sky, bushes and the suggestion of other trees further back so the tree is my only subject. The ground is only added so it would not be floating in space.

The tree trunk and the branches have several layers of pencil, the first layer is made more intensive with a little water, to 'wake up' the colours. The foliage and the ground have only one layer of pencil colour, with no water added.

When the drawing and the watercolour painting are next to each other, the watercolour has darker colours, the tree is bigger and so it seems to be the better version. When the drawing is on its own, it looks like what I wanted to do, with the emphasis on the structure of the 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. If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.

The old one

 

In my previous post about the Mantingerveld I have written that there are some oak trees in that Natural Reserve and this is one of them.

The tree is old, large and it was not possible to get a good picture of the whole tree. The tree came in full view behind some other trees and bushes and stepping back would have meant that those bushes were blocking the view on the tree. So my reference picture does not show the whole tree.

My painting does show even less of the tree, I should have selected a much bigger piece of paper to do justice to the size of this oak tree. Unfortunately I do not have the facilities to paint that large. 

So I decided to paint just a part of the tree, placing it in the middle of my paper, making the trunk and the large lower branches as small as possible - so that the other branches would still have some volume - and just finding out what I would end up with. 

In May the leaves are still fresh green and small, so there was not much foliage to be painted. Most of the leaves are at the end of the branches, not visible in this painting. The structure of this old tree is still visible, because it is so early in Springtime and that is exactly what inspired me to make the reference picture and this painting.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Mantingerveld (The Netherlands)

 

In the first weekend of May we (my husband and me) went for a short vacation to the Province of Drenthe (Netherlands) where we stayed in a vacation home and made several signposted walks in our Natural Reserves - there are several protected areas in Drenthe.

Before we arrived in the vacation home, we made a nice walk in the Mantingerveld, an area with lots of juniper trees. During our stay I made a drawing of the berries and when I posted that, I promised - not only to myself - that I would post more works with/about juniper trees.

In this part of the Mantingerveld most of the juniper trees are found, from small to really large, some are bent over and appear to be broken. These trees are alive but had to endure a storm at some moment in their life.

The day was grey, clouded and we had a little rain while we were walking but the moment I made the reference picture for this watercolour that rain seemed far away. The overcast sky means there were as good as no shadows. 

All the juniper trees and juniper bushes and the heath plants were dark, the light green trees and bushes are mostly oak trees or birches in various sizes and ages. The sand path crossed a field with mosses at this point, the walk passed fields like this, forest areas and some fens.

The result of my work is what I hoped for (the picture is not really showing the colours as they are) and the information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

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

Juniper berries - a pencil drawing

 

Last weekend my husband and me went to the province of Drenthe (The Netherlands) to walk in the beautiful nature there. Before we went to our vacation home, we made a signposted walk in the Mantingerveld, a place where the junipers are still growing in great numbers. 

Of course there was more to see than just junipers (Juniperus communis and I have a lot of reference pictures for nice paintings, but I just had to make a reference picture of the berries and make a drawing. 

As known, the berries take two years to mature, the green ones are in their first year, the darker blue ones in their second year and those will fall off or be eaten by birds. The juniper is the only indigenous needle tree in The Netherlands and it is having a hard time because of changes in the landscape and pollution. In places like the Natural Reserve 'Mantingerveld' the forest rangers are working hard to preserve the junipers. Looking at the amount of trees in that area, they seem to be successful.

The drawing was made during our stay in the vacation home, I only bring drawing materials when we are going for a short vacation and so I am limited in subject choice.

The berries have multiple layers, I used some water to 'awaken' the colours and added more pencil lines on top of that. That was done to make the berries stand out as my subject.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.