Tree roots 3 - a watercolour painting and a study

 

The last result of my painting vacation. This scene proved to be very challenging to make a good charcoal study, the charcoal is not as subtle as the watercolour.

Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart encouraged me to use the reference picture for this watercolour, a very grey looking scene with sand, some tree roots and just a few other elements in it. The roots had the same shade of grey as the sand, this was a very open path, too well-travelled for any mosses to grow or dead leaves to stay in place. Only the tree roots in the foreground showed some brown. 

For the reference picture I kneeled down as low as possible (I had to get up again without embarassing either myself or my husband who was with me on that walk) so the shadows of the roots on the ground were very strong.

The composition is mostly decided by the darkness of the shadows.

For the watercolour painting I painted the background first and after that had dried I started to paint the lines of the tree roots, using as little paint as possible. The dark shadows were painted as dark as possible. Some of the gathered bits of wood on the right side of the large root and some large shadow areas (clouds or other trees) were painted and after that the composition was perfected with more shadows and more areas that might contain smaller branches.

The study was helpful for the placement of these areas, but I did not copy it exactly

As you can see, the charcoal study is much darker than the watercolour painting, giving more contrast in the lines, which was not what I wanted for the painting.

The painting is even better than I hoped for, thanks to the helpful comments of Ad van Aart.

The information about the materials I have used for the watercolour painting and the charcoal study can all be found in my Tumblr blog. There you can also find information about the sizes and availabilities.

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.