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.

View in Zwijndrecht (Netherlands)

 

This week I decided to make another reference picture for the contest of Project Rembrandt, this time from my mother's home. She lives on the eighth floor so the views usually are great. The Great Church of Dordrecht is in the painting, but there are a lot of buildings in front of it, both in Dordrecht and in Zwijndrecht.

The subject of the contest was a skyline or street view in black and white, emphasizing the dark-and-light contrast. That is what I have tried here, using only a black watercolour paint and the white of my paper. 

The Great Church is the most distant building. It is made in bricks and relatively dark against the sky, as the buildings in front of it are made of concrete, so they have a lighter colour. There are some more rows of buildings, mostly houses that are too far away for details. More near the standing point of the viewer is a line of (bare, it still is winter) trees and in front of those are rows of houses and some detached houses in the foreground. These have the darkest shades, the rooftops are almost black. There was a bit of sunlight reflected in the rooftop windows, giving a nice contrast. I have also indicated the fields, hedgerows and a small pathway on the left. 

The result is what I hoped it would be and I made this painting my second entry for the contest.

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.

Diergaarde Blijdorp, Rivièrahal

 

New months keep coming and it's time for the August challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' which is about Monuments.

Of course I can go looking for castles and that kind of buildings, but I have some favourite monuments that are not the obvious choice.

In Diergaarde Blijdorp (Blijdorp Zoo, Rotterdam) are 21 listed monuments and the Rivièrahal is one of them. During a visit to the Zoo my husband made some nice reference pictures for me and I decided to paint this scene, the back entrance with on the right the entrance to the indoor accommodations of the black rhinoceroses.

To keep the monumental atmosphere I painted a monochromatic Sepia watercolour. The round shapes of the buildings are still a challenge in itself, but I am happy with the overall result.

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

Branch, summer

 

During our week of lessons there was an afternoon off, but it was too hot to go for a walk in the surrounding forest. So I stayed at our residence and painted a small watercolour using one of the 'blind contour drawings' of the first day for inspiration.

It had been hot and dry for weeks now and the trees were already losing their leaves. Those that did not yet loose leaves, had them hanging down from the branches.

For this small watercolour I chose to use only one colour, make a light background first and then paint the shape of the branch and the hanging leaves with a stronger mix (of paint and water).

Only when I saw the painting like it is now, I decided that it did not need any additions like the berries that were on the branch I had been drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting are in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

A waterfall - monochromatic with a hint of spring green

Last summer I have been sketching the waterfall in the Japanese Garden of 'Dierenpark Amersfoort' (Netherlands). A few months later I have made a watercolour painting, using the colours that are naturally there in that scene. That is mostly brown for the rocks, green for the plants and trees in the background and a bit of blue for the reflection of the sky in the water. I was not really happy with the result but I could not really see what went wrong, so I let it rest, trusting that one day I would know how to make a better version.

When I am really taking time to make a sketch on the spot, that sketch usually is detailed and made only with black pencils, so the result is monochromatic. These sketches can be 'better' than a multi-coloured painting, because sometimes the use of colours does not represent the values that make the black and white sketch such a strong image.

That is what I thought to be 'not so great' in my first watercolour painting.

Now I have made a second version, using only Indigo for the landscape with a hint of yellow to paint the bright green plants that are at the bottom of this waterfall.
I have used my initial sketch as my reference again, but now I have not used the memory of the trees in the background (I had used a reference picture for that). The sketch does not have the trees either, and I wanted to stay close to the sketch.
The choice of Indigo was made mostly because the brown shades of the first painting were disappointing me and I wanted to do something different.

I like this one better than the first painted version and I don't think there will be a third painting or drawing made with this sketch as my reference.

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

Inspired by Rembrandt: The trees

This year is a special year as we remember that 350 years ago the great Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn died. The Rijksmuseum has started an online contest for (amateur) artists that are inspired by Rembrandt. We were asked to submit one work of art and write a short text about how we were inspired by Rembrandt to make this.

Rembrandt is famous for his self portraits and portraits of other people, groups and group scenes, like the Nachtwacht (Night Watch). As I am not good at painting people at all, I have thought for a long time that this contest was not for me.
But then I saw a - not so very good - reproduction of the etching 'the three trees' (De Drie Bomen) in a magazine and I decided to use that for my painting.

This scene is about everything I like to paint: a landscape, trees, clouds and a great atmosphere. I really thought I could make my own version of this  famous etching.

The prints that Rembrandt made of his etchings were black and white of course and I decided to paint a monochromatic watercolour using sepia. Rembrandt's oil paintings have a lot of brown colours, so this choice was easily made.
I have also thought to add reds, yellows and other browns to the monochromatic painting using watercolour pencils.

So I started my painting. First a sketch using the reproduction in the magazine as my reference and then painting in sepia. Before I knew it my painting was finished, nothing to be added by using pencils.
So a second version was started, I deliberately stopped painting much sooner, added the pencil colourings and this was the result:

I compared both versions and could not really decide. The first version seemed to be the best. So I asked the opinions of my husband, children and mother and they all thought the same. Version one was to be submitted.

Writing the text about why I painted this, how I was inspired by Rembrandt, was the next thing I had to do and my brother and sister-in-law reviewed my text for me.

The entry forms were filled with all the needed information, texts and the required pictures were added, the whole thing was submitted and the waiting started.

Yesterday the message came that out of 8390 entries I was unfortunately not chosen for the next round. Of course I regret this, but making this painting, trying the second version and writing about it (in a limited amount of words) was really a great learning experience.

The painting is framed and hanging in my home now and I am still proud of the result!

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

Chapel - monochromatic

The third painting with the little chapel is a monochromatic one, I used sepia because that is a very dark colour so I can have a good range of values in my painting.
This time I added a winter tree, maybe an oak as there were lots of oak trees in the area we visited.
I have tried to paint a winter scene without any snow in it.

This is again a small size painting, mostly because my bathroom is being renewed over the past weeks and I have hidden away most of my paper to shield it from the dust that comes with these building activities. 

Another reason is of course that I really am inspired to paint this little chapel in as many imaginary landscape settings as possible and it's nice to use the same paper and size for all of these watercolour paintings.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) and the other paintings I made with the chapel can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com  

Broekpolder in winter - monochromatic version

As I have told before, sometimes I like to make a second version of a painting. 
This time I wanted to do a monochromatic version, using - and exploring the possibilities of - Payne's Grey.
Last year I decided to explore the materials and colours that i have gathered over the years and this is one of those experiments.
I used the same reference from the Broekpolder that I painted from just one day earlier.
The composition and the problems I faced were fresh in my mind so the colour was my only challenge.
Payne's Grey is made up with more than one pigment, so I tried to use that.
This is a much smaller painting than the coloured one, only a quarter of that size.
When I look at both paintings, I cannot say which one I prefer, they have both strong points and weaker points. 
This monochromatic painting does not represent the sunset very well, the wintery feeling is stronger here.

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

Painting week in the Ardennes - Path in Sepia

The second painting day (painting week in the Ardennes with Buitenatelier - see my previous post for details) we drove to a field not far from our vacation home. 
There was a lot to see and paint here, fields, hills, cows, a flower field, bushes...

I found a small path into the forest and decided to paint the lines of the trees, as a contrast to the round shapes of the bushes and the curves of the path.
The theme for this week was Contrast, so I decided on a contrast in shapes for today.

In order to make that very visible, I decided to make a monochromatic watercolour using Sepia. That is a colour I am not so familiar with so I worked carefully, adding colour and shapes only after the paint I already applied was dried completely. With the sun and wind I never had to wait long though.

Again I made a cadre with tape on my watercolour paper and filled that completely with paint.
Once again this way of working was not my usual way of painting, but I had a lot of fun working like this and I am happy with the result.

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

Ardennes -day 3

Today was supposed to be overcast,  but we had lots of sunshine. The painting location was a field nearby, with trees, bushes, flower fields and even cows on one side.
I chose to paint trees - no surprise there - and the contrast is made by painting monochromatic. I have done that before and now I decided to work with sepia, a colour I am not so familiar with.
Again we were invited to 'frame' our paintings with tape and fill that space with our subject.
This was a nice experience and I am happy with today's result!

I will post better pictures of the paintings I made and will make later this week after I returned home.

Zürich by fog - watercolour version

This scene was too much fun to make only a charcoal drawing, so I wanted to make a watercolour as well. As the foggy atmosphere gave the reference picture a monochromatic look already I decided to make a watercolour with Indigo as its only colour.

Of course there are differences between the drawing I made and this watercolour, I do not use a projector to transfer my sketches to the paper. 
The difference in techniques and my experiences in them also make a difference, of course.

While painting I decided to change the way the bridge stands out from the background.

More information about this watercolour (size, paper and paint used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr