Sequoia (detail) three paintings and a study

This summer I had my painting week again and out teacher and coach Ad van Aart did send me to a beautiful sequoia tree for my first painting. The tree is too big to paint completely, but I wanted to concentrate on details this summer, in this case the beautiful structured bark.

First I made some reference pictures, then I made a charcoal study:

After that I made the watercolour on top, using the original colours as good as possible. Something went wrong with the composition, the study has the tree placed nicely on the paper, leaving white spaces but the watercolour ended up on the whole paper, the wite spaces at the bottom of the tree were gone. The difference in proportions of the watercolour paper and the paper I use for the study made the mistake possible.

So we decided that I had to make at least one more watercolour painting and I changed the size of the watercolour paper I am using so the composition would be placed better on the paper.

The first watercolour was made using only shades of brown - not the original colours of the cedar tree, but the result is really nice.

For the second watercolour I used a very different idea, I made a monochromatic painting using indigo.

The results are nice, this is mostly done as a series of studies, to compare the effect of different paper sizes, composition and colour schemes.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of the study and the watercolours and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Shadow Play

 

During our painting vacation, the weather was nice and dry, but really hot. Too hot to make two watercolour paintings a day, so some afternoons were used for other things, like drawing in the shadow.

This work is all about drawing the shadows. I took a place under a walnut tree and tried to draw the shadows of the leaves using my Conté Sketching Crayons. There was some wind, so it was not easy. After the first, dark layer I added a second and a third layer, each one a lighter shade. The final layer was just the outline of the shadows in white.

After I had done this drawing, I changed to another tree:

My colour scheme for this drawing was more simple, only one black and the final layer in grey.

With the first sketches on paper I asked our teacher and coach Ad van Aart how to continue because this was a first time for me. He advised me to add colour to the layers in the first drawing and to work on the composition of the second one.

The first shadow play is now stronger in colour, the shapes are better defined and the white lines are visible and a bit intriguing now.

The second shadow play is more balanced now the shapes are connected and the grey shapes are more scattered over the whole sheet of paper.

This was a first time for me, but I really wanted to do this at least once. In fact I love the result and knowing what to do to make the composition stronger / better I will certainly try this again, with different shadows and perhaps different drawing materials.

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

Misty landscape

 

For the last day of my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart asked me to make another misty scene, this time with some reference pictures. After searching on the Internet, I found some nice misty landscapes that are not so close to where I live so I could not have seen these myself. 

It was still hot, so I started with a wet paper, painting a background colour and adding the structures in the background as soon as possible with a very thin mixture of a grey shade. Adding the rest of the landscape in darker shades of grey layer by layer was not easy as the paper dried very fast, but I managed to get a credible result. 

The next stage was the lake and the mist coming from the water, but I have painted the reflections as the landscape that is painted has to reflect in the water and the waves or ripples are also only suggested, not copied from any of the pictures I used for inspiration.

My landscape does not look like the references I have used as my inspiration any more. The high temperatures and the short drying time of my paint and paper forced me to improvise and create a landscape that could be existing somewhere.

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.

Tree roots - a charcoal drawing

 

The days of my painting vacation were not completely filled with my watercolour paintings, in the afternoons I occasionally had a few hours for something different. Of course I wanted to stay close to my chosen subject (the forest) so one afternoon our teacher and coach Ad van Aart  asked me to make a drawing of the complex roots of a large oak tree that was on the terrain of our residence.

With this drawing I had to fill the whole page as good as possible and create a work that was as close to abstract as the subject could get me. I did make a drawing as accurately as possible, filling the page with the roots of the tree and only the roots. So no little branches, no grasses in the background and even not the little mouse that came looking what I was doing in front of its home.

Making this drawing was nice, I could sit on a small chair in the shadows of the tree - it was a very hot day - and concentrate on what I did see and what I wanted to draw without having to worry about drying paint, colour choices and other difficulties. The result is even better than what I thought I could make, so I am very happy that Ad challenged me to do this.

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

The Forest Floor

 

After I had painted different seasonal moods using only one reference picture it was time for something different, still based on the 'forest' theme. 

Together with our teacher and coach Ad van Aart I selected a step-by-step tutorial about painting the forest floor in Pastel to use as my guideline for this watercolour painting. The result does not look much like the reference in the tutorial. What I have taken from the reference are a background, trees, a light spot and some growing plants on the forest floor. Making a watercolour painting is very different from making a pastel painting, so the step-by-step instructions could not be followed by me.

Because of the light spot. I had to decide the direction of the light to place my shadows and the dark sides of the trees. Some shadows are not included, these are behind the unevenness in the forest floor. 

The result is a mostly imaginary landscape and I am really happy with it. The experience of painting a landscape, using a reference only as a guideline was a nice one and I love to repeat this way of working in the future.

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.

In the forest - four different moods

 During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart invites us all to find a theme for the week and try to improve our skills in drawing or painting using that theme. My theme was painting the forest and I wanted to improve my skills in painting different moods. To achieve that a reference picture was selected with only a forest ground and trees in it. The trees are much taller than the paintings and the forest ground is not really that empty, but it is very close to the reference. The different moods are created using different colour schemes. 

The first painting was not the first made, but as there were more paintings, we started to create a sequence - without much success as there are many possibilities here.

So the seasonal sequence is used in this blog post and this one, with some dark greens where the branches might be and on the forest floor is the end of Summer.

This second painting, with shades of yellow where the branches might be and on the forest floor is Autumn. In fact, this one was painted without blue colours as I wanted to investigate that possibility. Brown and blue is a combination I have used before so I wanted to try something different. The result is a gentle Autumn mood.

The third painting of this blog post was to be a November mist day, as we have often in The Netherlands. This was quite a challenge as I painted trees, made them fade with water, dried this all and repeated this two more times before painting the big dark (wet trees are very dark) trees in the foreground. I noticed that I have lost the trees of the background, the first layer, in the process. Then I realised that during one of these misty days this is exactly what happens - the trees that are a bit further away ar not visible any more. So I think this is what had to happen in the painting too.

The fourth painting is Winter, the dark shade of blue that is chosen for the background does suggest that time of the year.

Painting this series of four moods was a nice challenge. It was great to see the difference a shade of blue or yellow could make and these four paintings are an important part of my learning process of the painting week.

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

Now and later, waiting...

 

My painting vacation was great fun again and I have learned a lot. My subject this time was all about painting a forest landscape and I have been working hard all week.

The first day however was more about the direct surroundings of our location in Berg en Dal (Netherlands) with 'blind contour drawing' in the morning and painting in the afternoon. After I had found my work spot for the week - under trees, lots of shadow and a cool wind from time to time - I painted the view from that spot, a tree trunk, a bench and a tree. The foreground was a typical forest floor: grasses, leaves, acorns (there were oak trees), all dry because of the lack of rain in the past month.

At first the painting was higher, a portrait format, but the background was too empty. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart had advised me to keep the background empty and fill it in later. So I added some branches and foliage above in the painting and that was too much. So the best solution to the problem was to cut off the upper part of the paper and create an almost square painting, as it is now. 

For this painting we picked the subject and composition, I made the painting and then we investigated how we could improve the result. In this case we just needed to cut off the excess empty space to get a good painting.

These first days on location are always an investigation of 'what shall we do this week and how shall we do it' so I did not expect much of this watercolour painting. The road towards  the final result of this day is more important than the painting itself. I have learned a lot in that short afternoon and used that the rest of the week.

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.

Landscape studies - clouded sky using different materials

The last days of my painting vacation were dedicated to my own work, concentrating on my 'strong points' and trying to improve those.
Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart advised me to concentrate on atmosphere - in a landscape - and try to limit myself to atmosphere only without adding too much details. 
One of the mornings I had seen and photographed a very cloudy sky over the fields opposite our vacation home, Milonga and we decided that that memory would be the guideline for the next studies.

I had found a set of Conté Sketching Crayons, bought it and wanted to try that in my first studies. In that way I could 'explore' the landscape and the atmosphere I wanted to create and get used to working with these crayons.

These crayons work almost like charcoal and it was easy to get to know the material.
The atmospheres of both my drawings are different and I liked doing both of them.
The foggy effect on the horizon is made with the grey crayon, that was a very nice surprise for me.

The next day I was going to make one large watercolour study but there was a bad spot in the paper, so after I had started the cloudy sky I decided to divide the paper in two parts, sticking tape right over the bad spot. In this way I had two studies, beginning with a lightly clouded sky, a green horizon, some bushes and....

The largest one became darker and darker, adding gray to the sky and to the bushes and fields. You don't want to be outside in this weather!

The smaller one had to remain lighter so I used a different brown and less gray colours. I also suggested more details in the fields by adding shadows. This suggest that you have a chance to get home before the rain starts to fall.

There was time left, so I tried the same study, now with a very different palette. The heat of the day was not in my favour, so the paint would not flow as nicely as it had done in the morning. The fields changed into a lake, the cloudy sky into a clouded sunset and the whole picture is friendly and nice now. 

Doing studies of the same landscape for more than one day was a great experience. Every version did teach me another lesson and I really think I can continue on this path when I am painting at home, without guidance of a teacher. I do still remember the tips I was given and will use these advices to my benefit - and the benefit of my art of course!

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

Painting over Atlas pages

One of the workshops our teacher Ad van Aart had prepared for us was called 'Übermalungen' - or Painting over.
We were encouraged to take pictures from books or magazines he had brought for that purpose an to paint over them, in a reaction to the subject of that picture. Usually books and magazines are printed on very, very smooth paper, so I could not easily paint over them with my watercolours. The other participants to this painting vacation used acrylics or oils, so they did not have that problem.
My pencils would work though, so I took out all my pencils and started looking for a page or picture that attracted my attention.
I ended up taking atlas pages, one for the colours, one for the map on it.

The blue colours of this map of the South Pole were inviting to draw anything that would come to my mind. I started out cutting the edges and glueing the atlas page to a sheet of my own paper. I added some of the darker blue shapes to the white paper as if the map continues there. The South Pole itself just asked for the signpost with directions to some random capitals (India, Mongolia, Uganda and Great Britain) and the violet one with the little star in it which is for me.

On this map I could draw the road I had taken on my way to Milonga. The road is marked with my stops for gasoline, coffee, some rest, taking pictures (the Abbaye St Michel) and the residence of Milonga, where I had been painting in the days before this workshop.

Of course this was not exactly over-painting, but I have done as much as possible with the materials I had at hand and luckily the whole group appreciated my efforts.
I did enjoy making the plans for these 'works' and executing them and the results are as I hoped they would be.

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

Abbaye St Michel

On the way to the location of my painting vacation I made some stops. For coffee of course but also one for taking pictures. I followed the signs to 'Abbaye St. Michel' and was very happy with the views I had on that beautiful building.
Together with our teacher Ad van Aart I selected this view to be painted in watercolour. It includes both buildings and trees, the items I wanted to pay attention to this painting vacation.

In fact the building was not giving me the trouble I had thought it would, because of the trees and branches in front of the church I could work in a more 'painterly' fashion on the architecture.
The tree on the right gave me most of the trouble here and the advice to add some dots of a green mixture over the dark shadowy shape after it had dried completely was the best I could get here. Now I have to remember this for the next times.

I am very happy with this result, I really had not thought this could be the outcome of my turning off the road and following a sign towards an abbey.

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

Apple tree study

My painting vacation was all about learning. The workshops were meant to awaken our creativity and the time for 'free work' was to improve our skills. Our teacher Ad van Aart gave us the encouragement we all needed and guided us to better paintings.

One of the things I wanted to improve was my skill in painting trees, especially in placing the shadows in a tree with summer foliage. The garden of our residence for that week, Milonga was perfect for my purpose.

For this study I chose a branch of one of the apple trees and started out to draw it. There was not much time, so I took only one branch, not the whole tree.
After the drawing - or sketch - I took a piece of watercolour paper and tried to paint with only the drawing as my guideline.

This study was a nice experience. The drawing took most of the time I needed and after I had done that it was not hard to remember the difficult areas of the branch with apples  while painting the watercolour version.

More information about this study (paper and paint used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Workshop 'Metamorphosis'

My painting vacation was filled with lessons and workshops by our teacher and coach, Ad van Aart. The second morning was dedicated to 'Metamorphosis', starting from a very basic painting or drawing we had to add something new in the second painting, again in the third and fourth and.... as far as we could go. Every addition had to be reproduced in the next version before adding something new.

My beginning was one of the blind contour drawings of the morning before. I am sure no one will recognise the bunch of flowers standing near the gate of the garden but it makes a great starting point for 'unlimited creativity'. 
I added the lantern that is there in reality for the second version, number three had light and shadows and for number four I had to think a bit longer.
A surprising element was needed here, so I splashed some violet paint over my paper and started connecting the dots. A spider's web emerged and although it did not really change the initial base into something completely new, I do like the result. As I could not reproduce this stage it had to be the last one.

I have used light study paper here because that dries faster than the heavier watercolour paper I use normally. There are five colours in the initial drawing and two of these colours were used as Watercolour Markers for version two and three. For version four I only added violet paint.

This was a bit challenging, but really fun to do.

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

Study of tree trunks - watercolour, charcoal and ink

This year my painting vacation was in Milonga, in the Northern part of France.
Our teacher and coach was Ad van Aart who really did a great job.
The first day we started with an exercise in 'blind contour drawing', a difficult thing for me. We were finding our subjects in the beautiful garden of Milonga.
After a discussion about the results and a lunch we started painting, using one or more of the drawings we made that morning.

This is the first one I made, only watercolour. (the white edges are caused by the tape)
The background was made quickly, wet-in-wet and soft. The tree trunks were added after the background had dried. I have taken care to suggest (not show) all details of the cracks in the dried wood and the structures of the little mushrooms that were on the right trunk. The left trunk is the one in front, so I have chosen another, lighter mixture for the browns and greys of the wood.

On a background of bright colours I have been drawing the tree trunks with charcoal for my second study. This time I have added more details to the drawing, as charcoal has only one colour. This study does have a different atmosphere than a watercolour painting and I like the contrast between these two.

This is the third and final one for this week. I made it one day later than the previous two so there was a bit more time to think about my approach of this one.
Our teacher suggested a background in only one colour and I wanted to paint the tree trunks a little different, not exactly as in the first study. 
I placed the tree trunks a bit to the left on my paper and used a pen and calligraphy ink for the details of the cracks in the cut off edges where the branches used to be.

I really liked doing this and it was a good start for the rest of the week with more and more challenges, lessons and coaching to come. I will write about that in my next posts.

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