Roadside flowers, a white on red drawing

 

This is my last work for the May challenge of Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken about the colour red. On a watercolour paper I made a background using two shades of red, let that dry and made a drawing on it inspired by the roadside flowers I can see when I am driving home from work.

This time I used Drawing Pencils, so the work is sprayed with fixative.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artwork - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Poppies in the roadside

 

The May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about the colour red. We are challenged to work with red. That may be a composition in shades of red or just a single detail in red and all that is between these extremes.

Driving to my work in the morning and back home in the afternoon I can see the roadsides full of poppies and other flowers so that was my inspiration for this work.

First I made a background in two shades of green and took away some patches of colour using a bit of tissue paper.

After that had dried I painted the poppy flowers using three shades of red. Using the greens from the background I painted stems and leaves for the poppies and the whit patches that represent some white flowers. The brightest white flowers have yellow hearts.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in  my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Umbels, painted in shades of red and orange

During my painting vacation in Milonga I wanted to paint flowers and I wanted to use the colours red, orange and yellow. 
The first morning our teacher Ad van Aart asked all of us what we wanted to do during that week and I indicated my wishes. So most of the time I have been sketching, drawing and painting flowers.
My first paintings are based on a 'blind contour' sketch of some umbels that were in the garden of Milonga. I have made a background using shades of red, added the flowers and strengthened the background with the shades I had already used and added a Gray for the shadows and stems of the flowers. This red painting followed the composition of the initial sketch.

After this first painting I was eager to do a second one with shades of orange. This painting is on a much larger sheet of paper and I deliberately changed the composition (advised by Ad, our teacher) so there is much more open space above the flowers. The shadows are made with sepia which is much more harmonious with the orange shades of the background.

Using a much larger sheet of paper was a bit more challenging, but I still had lots of fun painting this one.

Both paintings are what I thought they would be and I am happy that I did choose to paint this subject, using a very limited palette. I have explored the shades of red and orange and I have experimented with the composition these flowers offered me.

Of course this was not the end of my week in Milonga, so there is more to follow!

More information about these watercolour paintings (size, colours used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

That one little red bush

Autumn colours do not come at all trees and bushes at the same time. 
So here all was still in shades of green exept that one little bush which had coloured to a fiery red and really stood out.
I decided it deserved to be painted, so my daughter Mariska made some reference pictures for me. The green foliage was still there, but it already had a lot of thin spots. 
So I decided to make a charcoal drawing, that material makes it easier to show that air through the branches. And a Cadmium Red pastel pencil for the brave little bush.

More information about this drawing (size etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr