Ruins 'Kloster Allerheiligen' - three works

 

Almost ten years ago we visited the 'Kloster Allerheiligen' in Germany and I made some pictures for painting. The works I made were never doing justice to the ruins so I decided to focus on other subjects.

This painting vacation I wanted to revisit these pictures and try to make something better. Of course our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me.

At first I made a drawing using pencils and a fine liner (the third work from above) to get the composition right. 

The second work (in the middle) is done with Chunky Charcoal, suggesting the day or the spiritual presence that can be felt in such ruins. I really liked the fact that straight lines are not really possible with this material and I got the feeling/atmosphere I was looking for.

Then came the suggestion to do a night version of this scene. The buildings are to be grey and the sky is to be black. Here I had to find out where the light comes from and create a credible drawing. With this very black charcoal that was a bit of a challenge, a mark made is a mark on the paper that can only be 'erased' with more black around it. 

The results are what I hoped for and maybe I will never do a watercolour painting of ruins like this, because the straight lines that are to be found in architecture - even in ruins - usually make me very unhappy.

The information about the materials I have used for these works, their sizes and availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Flickr account.

Stone circle - five works

 

During my painting vacation I was looking for a way to paint/depict the spiritual feeling I can get at certain sites. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me find my 'voice' in this.

After the cap stone and the dolmen I needed a new subject and I made up a stone circle.  The work at the bottom is a first try on composition. It is not quite finished but the other participants of the painting vacation called this stage interesting so I just left it this way. For the composition I did not need to go further.

The second version is made with willow charcoal to explore the spiritual feeling. Following this version I made one with Chunky Charcoal which is much darker than Willow charcoal.

The watercolour versions are made on panorama size paper, the stones on the left and the light coming from them shining to the right. First only Indigo and a second painting with an earth colour on request of Ad.

The charcoal drawings and the watercolour paintings do show the spiritual feeling I wanted to show in these works. All four are different, but the idea is there. I am really happy with these results.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these works and their availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Flickr account.

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  

Our chestnut tree in springtime - mixed media

The flower buds I have been drawing have come out of course. (The moment I am writing this, the flowers are all gone and little chestnuts-in-the-making have appeared)
The flowers of my chestnut tree are not the easiest to draw and paint for me, maybe also because I did not climb a ladder to make a close-up picture.
I did want to give it a try so I have made some reference pictures and selected one to work from. I could have chosen one with the flowers nicely back-lit, but that would look very much like my previous drawing and I want to show a bit more of my chestnut tree.

For this drawing I decided to make a watercolour under painting in the colours of the leaves that are fully grown now. With a white pencil I have tried to make the white flowers 'pop out' and that did not work as I hoped it would. So I used white gouache and achieved a result that is much more to my liking.
The leaves are done with different pencils and I have used a line marker for some of the outlines of the leaves, mostly the leaf tips.

This was another experiment getting to know my materials and exercising my drawing skills. I learned that drawing on this paper after I have applied a watercolour under painting is not as easy as drawing on untreated paper. It felt as if the paper 'rejected' some of the pencil marks, especially the watercolour pencils. Maybe I will have better results using a different paper.

More information about this drawing (materials used, size, availability) and the other paintings and drawings I made about my chestnut tree can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com