Star Magnolia - a graphite drawing

 

Not far from my home (five minutes walking) are Star Magnolia trees standing in the residential areas and in Springtime they are beautiful. I have painted these before, but this time I wanted to make a drawing, using materials I did not have when I made the paintings.

Using a tinted paper and my water soluble graphite (tailor shape) I made the drawing. Of course some water was used as well after the first layer of colour was on the paper. After that had dried I applied more graphite, mixing the colours on the paper.

After I had finished the first branch with flowers I added some more to make a more balanced composition.

The result is what I hoped for.

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

Woodland

 

Last week, during my painting vacation, I have been experimenting with my materials and with atmosphere. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart encouraged me to do so and this work is one of the results of my experiments.

The reference picture is made at the location of our vacation, a small patch of woodland opposite the parking place provided a nice enough scene to paint.

My colour scheme is experimental, yellow, orange and red for the background with the plan to 'go wild' with other colours to change the atmosphere from serene to something more dramatic. I used my water soluble graphite for that, layering dry upon washed graphite for depth.

This may not be the best I ever made, but I enjoyed working on this one. And experiments always have the chance of failure or at least being not really great.

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

Wet tree - graphite drawing

 

The reference of the wet tree I photographed and sketched in the garden of the  Dordrechts Museum is once again my inspiration. This time I used tinted paper and my water soluble graphite to make this drawing.

In fact I am still looking for the best way to paint or draw the scene, using the sketch as my reference. Both the ink painting and the watercolour painting were not exactly what I hoped for - even though I made works I am happy with - so I tried tinted paper in a darker shade of brown than the background painting for my watercolour painting. 

This paper is not suitable for very wet techniques, so I used the water soluble graphite. One layer of graphite is worked on with as little water as possible to make the colours flow and 'wake them up' and after that I only used the dry graphite in several layers of colour to get this result. It starts looking more and more like a real wet tree, Once again I started with the lines of the sketch and made a drawing that looked well balanced.

I think I should let the reference sketch rest for now and look at the reference picture for another work, most likely a watercolour painting. The sketch has too little information (it started raining again, so we went inside) for further use.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.

Grass-lily graphite drawing

 

The reference picture for this drawing was made last May and I just had it waiting for inspiration. That inspiration came this weekend, I wanted to paint or draw something with a Springtime feeling, after all that rain we had. Of course rain is good for the flowers to grow, but the dark grey clouds can get you in a sombre mood after weeks.

So, the white flowers were found in my 'archive' and I decided to make a graphite drawing on the green paper I got just for that purpose. Some of the graphite colours are new for me - these were given to me for my latest birthday.

Finding out which flower had attracted my attention last May was another challenge, but with some help I found out that they are Ornithogalum umbellatum or grass-lily. In Dutch they are called 'gewone vogelmelk'.

For this drawing I used several layers of the water soluble graphite, only the first layer of white was washed with water. After that I started drawing details and layering white over the grey lines to soften it a little. The dark patches of shadow between the flowers were done in only one layer, no water added. 

The result is what I hoped it would be with a nice contrast between the flowers that have several layers of pigment and the shadows or background with only one layer of dark brown, still showing the structure of the paper.

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 base, beech tree - another work, another technique

 

Another work using the tree roots of the beech tree we saw near Vaals (Netherlands) last October. As I did not know when I would have the time to make this work (we planned some nice things to do) I made a blog post with the first two works and decided to wait with the third work until later.

This work is also based on the charcoal drawing I made first so the reference picture was not used for the graphite drawing.

For this drawing I have used some colours of the Tailor shaped water soluble graphite that I discovered earlier this year. The shape of these graphite 'sticks' works nice and as it is water soluble only water and soap are needed to get my fingers clean.

I used two shades of brown, only the light shade is washed with some water. White is used for the sunlit parts of the tree roots.

All information about the materials I have used, the size of the drawing and its availability can be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artworks, please do contact me.

Weeping Willow 5 - limited palette

 

It is time to paint my weeping willow again! I have made the reference picture and a working sketch over a year ago in early Spring and used that sketch several times last year for a watercolour, changing the mood every time.

Today I wanted to revisit one of the limited palette formulas I used and I decided to combine the limited palette with the weeping willow. This limited palette has three balanced colours, placed at equal distances in the colour wheel (of twelve colours) so the resulting painting should be 'balanced' even though with my choice the primaries are not to be found in the painting. This limited palette is combined with a new toy; a 'Graphite Aquarelle' pencil or a water soluble graphite pencil. 

On my stretched paper I started painting without a preliminary sketch ( usually I mark the horizon and some important features) and the background was the first I painted, combined with the grass and the little pool beside the tree. After this had dried I added the tree and dried that again. 

Now it was play time and I started making marks with the pencil, adding a little water with my brush to make a wash effect. I soon found that I did not have to overdo this or my lines would disappear. Adding pencil lines on wet paper made them stand out more but not too much. I added lines to some of the 'weeping' branches and I darkened the tree trunk just above the ground, where no foliage was hanging over it. Some extended branches without foliage were added also with the pencil, using it dry on dry until I was happy with the result.

Of course there is more room for experimenting in next paintings, but I tend to do this step by step, so I can know the outcome of each new 'experiment'.

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