Waterfall - charcoal drawing

A few years ago I decided I wanted to learn how to paint waterfalls and I started out really good, but after a few watercolour paintings I got distracted and started painting other things.  This is a new attempt at a waterfall and at a mixed media technique I have used a few times.

The reference picture I used was made in October (a few years ago) and the landscape was still very green with grass, moss and the green of a pine tree hanging over.

On a piece of watercolour paper I marked the places that really had to stay white and made an under painting using two shades of green. After that had dried completely I started drawing the scene with charcoal.

The structure of the watercolour paper is important for the result and I have tried to make the very best use of  it.

The broken lines that are created when charcoal is used on this paper help me to suggest more details than I am actually drawing. 

The technique of making a charcoal drawing on structured paper with a watercolour under painting is a nice one and I have to remember to use it more than I have done up to now.

Today's results are what I hope for and I have spent a few hours in my little studio enjoying myself - what more can I wish for?

The details about paper and paint used, size and contact information are at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

In my garden - Helleborus niger

This year I could not resist  the temptation to paint my 'Christmas Rose' or Helleborus Niger. I have made my reference pictures when the flowers were not even completely opened and made up a nice composition with three flowers and some of the leaves that are surrounding them.

A few weeks ago I have bought a new colour and I wanted to find out what I could and could not do with it. 
The new colour (Caput mortuum violet) is in the background and I have also used the background colour in the mixtures for the stems and leaves. This is not only to bring unity to the whole scene, but also because this colour really is in the stems and the darker spots on the leaves of the plant.

I did not want to make a really dark background to make the white flowers stand out, that is something I have done several years ago. I wanted another approach to the theme of white flowers so there is just a little of the background colour behind the flowers. They still do stand out enough to be seen and the atmosphere of the whole scene is just what I wanted it to be.

The details about paper and paints used, size, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

De Biesbosch, winter sun

During our last walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' we had a lot of morning fog, but for a few moments the winter sun was strong enough to break through the fog and the clouds. At one of these moments we were close to one of the creeks and of course the sunlight and the clouds were reflected in the water. 

As there was not much colour in the whole scene (except many shades of grey and some green in the fields) I decided to make a charcoal drawing, like I did with the other reference pictures that we made during that walk.

This is one of the first times I tried to make a reflection while working with charcoal and having to think about black and white only makes it easier to place the reflections, but using colours (like in a watercolour painting) helps making the locations of the sun, clouds and their reflections in the scene a bit more obvious. 
I will have to work on that - and I am looking forward to it.

The details about size, paper used, availability etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Reeds in winter - a charcoal drawing

This is the second drawing I made after the reference picture my husband made during our short walk in 'De Biesbosch'.
The first is in my previous post and after I had finished that drawing I asked my husband whether he would like me to try how this scene looks in charcoal - and the answer was a positive one.

So this is the second version, in charcoal. I have used the picture for my reference again and started drawing the reed plumes after I had made a light grey background. 
The plumes were standing out too much against the background so I have added the suggestion of much more reeds. If I had not done this, the reeds would be standing alone in an unnatural way.
This was not so strong in the first version, possibly because of the softer colours of the watercolour pencils that were used for the reeds. 

This charcoal version has a very different 'feel' to it compared to the pencil version and in fact I like both results. 

The details about size, paper used and availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com  

Reeds in winter

This January our regional Amateur Art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' chose 'Blue Monday' as its challenge. 
Next Monday, the third Monday in the new year is thought to be the most depressing day in the year. All good intentions have failed and the weather is usually grey.

Normally that does not bother me so much. I choose my good intentions a bit better (I never did smoke, I know losing weight takes time and so on) so they cannot fail in two or three weeks and the weather....  

This year I had to think about a painting or drawing for the challenge and it took some time before I had decided on this scene.
The reference picture was made by my husband during our recent walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' and I would have used it for a painting or drawing anyway, but now it is in time for the challenge.

I painted a blue-grey watercolour background and for my drawing of the reed plumes I used my watercolour pencils. The structure of the paper helped me in the drawing of the plumes, especially where the seeds and the fluffy bits are.
The result is what I hoped for and of course I will continue experimenting with this mixed media technique.

The details about paper, paint an pencils used, size and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The roots of Civilization

  
This started as an experiment to find out whether I would like to paint like this or not at all. And of course I wanted to find out if this would work at all or end in a disaster.
Both questions can be answered in a positive way: yes, I like this and yes, it worked good enough.

The reference is a picture we made almost twelve years ago at Stonehenge. We were too late to enter so the pictures were made from behind the fence, showing the whole site in one image. I have used a part of one of those pictures to make my composition.

The plan was to make a sky, paint the stones and let the colours of the stones bleed down, thus forming the 'roots' of the stones. To be sure I did have enough space to let it happen I have chosen to paint on a half sheet of watercolour paper.
The edges of the stones that could get some sunlight were painted red, the rest of the stones were painted in all of my Twilight Colours and I let these colours mix and run to make some new shades.
I have used clear water to let the colours of the stones drip down - and my working surface was tilted as much as possible to let gravity help the process.

This technique is very much dependent on the circumstances of the moment and planning is not really possible. I did not interfere in the dripping, knowing that I would ruin my painting in doing so.

I really enjoyed painting this one, allowing the colours to mix on my paper and hoping for a result that can be published. The title came to my mind after I had finished the painting and was looking at it to see if I should add something (what was not necessary).

The details about the paper and paints used, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

De Biesbosch, morning mist

The last day of 2019 was a very foggy day. We started in the morning without a view from the windows but that got better in a few hours.
We (my husband and me) decided to go for a short walk in 'De Biesbosch', a Natural Reserve very close to where we live. This is a very wet area, formed during a flood in the year 1421 and the tides can still be experienced here.

We had a lot of mist and a bit of sunshine during our walk and at one point we could see the reeds and the creek close by, but the woodlands behind the reeds were almost the same shade of grey as the foggy sky. 
There was no wind, so the water in the creek was completely still and everything was reflected as clearly as possible on such a foggy day. 
Of course some reference pictures were made!

I decided to make a charcoal drawing of this scene, the shades of grey were inviting me to choose that technique. 
There was another reason for charcoal, making a charcoal drawing is faster than watercolour, and I did not have the time to prepare a sheet of paper and paint a watercolour painting. That is for the weekend, as my days off from work are over.

The details about the paper I used, the size, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com