Amaryllis - a pencil drawing

 

Each winter we buy an Amaryllis bulb so we can have (with some luck) a beautiful flower at Christmas. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later and sometimes not at all, when there are no flowers growing from the bulb. This winter we were lucky, the bulb had some beautiful flowers in white with some pink lines and I made some reference pictures.

Now, two months later, I made this drawing, using one of the reference pictures. As the flower was white, I selected a sheet of tinted cardboard in a beautiful colour and started drawing, using the white pencil for the outlines ant the first details. 

Where the petals overlap, I used less white, allowing the colour of the cardboard to shine through for the shadow colour. The green in the heart of the flower was added, the shades of pink were drawn in and I started to create the right shades of white, pink, green and the shadows to create the flower. Of course the stamens and pistil were added as well.

The second flower was drawn after that, but I did not add all details to make it less important than the first. The stem and some leaves also had to be there to prevent the flowers from 'floating'. These are also not as detailed as the flower facing the viewer.

To protect it all a light spray of fixative was used.

Making a picture of the drawing was a challenge this time. The dark background reflects all light sources so I had to find a place in my home without a dominant light source (not close to a window that meant for me). This picture of my drawing is the best I could get today.

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

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

In the 'Soester Duinen' - 2 (Netherlands)

 

The first week of January my husband and me were free from work, so we had a very short vacation dedicated to walking in our beautiful nature. The first walk we made was in the 'Soester Duinen' and I have posted some works inspired by that walk in the past few weeks. This is another beautiful view we had during the signposted walk around the area of shifting sand. This area is a Geological Monument because of that shifting sand.

During our walk, the weather changed a bit and instead of the clear blue sky we started with our walk ended under clouds. This view is towards the East, away from the sun so the trees are not back lit. They still are dark, as winter trees often are. The sand was almost grey and  a bit more brownish under the birch trees, where the remains of fallen leaves and small branches were still visible. 

This view inspired me to make a picture to be used as reference for a painting. This time the colour of the sand was the biggest challenge, but I managed to get it right very soon - mixing a brown and a blue did the trick here. The sand is not an evenly spread surface, there really are small dunes or differences in height and that was one of the things that inspired me. Painting this was nice, keeping the sand light where no shadow was found and suggesting the smaller dunes.

The result is what I hoped it would be.

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.

Please do contact me if you are interested in my work.

Shoes - for a challenge

 

The February challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about Shoe happiness. Are we happy with our shoes or do we buy new ones in pursuit of that elusive happiness? That is what the challenge is about and we (many of us are women) have to make it visible.

Personally I love beautiful shoes, like the red one, but sometimes you just need something a bit more robust like the blue ones. Of course there is a superlative degree, even in shoes but I do not go hiking in mountains, so I do not have an example for my drawing.

For this mixed media work I first made the watercolour under painting and after that had dried I drew the outline of the red shoe, the drawing is life-size. Using watercolour markers, pencils and a fine liner I tried to show the different materials used for the red shoe. After that the blue shoe was added - again life size and the same materials were used to draw it. The results are not doing justice to the originals, but this was the best I could do with the materials I decided to use.

Who cares? If I do not show the reference shoes, this is a nice mixed media drawing of two very different shoes that can make the wearer very happy on different occasions. 

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

Tree stump - Conté drawing

 

During our very short vacation a few weeks ago we walked a lot in our beautiful nature. We had chosen the area of the 'Utrechtse Heuvelrug' for our hotel stay and went for walks in that Natural Reserve which has many beautiful signposted walks for everyone who loves to be in a forest area. The 'Soester Duinen' (see my previous post) is also a part of that Natural Reserve.

During one of these walks I made a reference picture of a tree stump that had been a stump for a long time and was partially uncovered. There were dark and light spots on the stump, caused by moist and some patches were green with mosses or algae. I wanted to draw this tree stump as soon as I saw it, but it took some weeks before I had the time to do so.

The paper I chose is new for me, I did buy it not long ago and I used the 'back' side because that side seems to have more tooth than the other side. And a bit of tooth is needed when I use my Conté Crayons (or charcoal). The grey crayon is lighter than the paper and I added black to make my drawing. Finally some highlights with white and my drawing was finished. Only some final shaking off (of the dust) was needed and some layers of fixative.

To make a good picture for this blog - and other places on the internet - was a bigger challenge than getting my fingers clean after using the Conté  crayons. I have tried various places, but either the incoming light was too visible or the paper reflected the colour of the ground. Finally I placed it on a greyish ground and made my picture(s). Another lesson learned as this is not so obvious when making pictures of a watercolour painting.

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 work, please contact me for information.

In the 'Soester Duinen' - Netherlands

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me went for a very short vacation (one night in a hotel and some nice signposted walks in our great nature) and our first walk was in the Soester Duinen. This landscape was shaped during the last two Ice Ages and has some nice areas of shifting sand - there are not many of these places left in The Netherlands. The word 'duinen' means 'dunes' so the sand is no surprise. The signposted walk was mainly around the large area of sand, we walked in the forest edge looking at the sands, happy that the path under our feet was not shifting.

As we were in the forest edge, we were mainly in the shadow - even though we had a grey day - so the sand was light and the trees before us were back lit by what sunlight did shine that day. Some spots had a nice view with some of the pine trees, the forest ground under these trees and the sand dunes behind that. There always were some more trees visible behind the sand, the 'dunes' are in an oval shape and the opposite forest edge was never far away. 

The area is a popular place among the local people, many dogs were walked, children were playing (it was a school vacation) and we even did see some people with big cameras as there are many forest birds to be heard - and often seen.

Of course some of the pictures I made will be used for a nice landscape painting - and this is the first scene I decided to paint. I have been experimenting with my colour palette and the result is even better than I hoped. This experiment did teach me a lot about the colours I have in my palette, especially about the ones I do not use very often.

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.

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

Snowdrops - from my own garden

 

In my front garden is a row of snowdrops, each year more flowers are showing themselves and I decided to make pictures of the ones that are out (many are still in bud) and make a composition using these pictures. The flowers that are already out have short leaves and seem a different variety - compared to the ones that are still growing.

For the painting I made my compositional drawing first, used masking fluid to make sure the flowers, stems and leaves would stay 'clean' and started painting the background, using the colours from the 'Twilight' special edition (now they are in the normal range of colours) and some salt for special effects. Because of the masking fluid, the paint had to dry naturally so I had to be patient. It took three layers before I was happy with the background.

After removing the masking fluid I was not happy that the fluid had left a stain on the paper (what I really thought is not fit for publishing) and I decided to make the best of it. So there is a bit more colour in the snow on the ground and in the flowers than I first planned. 

The leaves and stems of the snowdrops are a bluish shade of green, the green dots in the flowers, the flower beginnings and the little stems that show when the flowers drop and open are more yellowish green, so I added a touch of yellow in my mixture.

Working with masking fluid never was my favourite technique, now I think that I will never want a bottle of it again. The one I used now was a bit older (as I rarely use it) and is thrown away after the disappointing results of this painting. With 'disappointing' I refer to the staining of the paper, this was 'colourless' masking fluid...  Of course I also suspect my paper was damaged when I took the masking off and the hard edges are always hard to correct.

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

Cleaning - for a challenge

 

The new year traditionally began with cleaning - some people still have time for a thorough cleaning of the house and even do it. We (my husband and me) spread the cleaning chores over the year which we think to be a better way of fitting them in our working life. Opinions may differ 😉

The January challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about that cleaning tradition. We were allowed to take the traditional approach or decide on another kind of cleaning like cleaning up the mind, getting fresh ideas etc.

Nothing really inspired me much, but the traditional cleaning round, combined with the call for more natural methods of doing that resulted in this work. These more natural methods include using soda and household vinegar instead of more aggressive chemicals and that gave me some ideas.

For this work I made a drawing of a bucket, washing cloth, sponge, bottle of household vinegar and a bag of soda using two graphite pencils. A floor was added, wallpaper and a plinth was indicated so the equipment had a room to stand in. I washed that drawing with watercolour, only one layer of paint so the pencil drawing is still visible.

After that had dried, I added the chemical formulas of acetic acid (vinegar), soda, bicarbonate of soda and of course water using a fine liner.

This is what I had planned so I am happy with the result. Using pencil marks first and washing in colour with watercolour was an experiment for me (the pencil marks could have been washed away too) but all worked out really well.

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