Tulips - watersoluble graphite drawing

 

After my birthday (about a month ago) I have got some new art materials. New paper and new 'toys'. The Portuguese water soluble graphite in the shape of a tailor's chalk works - like a tailor's chalk, and I already am used to working with those. Because it is water soluble it's also easy to wash off my hands - just water and soap, no scrubbing needed.

Some of the tulips from my own garden were used as my references and I used the 'chalks' first dry on dry paper, later I added some water and was surprised by the bright colours that appeared. The surprise was positive and I really am happy that I have these 'chalks'.

This surface can be used again for new layers of the graphite as easily as it was to draw the first layer. I have been building the layers using the dry 'chalk' and adding water where I wanted it until I was happy with the results. 

The composition is a bit intuitive, I started with one flower and added more flowers, buds, stems and in the end leaves to make a nice looking drawing. The green of the stems and leaves is added using a Graphitint pencil, I have got only two 'chalks' to start with, but I am planning to get some more. As both the pencils and the chalks are water soluble graphite, I have used both for this drawing. Both products have a limited colour chart, so I used them to complement each other.

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.

Peonies - springtime in my garden

 

In my garden, very close to our house is a group of peonies. I have made drawings of the flower buds and the leaves in autumn, but I never used them for a springtime painting. When they come above the ground, the stems and first leaves are red, with a hint of the green that will emerge later, after they had a lot of sunshine. Over the years the patch of peonies has expanded so now we have a lot of red in the garden. They do not all come at the same time, so there are beginning ones, stems with the beginning of leaves and stems with some leaves folded out.

For this painting I made some reference pictures and did not paint exactly what was in the pictures. I decided to make my own composition using the pictures to look at the actual shapes of the peonies.

The background is made using browns and greens and a lot of water, with some help from gravity to let the colours flow. After that had dried I started painting the peonies, placing them on the paper without a preliminary drawing. While I was doing this, I added smaller and larger stems to make a nice looking composition, in harmony with the background.

Creating the colour that is somewhat between red and a dark green was a challenge, but using multiple layers of paint I have achieved the best result possible. After the peonies were completed and dry I added the suggestion of the ground, the garden they are in.

Making a good picture of the finished painting was not as easy as I thought, looking at it on the laptop the light green seemed to fade away, so I adjusted the picture a bit.

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.

The Letter

 

The past months are all about Johannes Vermeer and the exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, so it was no surprise at all that the March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' was about the letters in  many of the paintings of Vermeer.

We are challenged to imagine what the women depicted are reading or writing.

For my contribution I decided to imagine what 'the woman writing a letter' could be writing about.

The translation of the text is here:

Dear Godmother,

Thank you very much for your beautiful wedding gift.

My happiness knows no bounds, now that I have received such a beautiful present from your Silver City.

Receiving your gift was a highlight of the day, which could only have been surpassed by your own presence. Your covering letter made it clear that only a very unfortunate set of circumstances prevented you from handing over your gift in person.

I hope that your husband has since recovered from the unfortunate incident.

My husband is also very pleased with your gift and also sends his thanks.

Dear godmother, thank you for the salt and pepper set.

Yours,

Janneke

Added to the text I made a graphite drawing of an antique Silver pepper and salt set, using images from the internet as my inspiration. 

Our Silver city is Schoonhoven, not far from where I live. For the text I supposed that the lady writing (the newly wed one) lived in Delft, the city of Johannes Vermeer and her godmother lives in Schoonhoven.

The last line of the text is a hint to a comic scene/song that was popular in The Netherlands when I was much younger. I hope the other members of the association will understand.

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

Pollard Willows - a Conté drawing

 

After having made several drawings of dead trees and tree stumps I wanted to draw a living tree for a change. A living tree needs a different colour scheme compared to a dead one, to make the difference visible, especially in winter.

The dead trees are drawn on grey paper using only black, grey and white crayons.

The paper I have used for these living winter trees is a naturel coloured one and I have selected brown and brownish crayons to draw the trees. These are combined with black and white for the deep shadows and the highlights. 

The reference picture was made from a distance and not very good, so a lot of details were lost. The trees stand beside a small pond in a residential area and are relatively young, so the trunks are straight. Older pollard willows in a field usually have damaged trunks where birds like to hide.

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

"But the birds that lived in the forest had eaten the breadcrumbs, so they couldn't find their way back."

This one is for a challenge - make a painting about a fairy tale. 

The title is a line from the fairy tale I chose, Hansel and Gretel. 

Being a landscape painter, I had to think of a scene in a forest, without people or buildings  in it to make this challenge work for me. This scene from the fairy tale is exactly what I needed.

In my forest scene are only the birds that are eating / had eaten the breadcrumbs and a hopeful owl waiting for the birds to be too full to fly away quickly. 

This was really fun, the forest is from my imagination, I used some books to help me get the shapes of the birds as believable as possible and I used my imagination again for the colours of the birds.

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.

Dead Tree (another one) - a Conté drawing

 

This week we were in the North of Belgium again, for a nice walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide. That Natural Reserve is always worth the time for a walk, every season is different. We have made these signposted walks several times, sometimes clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise and now I try to make reference pictures of the details of the landscape. The wide views don't change that much over the years.

This time we passed by several dead trees, many of them not really good for a picture, but in a bend in the path we found this one. Very dead for a long time and filled with small holes made by birds or insects. The bark was mostly gone and only some beginnings of branches could be seen. The rest of the branches were sawn off, probably for the safety of the walkers.

Again I chose my new grey paper and some Conté Sketching Crayons for the drawing, the last time I used these together I was really happy while working on the drawing and the result was better than I hoped for. So I wanted to draw a second dead tree using the same materials and I was not disappointed. Again the result is better than I hoped for so more dead trees, tree trunks or stumps will follow and I hope to get better with every drawing I make.

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

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.