Plane tree, winter

 

Not far from my home - I can see it from the garden - is a large plane tree and I wanted to paint or draw it for a long time. Last winter I made some reference pictures of the tree and now I have found the time to draw it.

Of course it also took so long because I wanted to use the Naturel PaintOn paper as my background and I only got that paper recently. After I had the paper I also needed time to think about 'how do I want to draw the tree' and time to draw it. 

The thinking about 'how' resulted in three colours of Conté Crayons that do not at all resemble the true colours of the tree, but are a good combination of values; a dark, a middle and a light value with the colour of the paper between the middle and the light values.

The reference pictures were made in winter, so the tree is still bare, with only showing the seed balls that are still on the branches. By now most of them have fallen off. The many different colours of the bark are only suggested as I do not want to show all of the details. The same applies to the smallest branches, seen in back light.

This drawing is what I hoped it would be and I think I have now found the best way to draw a living tree with my Conté crayons.

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.

Lilies - pencil drawing

 

The April challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'dressed' -  about clothing to impress or for functionality or....

As I do not paint people, I had to think of something else and as my first idea was already used, I turned to plan B. My inspiration/clue comes from the Bible: 

"Look at the lilies, look how they grow in the field. They neither work nor weave. I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendour was not dressed like one of them." (Matthew 6:28-29)

Of course I had to look for these words, I do know they are in the Bible, but I do not know exactly where to find them.

The lilies were drawn from several reference pictures and I used my imagination for the colour scheme, hoping to get a nice composition. My (water soluble) pencils were used to make nice blended colours and the background was added mostly because of the very pale lily below.

Making this drawing was fun, using all the pencils I wanted to - trying out some colours I had not used before (the box of pencils was a birthday gift last year) and I really hope everyone understands why I made this drawing for this challenge.

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

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.