Pumpkin Field

 

During my painting vacation there always was time to do other things than painting. After dinner we often went for a short walk, sometimes in small groups, sometimes alone. This year the weather was great for those walks, not too hot and no rain so we could walk the fields and forest paths easily.

During these walks I made pictures of the forest and one of the pumpkin field we passed one evening. That picture was used as reference for a charcoal study and a watercolour painting.

I started with the charcoal and pencil study to find the right composition

and I already had decided I would make the pumpkins stand out by giving them their natural colours with watercolour pencils. 

The drawing is - compared to the reference picture - 'wrong' in the meaning of how I used the black of the charcoal. In reality the leaves are the darkest greens, the stems of the plants are a lighter shade of green. In the drawing the stems are dark and black, the leaves are grey. But this works really well, so I decided to make my watercolour painting just like I had made the charcoal study.

For the composition I left out some of the pumpkins and the sheet of watercolour paper is filled completely with the image I wanted to paint. In fact the watercolour paper is just a bit smaller than the paper I used for the charcoal study so I did not have to make my drawing smaller or larger for the painting.

After I had decided on the colour I wanted to use for the background, the leaves and the stems of the pumpkin plants I could start painting.

The result is what I hoped it would be.

The information about the materials I have used for both works, their sizes and availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Between ebb and flow - Hoek van Holland

 

Now my painting vacation is over, the August challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' needs my attention.

The challenge is about the sea, 'between ebb and flow' and I just had the right reference picture for that challenge. My husband Peter made it a few years ago in the hour of sunset at the Pier of Hoek van Holland when some huge container ships were coming into the Port of Rotterdam.

Coming in or leaving the port is always between ebb and flow, ships must make sure they don't miss the tide and that is why I thought of this reference picture when I found out the theme of this month's challenge.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Forest Bath

 

The last day of my painting vacation had arrived and I wanted to make one more painting with an unexpected addition to the landscape. A forest scene was what I wanted to paint and then there was that 'What if...' moment again. What if I place a bath tub in the forest? Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart loved the idea and references for both the forest and a bath tub were found.

This time I had a vision of what I wanted to paint so I did not make any thumbnail sketches. The composition was sketched on the paper with the plan to paint the bath tub last, adding this unusual item to my forest scene.

Painting a birch forest in watercolour is a bit more challenging than any other forest - we have to keep the trees white and cannot paint them dark over a nice background - so that took some time and attention. I enjoyed every moment!

For the bath tub I selected a special set of colours so it would stand out between the natural colours of the forest. 

The result is what I hoped for. Not my usual kind of landscape, but I had a lot of fun painting this one.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

The ladder

 

During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart gave me the challenge to add something unexpected to my landscapes. That started a lot of thinking, some crazy ideas and of course it resulted in some paintings.

The idea of adding a ladder to a landscape was suggested to me and after I accepted the idea, we went through my reference pictures to find a 'matching' landscape. This very empty looking landscape with a single sunlit (winter) tree at the side of a path was perfect. The original landscape is in The Netherlands, close to the town of Deventer and because of the emptiness I never really used the picture as a reference before.

First I made some thumbnail sketches to find the right ladder in the right position for the best result and after that I started painting. The colour of the ladder was decided after the landscape was finished, it had to stand out but not too much.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

In the wind

 

While the painting vacation was continuing, I had to think of more landscapes with a surprising element to paint. One thing that came up was a real memory of an Autumn leaf blown in front of the lens while we were making a picture of a group of buildings.

When I told our teacher and coach Ad van Aart that memory he suggested to make some thumbnail sketches first to find the best composition for this work. In these sketches I varied with the size and place of the city/village skyline, the size and place of the leaf and the filling of the shape of the leaf. We both thought that a big leaf, only outlined with the landscape still visible was the best composition.

I tested this in a larger drawing

using water soluble graphite in a very limited palette. 

I went looking for a real leaf as big as I could find and that is the one I outlined in both the drawing and the painting. If a bigger leaf would have been found, I probably would have made the watercolour painting larger, now I adjusted the size of the paper to the size of the leaf - which is a maple leaf.

The information about the materials I used in both works, the sizes and availabilities of both works and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Traces (in the sand)

 

During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart gave me the personal challenge to add something unexpected to my works. Or to paint something unexpected.

This work is about traces in the sand. The reference picture was made (by me) on the beach and that showed the lines the water had made in the wet sand and some traces of birds and human footsteps.

We made a selection of all that information for the painting. The human footsteps are unusual for me to add to a work, so they had to be in the painting. The lines the water made were to be there as well.

With these restrictions I started making studies for the composition and we decided on the one that looked the best.

While painting, the work evolved to the result you can see above.

The footsteps are very present in my work and the other traces are 'only' lines now, given some structure by adding shadows and highlights. 

This composition works well and the result is even better than I expected.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Studies with a very black charcoal type

 

The second day of my painting vacation started with a workshop. We all got a piece of Chunky Charcoal and were challenged to test it first, followed by making drawings after some reference pictures provided by our teacher and coach Ad van Aart.

That was fun - until we had to clean our fingers but a bit of perseverance with water, soap and a brush had the desired result.

I started with this one:

testing the marks I could make and how to continue after the marks were made.

The work on top is my second one, I selected a landscape with salt marshes and a grey sky. The sky darkened as I was working because it is really hard to soften the marks that are made using this type of charcoal. Only using more charcoal - darkening the paper - can hide the initial marks.

Having said that, I am really happy with the dark result I got here. To help the composition I also darkened the landscape and I managed to suggest some rain falling from the clouds.

My third work was another challenge, also using a reference picture from the large supply our teacher brought with him:

This is a waterfall and the reference picture was really soft, taken with a long exposure time. Doing something like that with a really chunky stick of charcoal is not possible - at least not at a first try. The result does show a waterfall and I have learned more while working on this one than I learned working on the other two landscapes.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these drawings and their availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can be found in my Tumblr blog.