excercises sketch cutlery

sketch radish charcoal A3

I recently discovered charcoal again and also that I love to draw at a large scale.
So the radish I drew is A3, so very enlarged and I used 4 different greys and white for this sketch.

some drawings of mushrooms and gourds

I made some drawings of mushrooms and gourds this week.
The gourds are drawn on cartridgepaper and hb and 2b pencils
For the mushrooms I used charcoal and grey and white chalks
The first mushroom is in real 4 cm and the drawing is approx 26 cm. So a huge mushroom.
But when you work with charcoal you cannot work too tiny.
The drawings of the other mushrooms are also very large.

listed my E-book on CD at Ebay!!!!! ship worldwide.

A lovely present for the holidays!

I just listed my E-book again at Ebay. ebay-listing
My book is called : "Little babies of Clay" In my book I show you step by step how to sculpt a life-size babydoll out of clay.
The auction is only for 7 days till the 5th of November.
But of course you always can order my E-book directly with me for an even lower price.
And you can either receive my E-book by email or I can put it on CD and send it to you by Priority/Airmail.
Please visit my Ebay-listing to see the detailed description of what my book has to offer.
Or you can email me directly at email adress

new distance learning course

Last week I started a new distance learning course with Julie Douglas.
I met her through another distance course and when I read her blog I knew that her way of teaching is what I have been looking for.
She is just such a lovely and enthousiastic lady.
I received the first 8 excercises with warm ups and I am very busy right now with learning to draw and to do it with a different approach.
Just to look at the negative spaces and that way building up a drawing.
So not drawing the objects but the objects will develop while drawing the spaces between the objects.
Very refreshing indeed. You can take a look at her work and her teaching at: http://www.juliedouglasdrawingpaintinglearning.blogspot.com/

watercolor little flowers "Leycesteria"

I found these wild flowers peeping through a fence. The name of this plant is Leycesteria, the Dutch name: fazantenbes.

just finished water color small hydreangea

Just finished this little bundle of flowers. They grow in my garden and I love the transparant colors of some of them. Others are very vribrant and not so transparent and I have a couple of them with different colors. From blue to purple to white to pink etc. And once they have bloomed the colors fade and the pale green and soft sand colors are also beautiful to look at.

sketch pastel still life and workingplace

I took a photo of one of my workingplaces that I have made a couple of month ago.
My great wish is to have a workingplace at a window facing North but...... I have to be satisfied with a window facing West. Therefor I like to work with a daylight lamp and in the evening to get better highlights and shadows.
The worktop is more than 2 meters long and there are some cupboards beneath it.
So all my materials are on hand.
But I also have in a corner in my livingroom a table special for working with oils. That way I can keep, the sometimes messy oils and also the brushes, separate from the pastel, watercolor and acryl work.

You can see the setup of a still life of some fruit.
The sketch at my easel is a different setup but with the same fruit of orange, nectarine and bananas,  and I worked on it at daytime as you can see at the shadows and highlights.
 I am working right now at the setup you can see in front of the window and I will place the picture of this second still life real soon.

some new studies botanical illustration

 above= colored pencil
below= watercolor on Arches HP

Anemone Japanese

   

colored pencil = leave Acer

watercolor and pencil on Arches HP = garlic

watercolor on Arches HP = Hypericum

Kerria Japonica

watercolor and on the right colored pencil on Arches HP

water color chart for mixing greens

I always had so many troubles in mixing greens and painting leaves so therfor I am very busy right now with painting leaves. To help me I made a large color chart of greens. And I am amazed how many color greens and browns and shadowcolors you can mix. It will be a big help to me. Perhaps it will be of some help for others too. You can click on the charts to see the names of the colors.

Today I also painted the leaves of a Prunus Larocerasus. Click to enlarge

watercolor charts

two little sisters step by step oil painting

I finally added some color to the black and white portrait of the two little sisters by Bouguereaux.
Just the first color layer and it has to dry before I can add some more color. The white of the flake and titiaan  white paint lights up a bit but that will vanish when I add some fleshcolors (I hope) And of course a lot of detail has to be added too. Still a long way to go.
Here you can see some of the steps of the painting process.

oil painting after Elizabeth Pruitt 3e fase

I took the time to let the layers dry thouroughly and the last couple of days I started to paint again at this painting. Still...................... of course I am struggling at different parts and therefor there is a lot to be done. And again I have to let it dry before I can go on. So here are the different stages sofar.

2x dandelion, 2x total different

Last night I took a photograph of a dandelion and this morning I took one of the same flower.
Total different curcomstances, different times of the day, different light and the flower did not bloom anymore.
Also the result with the color of the (same) background was surprising.

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE THEM ENLARGED AND SO TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE DETAILES

new macro photos

I have bought some daylight lamps because I like to take photos indoors.
I love macros but it is so difficult to take photos outside. Here in Holland there is always wind. So I decided to buy some lamps to be able to take photos whenever I want.
And here are the first photos. Please click on the photos to see them enlarged and to see the details.
The first one is a bit abstract. It is a wild hyacinthflower stem.
The second is a cherry blossom flower and the last one some springflowers called Pulmonaria, longkruid

portrait of 3 bassethounds pastel finished

Finally the portrait is finished. I want to celebrate because I am so proud.
This was such a huge project. I do not think that I will ever again make 3 portraits together on one paper. Click on the picture to see it enlarged.

unison pastels

Last week I ordered a beautiful set of 72 Unisons soft pastels. This was a real wish for a long time and I decided to reward myself for the hard work and I also wanted to give myself a birthday present. On the 24th I will be 63 years of age.

I cannot wait till they arrive, but I ordered them in the UK and they would have it in stock in 5 days time so I have to wait a couple of weeks. Is it not a beautiful sight? all those colors.....................mmmmmmmmm.

portrait of 3 bassethounds second head almost finished

I finally finished the second head, the head of the father of the two puppies.
Of course in real .................. I find the portraits are better, sigh.
The black is not so blue in real, more subtle, but I think you can see all the colors I have used to create the "blacks".
When the 3 heads are finished I will of course make some last alternations like the white breast and shoulder of the middle head.

As you can see I started with the third head, the youngest puppy. His colors are different from his father and brother, so again a real challenge to get it right.

portrait of 3 bassethounds pastel fourth stage

I took a break during the holidays but I am a little bit further with the second head.
The black ears of the second head were already finished but I decided to take off almost everything from the black ear. I was not satisfied about it.
So I started again and it took many many hours to draw the ear again. It looks better now.
And I started to work on the other parts of the head. Still a lot of work to do.