November 2013

A Sketching Challenge

The Facebook community 'Sketching Workshop' organised a challenge for this month. We (some of the members) try to make 50 sketches this month. We put the sketches in an album at 'SW AgSketchMo'. There are 30 sketches in my album now. I saw there is someone who already has 50! Her name is Barbara Moore.

If you are on Facebook, you can have a look there. But I'll show some of my sketches of this month here.

cactus flower, sketch in soft pencil

an old lady in the train, quick sketch in soft pencil 

kaki / sharon / persimon fruit, sketch in four-coloured BIC ballpoint

 aloe vera plant, quick sketch in soft pencil

 plane tree leaves, sketch in soft pencil (blended with finger)

 plane tree, sketch in ink and coloured pencil on a brown paper bag

my booties, sketch in soft pencil (blended with finger)

Experiments

I think the following time you will see some changes happening to my blog here. I am experimenting with backgrounds (using photos or paintings I made myself) and lay-out. It will take some time untill I will have found a 'final' look (if ever ...).

Another experiment is my 'webshop'. I follow a tutorial by Rose Schuring 'Grow your art business online'. After her explanation on the importance of having a webshop, I started mine, with three watercolour sketches in it. Maybe soon there will be more. You can find it HERE, but sorry it is in Dutch, with Dutch paying services. If you are interested to buy one of my works, and you're not in the Netherlands, please contact me by e-mail: i-m-leonora@hotmail.com .

One of the watercolour sketches for sale is 'Oak leaves', you see here:  

sketching daily

Maybe there is a thing called ‘talent’. But sure the most important thing is PRACTICE. Practice does not make perfect (as ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist in this world). Practice helps you develop your skills. That is why I practice drawing as often as possible. I do my best to make one sketch every day.

I make small sketches of ordinary things I see every day. I folded a large (A3) paper in 12 squares. They are each about 10x10 cm. I make a sketch in every square. Sometimes I use two squares for one sketch. Here you see such a paper with sketches.

When the weather is good, I sketch outdoors. Weeds in my garden are a great subject.

Also indoors I can find nice subjects. Like the dishes I washed ...

... or the towel.

Sometimes I even dare to sketch a living animal. Soon you’ll read more one that. Here is a preview.

I will do my best to show you some of my sketches more often in my blog. Some will be under 'More art', some (together  about a certain subject) in a new post.

imagination

You can see things with your eyes. But you can see too with ‘your mind’s eyes’: your imagination. It’s even possible to draw (or paint) things you see in your imagination. I have different ways to make such drawings. About two of those I tell you this time.

The first way. I want to tell a story in a picture. In this case the story is about an animal. It’s a real, existing animal. But I want to show something about the animal that can’t be seen in a photograph.

The first drawing is about a kitten, ‘Poekie’. I made it as an illustration for a children’s story (a product of my imagination too). Poekie is all alone, a little lost, in a dark alley. I want to show its loneliness. I want to show it’s a cute, little kitten. I want to show Poekie is not scared. It’s a courageous little kitten!

To be able to show all of this, it wasn’t enough to take a photograph of a kitten and draw it just like that. I took some photographs of kittens, to see what kittens looks like, in general. But then I used my imagination, to change some things, to add some things. Its shape became rounder, its eyes bigger, its black fur more reddish; so I enhanced its ‘cuteness’. Its pose and the look in its eyes tell you: this is a courageous kitten. And the background shows: Poekie is all alone in a dark alley. 

 Poekie, drawing in coloured pencils

The second drawing was also made using photos. In a magazine about wildlife I saw some photos of the elusive ‘red panda’. In this case I did not change much to the ‘red panda’. I only wanted to show it’s a very cute and fuzzy looking animal. So I changed a little to its eyes and mouth and its fur. And I fitted its shape (pose) to my paper.

 Red panda, drawing in coloured pencils on Kraft paper

The second way. This is ‘totally imagination’. Maybe you can call it a ‘doodle’. I took my paper and a ballpoint and started, with no idea of what to draw.

My first thought was: a person. I started drawing an oval shape for the head. It was at the left side of the middle of the page. I thought: “there’s space for another person, right of the middle”. So I made another oval head shape next to it. Then in my imagination came the idea of two sisters, standing close together. I made some lines to show the position of their bodies. It looked to me as if they were singing whole heartedly. I made lines showing they each had one arm spreading out. And so the whole picture developed while I was drawing it. When a shape became clearer to my mind, I made it look clearer in my drawing. I added curves and shades. So I went on until it looked good to me. Now I present to you: the ‘Singing sisters’. 

Singing sisters, drawing in black Bic ballpoint               

I didn't have to go far ...

... to paint 'plein air'. In fact: I stayed in my own garden. There is always something to paint or draw there. Even in bad weather: looking through the window (I don't know if that is real 'plein air'...).

(view through the window of my living room)

 

Sitting in a lounge chair in the garden I looked up and painted the blue sky with white cloud, above my garden gate with red roses.



 

 

When the chives were in full bloom I couldn't use them anymore for salads, but they were very nice for a drawing and a painting.

 



(drawing in ballpoint on GarzaPapel drawing paper)

 

(hypericum, digitalis and allium -chives- in watercolours)

 

 

This was the garden in front of the house, In the back there is another one. I can do a view through the window too, in this case the kitchen window.

 

 

I cut some branches from the honeysuckle growing over the gate and made this painting of one of the blooms.

 

(made on GarzaPapel watercolour paper)





‘Plein Air’ in Meppel

I live in Meppel. It’s a small town in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It’s small, but has everything a town needs. It has canals with interesting bridges, and old houses alongside. No, not  like Amsterdam. It’s a lot smaller, small canals and small old houses, but they are picturesque!

 

watercolour sketch ‘Tipbrug’

 

Meppel is not too busy. You can sit on your tripod at one side of the canal to sketch the bridge and the houses on the other side. You can put your easel in the middle of the main street and paint whatever you like there. Of course you can do your shopping in that street too. Fashion, shoes, bags, books, postcards to send to your friends at home, a map of the region to find your way, it’s all there. Not to forget the artist’s materials shop Van Daalen at the canal (also for matting and framing).

 

watercolour sketch ‘In the park’

 

When you want to see something else, you get out of town and in some minutes you are in the green landscape. At every side of Meppel the landscape is different. To the north there is sandy soil with woods and heather. That is where the world famous ‘hunebedden’ (pre-historical graves with large stones) are. To the west the soil is wet, there are marshes and lakes. To the east is the beautiful valley of the Reest ( a very small river, meandering through a slightly hilly landscape). To the south is the village of Staphorst, with its typical farmhouses and some people still wearing traditional costumes. When I take my bicycle, I can ride through all these different landscapes.

 

I decided to do that. Not only to ride my bike, but also make ‘plein air’ watercolour paintings of these landscapes. Alas, there was a problem: the rain. I had to wait for a day without rain. That’s the reason why you did not read this article earlier …

 

watercolour ‘North of Meppel’

 

Spring in Drenthe

Spring is really there. As normal in Dutch spring, there are days of rain. But there are sunny days too. And, above all, there is green. Leaves appear like green fingers from the ground. Green buds sprout from every tree. Not only green buds, also blossoms. Some trees look like pink clouds. Others have tiny white or yellow flowers all over.

There was too much! I wanted to paint it all, but there I didn't have time. I had some opportunities for making small watercolour sketches (see on this page). Also I made some photos (see page Inspiring photos).

first sign of spring: wild hyacints

 

in the spring sun you see all dust, so 'spring cleaning' is needed

 

some trees still bare, but spring is in the air

 

serious spring: blackbird singing near the pink magnolia

 

cherry blossom in full bloom