pastel portrait Chow Chow second stage

I am trying to build up color and all those layers of hair.
A huge task:-)))) The photo I have as a reference is not so good.
I find it difficult to get depth in the painting. Still a long way to go.

pastel portrait Chow Chow first stage

This is the first stage of a pastel painting of my neighbours dog a Chow Chow. So many hairs to paint:-)))). And there are not many different colors only a lot of tints to play with.

watercolor acrylic stones study

Just a study on painting ordinairy stones. I used watercolor and some acrylic. Not finished yet, I will add some layers of acrylic to give it more "body" and more details.

oil paint still life apples, third stage

At last I worked a little at this still life. Not yet there. The piece of apple at the front I still have to paint and than some details and the finishing touches.

pastel two little ducks in progress

These lovely two young ducks, I just had to paint them in pastel.
I used pastel pencils and Canson MiTeintes, the smooth side of it.
Not yet finished. I have to paint the back and foreground and some details in the ducks.
I made this very difficult for myself because I had choosen green colored paper and it was so hard to mix and add the right colors on it:-)))) This picture was photographed, but I hope that once it is finished and protected I am able to put it on my scanner. In real, of course, the colors are a bit different. (As always)
I have used for this painting sofar Derwent pastel pencils and some Koh-I-Noor, these are a bit softer.
I have ordered 27 colors of even softer pastel pencils: Faber Castell Pitt. Only the colors that I need the most, because these pencils are soo expensive.
I  like to thank Edgar Thissen  for the use of his beautiful photos. You can look at his breathtaking photos at his website:  www.edgarthissen.nl

water color sparrow almost finished

I was not satisfied about the photo I had taken of my little sparrow. So this time I used my scanner. The outcome is a bit better I think.
Right now I am working at a pastel painting of two little ducks. I use pastel pencils.
Previously I only had not much colors and I decided to give myself a present and I ordered at Amazon.co.uk for less than half the prize a wooden box of 90 pastelpencils of Derwent. They are not too soft and that is what I like.

water color sparrow almost finished

Little sparrow almost finished. Some tiny details and his leg and feet I have to paint.

watercolor sparrow work in progress

I just started to paint a little sparrow in watercolor. This is the first time I try to paint a bird. Many hours are already spend and many layers are added. Still a lot of work to do, but I love this little one and I think that I will paint many more birds:-))))

oil paint still life apples, second stage

Next step, a little part of the painting is set up and some color added. But... again I am so disappointed and frustrated about the photos of my work. I know so many have troubles to get good photos. I tried everything but still........................ in real the painting is so much nicer.
Ah well, you can get an impression of what I am doing.

oil paint still life studies peppers and fruit

Just for fun and to experiment with different types of underlayers and to see how it looks when I add a colorlayer on top of it I have made these 2 studies.
One with an umber underlayer and one with an underlayer of grey tones.
In real the painting with the appel, pear and citron the underlayer of grey tones shines beautiful through the very thin color layer. The photo does not give a good impression of this subtible transparancy. I will try to put another thin colorlayer on to see if the transparancy still be there.
I am not so satifies about the underlayer of umber with the peppers. It is a very heavy color and when I added a colorlayer on top of it I have to use a less transparance color layer. I think that this kind of underlayer is more suitable in case of using thicker layers of color on top of it.

oil paint still life apples, first stage

I already tried to paint this still life, but I was not satisfied.
The canvas (a cheap one) was so rough that it was not nice to work on. The paint sunk in immiddiately, the paint did not flow and my precious brushes got ruined.
So I took another canvas, still not so expensive:-)))), and I put a layer of Gesso and an layer of acryl paint on. I mixed Umber and white. And it is a lot better to work on.
Not too slick and still some thooth.
I tried to paint a bit more loose and after adding the brush strokes with color I soften a bit the edges of the brushstrokes and mixed the colors a bit.
I used almost no medium, in case the paint was a bit to stroppy I put a tiny bit of medium at my brush (half terpetine, half standoil)
I have a jar already mixed, ready to use.
I am almost half way now, to night I will try to paint the left side of the table and tomorrow the background.
In real the apples are darker and more volumpteous like real apples.

It is so difficult to take good pictures and to get the right colors.
I took I think 30 pictures to get this one.
The painting is 30x40 cm, I find this a real nice size to work on.
Not too big not to small.

water color still life study nr2

Last night I did another still life study of some fruit and a vase. A shiny vase, so I could practise also the reflection of all the things that surrounded the vase. It was fun to do.
The painting is approx. 13,5 x 11,5 cm.

still life setup and studies

I like to learn how to paint still life so I made a setup in my room with a cardboard box, some cloth, a daylicht lamp and a bowl and apples and such. I made some photos and altered them in Paint Shop to find a suitable size and compositon and I have made a lot of sketches.
And I made a couple of studies with apples and glass objects.

oil painting, little girl reading, first color layer

Finally, I could not wait so I added the first color layer to her face and neck.
That was soooo difficult and of course I am not satisfied.
In real on her forhead there is too much green and her face is too yellow.
So when it is completely dried I have to work on her face again and also her hair has to be more detailed.
But till it is dry I can work on the other parts of the painting and I am alsostudying hard with composition and still life and making sketches and such.
Today I will place a lot of pictures of all my work of the last couple of days.
This picture is large, click on it to see all the details.

oil painting, little girl reading, next step

The grey tone underlayer is almost finished. I have to paint the arms, legs and background with grey tones and also her blouse has to be more white.
But then I can start to put some color on the canvas.
Very exciting! This is the very first time that I will do this technique and I am so afraid to ruin all my work.
So I will take some canvasboard and put, just like on the painting, the same color underlayers on it so I can practise color layers before I will add color on to my painting.
In real the little girl is longer, my camera shorten the picture.
It does not show the right dimensions unfortunately.
I have not discovered how to prevent this.

oil painting, little girl reading, grey layer

Just an update, I have some parts painted with a layer of tones of grey. A lot of work has to be done though. The whole canvas will be painted in tones of grey before I will add color.

water color still life study

For this still life study I used not satin/smooth paper but a more rougher surface and I like it!
Untill now I had so much trouble with working with such kind of water color paper, but I think that it helped a lot that I have painted with oil color the last month(s).
This is only a study in working with water color but also with composition and such. The white you see is the white of the paper, I did not use white paint.

I have so much difficulties with backgrounds and composition. I have purchase a beautiful book about composition and I just received it. I can really recommend this book, it is called: "Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts". A beautiful illustrated book, I only looked through it but it seems to me that it will be a great help to me.

oil painting, little girl reading, second layer

This painting is the largest size I ever drew or painted on! 60x40cm
The second underlayer is painted and tomorrow I will start to put the first
dead layer on.

drawing breakfast for art journal

This excercise is to try to draw round forms in perspective.
Not quit right yet, I keep practising!
But it was nice to draw again.

oilpainting 2 sisters, finished

Finally the painting of the two sister is finished.
I decided not to put colorlayers on top of the so called deadlayer.
I like it the way it is right now.
In real the painting have lots of different tones of grey and so much more detail.
The underlayer of raw umber is looking through and gives the painting more a lifely look and more depth.
I think that I will use this method also for other paintings.

I already started another painting, a big one this time and also made by the same painter.
It is still a very rough sketch with some tones.
For the first time I used a grid, but I found it a lot of work and I did not like this method.

oilpainting 2 sisters, first deadlayer

At last I began to paint the deadlayer, not finished yet.
It took me approx 6 hours to get this far with the deadlayer.
In real there are more details to see and it is more crispier and fine.
It is so difficult to get a good photo of a painting.

The deadlayer is the underlayer before I will add color.
The color of the deadlayer is neutral and has a lot of detail and tones. They will shine through the colorlayers and will give depth to the painting.

This is the first time I work this way with oilpaint and I love it!

oil painting, 2 sisters, next underlayer

Last night I put another raw umber layer on, in real the painting is softer and the highlights not so white.
I am not yet satisfied, some detail has to be added and also some shadow.
Overall the uderlayer is still not yet finished, but I hope tomorrow evening I can start to put the first dead layer on.

oilpaint two sisters first layers

A couple of days ago I started a little painting (20x30cm).
I am going to paint a part of a painting of William Bouguereau called: deux soeurs.
I am a member of WETCANVAS.com and every month they have another subject to study from.

I will try to paint like the old masters :-)))) (don't laugh).
I already made some layers of the underlayer (grisaille) and tonight I hope to finish this underlayer, so tomorrow I can start with the first "dead"layer.
That is called that way because several layers of a neutral greyish white color is added. In the same tones as the underlayer.

When the underlayer has as much detail as possible and good tones it will be a great help by building up this "dead"layer. On this layer finally will be added layers and layers of transparant colors. I hope to achieve the same result as the old master had: that because of all the layers the painting will "glow" and seems lively. It will take a lot of time before this painting is finished. Therefor I will start, another one hopefully tomorrow. Also a painting of William Bouguereau, this time I will paint the full picture and the canvas will be a bit bigger.

oilpaint study black and white

I want to learn to paint like the old masters, so I am studying hard.
This is a study in painting only with black and white paint. I will use such black and white layer as an underlayer for my paintings.

I love this way of painting and the result of it. The paintings of the old masters glow and that is the result of the underlayers of paint before color layers are added.
Right now I am in the first fase of several paintings I am going to paint. I will try to paint some paintings of old masters. That way I will study their way of painting.

oilpainting flowers next fase

This is the next fase of the oilpainting, vase with flowers. Still not finished though, but I used more medium so I have to wait till it is dry to put the next layers on.

watercolor tulip finished

This watercolor painting is finally finished.
However after I took this picture I found that some arias perhaps need a bit more darker green.
It is always difficult to know when to stop.

oilpainting flowers excercise

I just started an oilpainting.
It is an excercise in painting with thin layers using Liquin as a medium.
I use a watercolor painting of Jan Kunz as reference.
This is just the beginning, many layers are needed.

flower watercolor finished

This flower is so complex because of all the folds, shadows, different parts and color mixing. I hope it is still recognisable as a flower. I used an example out of "Glorious garden flowers" of Susan Harrison-Tustain as an exercise. And I learned a lot while painting this flower. I hope you like it.

brushes of Billy Showell

Yesterday I received the brushes I ordered with Billy Showell.
Wow! they are lovely. Long hairs and a beautiful fine point. Just the brushes I was looking for and great additions to the brushes I already had.

I am studying hard in working with watercolor, but it takes a lot of time to finish one.
And yesterday I ruined a watercolor painting of an orchid. I made a red smudge and I could not get rid of it. So I decided to paint a background. But I know that I am not good at backgrounds and .......................... yes, I ruined it:-)))))) Ah, well, I learned from it.

So today I started a new one, this is the very first stage.
The grey dark forms are the stems, I covered them with masking fluid.

The other pictures are some of my colourmixing cards I make when I am painting. They are realy useful references while painting.

oilpaint: selfportrait

Last year I made a selfportrait with oilpaint. I do not have much experience with oilpaint. It was a real struggle and of course I am not satisfied about the result That's why I decided first to learn painting with watercolor and than to try painting with oilpaint again.
Painting with watercolor is faster and I can learn much about mixing colors and built up layers of color. I hope that once I have much more experience, working with oilpaint will be a bit easier.
I placed this selfportrait on a shelf in the livingroom and she is (I am) looking at me and acouraged me to keep painting.

watercolor exercise: bud

I just finished another exercise, this time I choose this bud because I wanted to practise long lines. The bud is approx 22cm/9 inches so I could not scribble:-))))

I am using the book of Billy Showell to practise, such a wonderful book. I also bought her DVD.
I can highly recommend her book and DVD's. She uses brushes with long haires and a fine point and it is a joy to see her working.

So to give myself a present I bought 2 brushes she offers at her website. I am waiting for them at the moment. I can hardly wait to work with them. Good brushes are so important but they are so expensive and it is difficult to know which ones to buy. So when I saw Billy working with those brushes I know for sure that they were the ones I wanted to purchase.

tulip watercolor in progress

I am painting a tulip, a great excercise. Not finished yet, I still have to paint the leaves. The flower itself is finished.

little bee

This little bee was posing for a long time, so I could take a lot of photos. These ones were the best.

butterflies Atlanta and Little fox

The butterfly at the top is called "Atlanta".
This is a detail of his head.Funny eyes.

The Dutch name of the butterflyat the bottom is (translated) "Little fox".
The outside is very bland, the inside so beautiful.

Click on the pictures to see even more detail.