Autumn: watercolour paintings berries and a drawing of a chestnut/leave

Here in Holland it is Autumn right now. Lots of wind and rain.
Leaves are falling down, their colours changing from green to red/brown/yellow.
Lots of berries in different colors. Most of them are orange or red.
I drew a chestnut leave and a chestnut and painted some berries.
A real challenge but these colors are really inspiring.

at last... started sculpting again ... little baby

At last I started sculpting again.
The last couple of years I was sooo busy with drawing and painting that there was no time left to sculpt dolls.
But after I received a couple of emails from very enthousiastic people who want to start sculpting I became enthousiastic myself again.
I have a lot of little baby heads already baked and waiting for their other parts.
So I took one of those little heads, the one I love most, and started to give him/her a body of clay.
I want to experiment (as always) and give this doll a sculpted body but the shoulders and hips will get a cloth part so the arms and legs can be moved so it will be possible to positioning him/her in different ways.
And still, the tummy and back will be visible.
Hmmmmm, great plans, big task.
Why Oh why I just do not sculpt every time the same kind of doll??? As so many do?
Ah well, I keep saying to myself that this way I am learning all the time and hopefully get better and better in what I do.
Soon I will put some pictures of the doll to show him/her to you.

excercise for masterdrawing Cyclamen

I am studying also for the course of Leonie Norton, a distance learning course in botanical art.
I choose the cyclamen as a project and for practice I made some drawings of the flowers. They are like butterflies. These studies are for a masterdrawing of the cyclamen.

branches, apples and pears in pencil and watercolour

 

APPLE TREE

PEAR TREE

Tomorrow I start with a course of Margriet Honingh, a Dutch botanical artist.
Untill now I did courses through the internet so it is wonderfull that I will get advice and guidance in person.
I feel very excited about it.

Although I can read and write the English language well it is a relieve to ask questions in Dutch this time.
For the first class she asked to draw and if possible to paint a branch with some leaves and a whole apple or pear and an apple or pear cut in half. And of course................. I did both:-)
I have a couple of tiny apple and pear trees in my garden so I choose branches of those trees to complement the drawings of the apples and the pears.

watercolour painting of a courgette

Last night (very late) I finished a painting of a courgette. What a great fun that was.
First to paint with liquid masking film all these tiny spots to cover them up. That took some time.

balloon flower, ink and watercolour

I had lots of fun working with ink again. First I did a drawing with ink and than I did another one and made tones with dots of ink and filled it in with watercolour.

I used Arches Hp and Indian ink with a dip pen.

external/distance course Botanical Art, Leonie Norton

I searched the internet to find a distance learning course for Botinical Illustration and finally I found one: Leonie Norton and she lives in Australia.
Hopefully at the end of next week I will receive my first study materal with the 2 first units.
I cannot wait to get started.

I almost finished another distance learning course at a College in the United Kingdon, but that was a real disappointment.
Too much money for so little.
Only 4 critiques and almost no possibillities to get in contact with the tutor.

I already do a course with Julie Douglas in Ireland for Drawing and Painting; I learned so much from her and she is such a lovely lady and a great teacher.
I get the impression that Leonie Norton is also a great teacher with lots of experience and she is a great accomplished Botanical artist herself.
So I have lots to do the coming months/years and I hope to share my journey at my blog

watercolour portrait of a Clematis

I just finished a portrait of a Clematis plant. Right now it is blooming in my garden. I have several different plants with very big flowers, so not the tiny ones. It was not easy to get the right color, and at the photo the color is more bluish. In real the painting is more purple.

hosta leaves watercolor excercise

I just finished a watercolor painting of some hosta leaves. I used an example from the book by Margaret Stevens to draw from. I am studying very hard with watercolor and I learned a lot by painting these leaves.

botanical paintings of a tulip

I just finished some watercolour paintings of some tulips. This time I studied how to add an underlayer of neutral paint and how the result are when I added the coloured washes on top of it.
I also painted the same tulip in red acrylic. That was real fun to do. A total different outcome in comparison with the watercolour version.
I learned a lot doing this such as that I do not like to paint an underlayer of a neutral grey tone first.

watercolour study of tones using only Payne's grey

I did a  study of mostly white ojects and one dark object by using only Payne''s Grey watercolor paint.
That is such a good excercise for me.
Furthermore some parsnips, this time with color but again to learn to see tones.
I did these excercises for the online course of Julie Douglas. She is such a darling and such a great tutor. I learned so much from her and she gives me time after time such a support that I get motivated all the time. Just what I need:-)

drawing of some shoes

I loved drawing these shoes. Not easy at all. But I am studying tones and this was a great excercise. It took me a couple of evenings to complete it.

excercises: drawings of an aubergine/tomatoes and a little pepper

Again some excercises.
One of an aubergine and tomatoes to learn to see tones in pencil and one large drawing with charcoal.
The aubergine, very dark is not easy to draw.
Another drawing I did is a little red pepper.
I loved to draw the half pepper, such a joy to draw the seeds and the innerside of the pepper. I had a little trouble in drawing the whole pepper though. The drawing is life-size.