charcoal drawing dog

I just finished this drawing for the course of Val Webb: a drawing with charcoal in black and white. And I could not help myself to put some colour into the eyes.
In real the fur is a bit softer, not so white, more greyish

Drawing of a cat for the course of VAL Webb

I just finished a pencil drawing of a cat for Lesson 2 of a online course with Val Webb.
She is such a wonderful teacher and I enjoy her distance courses sooooo much! Thanks Val.

sketches of the Rododendron

In my neighbours garden there are some beautiful Rododendrons in bloom at the moment. In my own garden I have a bright red colored one, but these sketches are of some pale blue/purple flowers. Such a feast, all those colors. So I made some sketches to explore.
I promised to myself that the next couple of weeks I will concentrate on drawing and painting leaves. The next assignments for either Leonie Norton and Julie Douglas are to paint leaves. I find it so hard to paint them, so I have to practise a lot and a lot to finally succeed in painting some good leaves.

long time not posted anything

I posted nothing news for a while. This was caused by illness and because I started something new. Yes, I bought a dollhouse shop and I have been busy in making plans for it and also I practised in miniature knitting and embroidery. And that all takes a lot of time. I never sculpted such tiny dolls. I hope I will succeed.

But I love drawing and painting and sculpting so I am working at sculpting some miniature baby dolls  and I will start an online course by Valery Webb in drawing cats and dogs in the beginning of May. I already did take a course with her and she is such a wonderfull teacher. I hope that doing this course I will get started with my other courses with Leonie Norton and Julie Douglas. It certainly helps that Spring is finally there.
My little garden is already filled with spring flowers and temperatures are rising.

In the coming months I will have a commission in drawing a little white dog in pastel.

Long time ago last post

I had a bit of a "dip" during this winter. Every body I think has such "dips" and the challenge is to get out of it.
So I decided to start another kind of hobby (I have tooo much hobbies) to get my creative blood flowing again..
I became 65 years of age in Januar and I gave myself a present, a new challenge. I bought a socalled roombox. It is not a  complete dollshouse but only one room.

And it is a shop so I can put all my creativiness (does this word excist?) in it.
Sewing, knitting (Oh, yes, sooo tiny for babies 1/12) embroidery, painting, etc.

So since Januar I have been very busy in surfing the net for information and I bought far too much things to start. There are nowadays so many beautiful things to buy. Not the old fashioned things who were available when I was "young" but more modern things. But I like the Romantic, shabby chic style, so it will be a combination of different styles.

I will call my shop "Dreams", because this dollhouse is/was a dream of mine for many years and I will sell all kind of selfmade things in my shop. Like baby stuff en juwelry and really nice things for women. I hope it will become a really Dream shop.

I started a new blog, you can use the tab "dollhouses, miniature" that you will see above this page and I hope to see you there also.

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.

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.