little oilpainting of 2 cherries

After I have been busy of learning the slow process of fine art oilpainting I want to paint also wet in wet.
I tried before many times but I got so frustrated.
I could not handle the oilpaint and after a while it became a mess.
Yesterday I started again and this time it did not became a mess but I succeeded in painting this little painting of 2 cherries.
At last..... sigh.
I think I have learned a lot the last couple of months about working with oilpaint and I am so delighted.
I always wanted to paint like this and now, at the age of almost 67............... What a joy!

I painted these cherries on MDF, size 25x25cm, underground grey acryl.
I did use the paint right out of the tube, so no medium at all.

second layer on the lemon painting

This lemon is big, a lot more than lifesize and therefor it is sooo hard to paint the large parts. The little indentions are very difficult to achieve. I started with painting on to the flat surface and give it some structure. It gives me a base to go further. But like the other paintings I am working on, I wait till the my next lesson and ask my tutor how to do the next layer.
So at the first photo you can see the first layer and at the second photo I made the flesh of the lemon a bit lighter and I covered the smooth surface of the lemon with some structure. Still ...... a lot of working to do for sure before I can add some transparant layers of color to it.

second layer grapes

 This is the first layer of this small excercise. My tutor recommended me to start with grapes. I did not erased the drawing enough so I have soo much difficulties to get rid of these lines. So lesson learned:-)  As you can see at the second photo I added more white and soften the whole painting. It is a great excercise for sure.

This is the second layer of paint. I have to wait till the next lesson to ask my tutor how to progress.

first layer painting grapes

I started a big painting, wow. I have so much to learn. I have a great teacher: Monique Eysink. I have to wait till after the holidays to show her the progress and to ask questions. Till then I will continue working at some smaller paintings/studies.
I used umber and titatian white for the underlayers.
I have to add more layers so the white will be white and the darkest is the darkest.
So building up.
A great adventure.
As you can see athe the second photo that I made the first layer lighter otherwise when I put the layers of colors on top of it the value/tones will get too dark.
It's a learning process indeed.
I put some background on top of the grey to be able to see the contrasts better.

first stage underlayer finished

Last night I finished the first layer of the underlayer. Now I will let it dry. I did try to make the form of the citron round and I will add details to the body of the citron in the next layer. This is the first time I work this way. I have to wait 2,5 weeks till my next lesson.

first step of classical realistism painting

I really enjoy painting this!! Not easy though. It is my first attempt in using this technique.
This is a real Work in Progress. This is the first layer of the underpainting in raw umber and titanium white.
 I am working at the slice of the zitron and starting to paint the dark background.
Untill now, I think I painted for 12 to 14 hours. Long way to go.

New adventure: oilpainting course fine art, classical realism

At last I found someone who teaches classical realism and........... she lives nearby. What a treat. Her name is Monique Eysink.
For the last couple of years, I took several online courses but I miss personal contact.
Next thursday, 2th of October 2014, is the first real lesson.
So I started to search for suitable subjects. Not easy to do, there are so many beautiful licence free photos on the internet. But it will be my first painting so the subject must not be too difficult to start with.

I downloaded several photos and I think I found the one I will use.
A citron, sliced.
Then I made a beautiful print of the photo to paint from, in the size of the painting. I do not want to start too small but also not too big, so I choose A4 size, 20x30cm.

Then I made a linedrawing to transfer to the piece MDF. I covered the MDF with a medium Grey colour several times.

With the help of my computer I made a image with 7 tones and painted a little study in a smaller size on a piece of MDF to practise these grey tones.

And last, today I took the photo of the citron and took from a lot of places colorswaps to see what colours are present on the photo.

What I always do with painting bontanical subjects with watercolor is to make studypages with colorsamples and I will do the same with these photos. So I will make a page with colorsamples with watercolor.

I already made 7 pages with all the colors of oilpaint I own. I glued on each page 7 pieces with 1vwhite and 5 different grades of grey  and painted on them with each oil paint color.
So I can see what the different colors do when they are painted over these greys.
Are they transparant, or opaque. Does the color change by the underpainting.
For the classical realism it is important to know if the color is transparant or opaque because colors are glazed over a grey toned underlayer.
These pages are with the colors red, blue and yellow. I did the same with all the other colors.

september challenge Botanical Artists at Facebook

There are some lovely groups at Facebook, for instance the group Botancial Art for Beginners and Botanical Artists.
The last group is holding a challenge this month: September/Autumn 30th day challenge. And it stimulate me to draw some Autumn things.

Chihuahua portrait

This morning I finished a portrait of a little Chihuahua.
At last I did finished something.
The last weeks it was too hot here in the Netherlands to do anything and I mostly studied and made a lot of studies of different botanical subjects.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take another (the second) course with Dianne Sutherland. I already am a student for the botanical watercolour course and I had the feeling that I want to get a step further with drawing botanical subjects.

I hope you like this little portrait, it took me ages to complete. It is a gift. I hope they will be pleased.

Camelia painting finished

After a long time I finally finished a little painting of a Camelia. Due to illness I could not do much the last months. But..... there it is and I think I finally get it: how to work with watercolour paint. It was so often so frustating and such a struggle. Often my thoughts were: I give up and stays with what I can....... drawing. But I cannot stand it when I cannot do something so finally I think I found the way I like to paint.

Billy Showell started an online course

Billy Showell started an online course. You can be a student for a month or for longer. You can pay each month or she has also the possibillity to pay in advance for a year  at a cheaper price.
It costs you only  9.99 GBP and for a full year 89.88 GBP.

Every two weeks she will be adding a new project.
And you can view 5, 6 or even 9 videos about one subject.
These videos are such a delight.
Her previous videos also were very informative but these videos are and will be made like she wanted them to be and she is sooo much more relaxed.
The quality of the videos are superb.
So........ I think you can understand by now: I am very delighted that she started these online tutorials.
In case you want to see some free videos... you will find them also at her website so you can see what you will get.
This is the subscribe page: subscription page Billy Showell

autumn, some tiny paintings

I am practising painting tiny objects and use small brushes. I am also very busy in practising dry brush techniques. Sooo much to learn:-)
This time I painted a rose hip, a haselnut still in its green jacket and a maple seed.

anemone drawing first stage

At the moment I am working at an anemone drawing.
I want to add more flowers/buds to the composition because it is not in balance. So already I added one tinier flower on the left and I have to work out what to add next.
 I love drawing!

cyclamen leaves, excercise watercolour

For my online course Botanical Art with Leonie Norton I choose the Cyclamen for my masterdrawing and painting.
My next assignment is therefor to paint two leaves of the Cyclamen, front and back.

I do not have much experience with watercolor and I am really struggling. But slowly I think I am getting somewhere and I discover what kind of technique(s) I like.

I took some photos of the leaves, not yet finished but I do not know at the moment how to proceed. So I put them away, practise a bit more and look at them again after a while to see if I can make them better and of course how to do that. It is a bit difficult because at the moment there are no cyclamen available so I only have my notes and drawings to work from.
To see if I painted the right tones I altered the painting in black and white with the help of Paint Shop Pro.

The second two photos are altered, I made the paintings darker with the help of Paint Shop Pro so I could  see what they would look like if I add more darker layers of paint. Again I changed the colours into black and white to see the tones.

watercolour paint, charts, brushes and such

Lately I have been very busy with painting watercolour charts and practising with watercolour paint.
Oh boy, how difficult working with watercolour paint is.
I already learned a lot but still....... I am struggling. I rearranged my paint boxes to make it more easy and made colour charts with the basic colours.

In one box at the first row I put the basic colours because I realise I first have to learn to paint with limited colours. I have to start at the beginning.

In the second row are colours all transparant and the third row are the opaqua colours.

In my second paintbox I put all the other colours, mostly ready mixed colours.

I think I have to get used to mix my own colours so I put these extra colours away for a while till I have more experience in mixing colours.
The watercolour paints are Winsor & Newton artists paints.

What I have learned so far?

• I must take a full load paint in my brush so I have enough liquid to be able to manipulatie the paint and to cover enough paper without I have to fill my brush in between.
• I need to use a brush that is big enough so I can cover a whole area.
• I need to hold the brush more closely to the hairs to have more controle.
• I need to mix enough paint.
• And most of all, I have to try out my mixes and paint and check it before I use it for my painting.
• I have to wait till the paint is dry before I add another layer (patience, patience!)
• Not to scribble.
• To wait till the paper is not too wet when I add a next layer.

I have cheap, less cheap, expensive, more expensive and very expensive brushes like Winsor & Newton nr.7 and Rosemary & Co brushes.
And I really can feel and experience the difference between all of them.

Last year and this year I have been saving and buying 2 beautiful sets of W&N nr 7 brushes.
I want to save them till later when I have more experience with working with watercolour paint.
But I have an extra nr. 2 W&N nr 7 brush and I use this brush to practise with. I love this brush.
Last year I bought nr 4,5 and 6 for 49.95 GBP and this year nr. 0, 1, 2 and 3 for 29.95 GBP from Ken Bromley Art Supplies in the UK
As far as I know they have the lowest prices and their shippingcosts are reasonable.

Furthermore I bought some brushes from Rosemary & Co in the UK.
Some of serie 33 and some of series 323.
They are a bit cheaper than the W&N 7 and I use them to practise and I really love these brushes, not only for practising. They are lovely to work with. These brushes have a very good reputation and they are worth the money for sure.

The cheaper brushes I use for mixing colours and for lifting out and such.

I feel very fortunate that I own  these brushes.

But now the only thing I have to do is:
"learning how to paint with watercolour:-)"

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.