Tulips, a lobster and some sketches

Last months WetCanvas Floral challenge was all about tulips. I picked one of the reference photos and painted it twice. Once with watercolors only and the other one with pen and watercolors. Both in my Moleskine watercolor journal.

And I participated in a few WDE's (Weekend Drawing Event) on WetCanvas.

WDE 20 May 2016 - An old door in Greece, with brown  PITT pen, a brown Tombow pen and water

WDE 20 May 2016 - I was fascinated by the clearness of the water on the reference image. And I am really happy with my attempt. In watercolors only.

WDE 29 May 2016 - A juicy yummie looking lobster with pen and watercolors.

WDE 2 June 2016 - Two sketches in a square Handbook journal. The left one with my new Lamy pen and the right one with a Pilot Sign Pens. Both new pens, and both with ink that is not waterproof. But I do like the effect with the watercolors.

Hello again

WOW, it has been a long time since I blogged anything. October 2015 was the last one, after my vacation on Samos in Greece... In the meantime lots has happened, my mother passed away in December and my sister and I were extremely busy with not only getting thru all the paperwork but also with clearing my mothers' house. Very stressful and emotional... My sister and I went almost 2 weeks to Curacao in February to recover and actually take some time to let everything sink in.

And now it is already May, I have been painting and sketching in between. I will show you the sketches of Curacao later.

This weekend I participated in the WetCanvas Weekend Drawing event. I choose the image of some beautiful red pomegranates. I decided to paint them with watercolors in layers. Pfff very painful process that needs a lot (too much?) patience. In the meantime I did a 5 minute watercolor sketch that came out really nice and another one in gouache. I love the spontanity in these 2 quicker paintings.

 Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 hrs. On 300gr Fabriano Artistico. 10" x 7"

Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Pomegranates in gouache - 45 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Printmaking for the WetCanvas WDE

I have been watching lots of printmaking video's on YouTube lately. Looking for new techniques of printmaking. I love Belinda del Pesco's video's. She explains and shows different printmaking techniques in a short video. I was looking for a image to use as a first experiment for a matboard collograph (Link to Belinda's video). And I found one in the WetCanvas Drawing event for this weekend.

This is the image and my first cut in matboard (coated with gloss medium) with an X-Acto knive.

After another coat of medium, I rubbed the ink into the cuts.

And with a cloth, a tissue and a q-tip I rubbed some of the ink of for the high lights

I cut 3 pieces of Mulberry paper into 8" x 10" size pieces and soaked them in water. The print plate is 4" x 6". I placed the paper on the printing plate and started rubbing with the back of a spoon, and rubbing, and rubbing....

After the first print I made some more cuts in the plate. This is the second print and is the best of the three. And drying on the washing line as you see ;-). Great new technique!! Thanks Belinda!

When they are all dry I will see if I will work on them a bit more, maybe with watercolors, or ink, maybe colored pencils. Lots of opportunities, will certainly try this again.

More ATC's for the Animal ATC project

The ATC's that I painted for the Animal ATC project on WetCanvas are starting to arrive. Almost half of them have reached their final destination. Hopefully all of them will arrive safely, it is taking a long time...

Cow for Marilou (reference from PaintMyPhoto)

Dizzy for Jeanne

Penny for Jeanne

Sea otter for Bonnie

Sheep for Nancy (reference from PaintMyPhoto)

Sketches and new ATC's

This weekend our Weekend Drawing Event takes us to Istanbul. I visited Istanbul a few years ago, and it is a marvelous city, a mix of East and West. The beautiful buildings, mosques and palaces show the rich history of the city. And in the bazaars you can buy everything you want. I love the place. So this weekends WDE brought back some happy memories.

I chose a few images for this weekend, the image of the inside of the Blue Mosque both scared as fascinated me. And the dark weather in the image of the view on the Blue Mosque, was really suited for my black Tombow watersoluble pen and waterbrush. Both sketches are in my Stillman and Birn sketchbook, 5 1/5" x 8 1/2".

Sorry for the bad pictures, my printer/scanner broke down... 

And for the Animal ATC project I can show you 2 more ATC's. Both have arrived with their new owners.

The reference images for the 2 ATC's came from Paint My Photo.

Painting for the WDE Weekend Drawing Event

This weekend I have been painting for the WDE Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas. I you never participated, it is a great way to get some more practice into your busy life. Every Friday a host will publish 16 images and you can do with them whatever you want. Paint, draw, sketch, collage, crop, abstract etc. There are a lot more forums, in which you can post your paintings, or participate in monthly challenges. Check it out!

This week I printed a few images, the first one from the afternoon tea. I used the afternoon tea image to create this entry in my Stillman and Birn sketchbook, with pen and watercolors.

And then I moved on to a marvelous image of a porch, with an umbrella stand, boots and scattered shoes. I loved it. I painted this one on a 'scrap' piece of watercolor paper, with pen and watercolors. The size is 7 1/2" x 12 1/4".

And then I can finally share 2 ATC's that I painted for the WetCanvas animals ATC project. You create the ATC's, send them to the recipients and when they receive it, you can finally share your image. These are the first 2 that have arrived on their final destination, there are about 10 more in the mail.

And the great thing is, that you receive all these lovely pieces of art back in return!

The reference images for the goats and the pig came from PaintMyPhoto.

Painting ACEO's and sketching

Happy New Year to all of you!

Even though my new art room is not finished yet.... getting there.... I dug out my paints from the boxes and started. I missed it so much, not good for my health. And probably also not good for the people around me :-).

I started last week with painting some ACEO's and ATC's (some reference photos are from PaintMyPhoto).

And this weekend I participated in the WDE (Weekend Drawing Event) on WetCanvas. I first did a sketch of a pelican in my Toned Gray Strathmore journal.

And then moved on to a watercolor portrait of a lovely Mexican guy. I hoped to keep the colors fresh and tackle the shadows... but I made mud again... I would love to paint more watercolor portraits this year... keep on practising.

And as bonus I painted street musicians in Prague. I took the photo in 2011 but never got around painting it. But here it is, in my Moleskine watercolor journal.

Hi there - I am back

Hi there, I haven't been posting for a while. Last week I got new windows and doors and my house looked like a building site. And all my art supplies were stored somewhere. I could not find anything, I even could not locate my sketchbook ;-). But now the dust has settled and I cleaned my whole house twice, so I should have some time to create again. I am really looking forward to it!

Before the building activities started I participated in the WDE (Weekend Drawing Event) on Wetcanvas. One of the reference images was of a lovely dog. The background is painted red as a tribute to Dean Haven (deano), one of our weekly participants and part of our WDE family, who sadly passed away recently. He always started his weekly painting with a red underpainting. He would have been proud to see all these red underpainted paintings this week!

I used red gouache for the underpainting, the dog is painted/drawn with pastel pencils. In my A4 Moleskine watercolor journal. 

And for the monthly challenge in the Animal forum (Fur, feathers and scales challenge), here is my contribution to the October challenge. It was something I wanted to try for a while. I ripped out a page of a tanned journal and glued it in my sketchbook. I drew the goldfish with a black Pitt pen and a white pen. And finished it with a little bit of rubber stamping. I like the effect!

Last sketches for my trip

I am in the last few days before my trip to the US and I am busy. Not only with work; we had another go-live scheduled during the weekend, but also with preparing for my trip to California. I will be flying to SFO this Saturday and will stay in the Monterey area for almost 4 weeks. The first 3 weeks I will work in the mornings and sketch/paint/go sightseeing and relax in the afternoons. I hope to fill some sketchbooks with my travel sketches and I will keep you updated as well.

My sister will join me after 3 weeks to spend the last week in Monterey with me and then we travel up to the Sonoma valley, where we will stay another 10 days before heading home. We both will attend the Art-is-you art retreat in Petaluma, both for 3 days. Lots of fun to look forward to!

Some of the sketches I did in the last weeks:

A pen and watercolor sketch in my handmade watercolor sketchbook 5 1/2" x 7 1/2". For the WetCanvas WDE (Weekend Drawing event)

A pen and watercolor sketch in my handmade watercolor sketchbook 5 1/2" x 7 1/2". For the WetCanvas Animal and wildlife challenge August

And a painting of Maria in watercolors  in my Moleskine watercolor journal (A4). For the WetCanvas WDE (Weekend Drawing event)

My next blog post will be from the other side of the world, I hope you will join me!

In my Moleskine watercolor journal

This weekend has been very hot in the Netherlands. Great to stay indoors and watch some instructional art video's. I watched video's on pen and wash, negative painting with watercolors and a few more. I do think they are toooooo long, but with the fast forward, no problem :-).

The elephant mother and kid are done with my PITT pen and some watercolors in my Moleskine watercolor journal. The reference image was from the Wetcanvas WDE 18th of July.

And a watercolor painting of a little boy, the reference image is from the WDE from the 4th of July. I did not have the time to work on more images then, but saved some for later. 

Painting with watercolors in my Moleskine watercolor journal

Yesterday was a very hot day in the Netherlands. I went swimming in the morning with my sister (we do this every Friday) and I needed to go to Utrecht in the afternoon for an appointment. I took my sketchbook with me and sketched in the 'kloosterhof', near the Dom.

Today is a completely different day, it is raining, so I decided to stay in and paint all day... I am working on 3 paintings at the same time. A painting for the Wetcanvas Weekend Drawing Event and 2 paintings of irises for the Botanical and Floral challenge this month (also on Wetcanvas). The WDE painting is a pen and watercolor sketch of a blueberry bush in my Moleskine watercolor journal ( 8 1/2" x 11 1/2" in size).

Blossoms in watercolor and some ATC's

 

This weekend I am playing in the Labor Day all art a thon at www.atcsforall.com. A full weekend creating with friends all over the world and lots of trading of course. So far I made 4 ATC's, I will show you two. One done in pen and watercolors, using a reference image from WetCanvas. And one mixed media collage.

 

 

 

And I have been painting with watercolors in my Moleskine watercolor journal (A4). This is a painting of a reference image in the Florals forum on WetCanvas (challenge for the month August).