The first stages

As I said, I've been drawing my bark with coloured pencil. It's not finished yet, Bertus won't let me draw. But when he's asleep in the afternoon, I have a few hours to draw a little. And after dinner there is also an hour left for me to draw. And here are the results of the first stages of the drawing. It's a difficult piece of bark with all these flakes. But that's what makes it interesting. First I have to draw the basic outlines of the hole thing. I added also some obvious shadow parts so I wouldn't get lost while I was drawing.


The second thing I did was to add more shadows and add more colour in the shadow parts. This will give it more depth then just a simple gray layer.

After finishing most of the shadow parts I started in one corner to layer colours and blend them together. Added more details to it.

And that's where I am right now. Hopefully I can do a bit more today, although it is very warm today. We're playing outside most of the time today. It's okay to sit in the shadow under the trees and Bertus can play with water there.

Veronicastrum virginicum 'Diana' is a smaller variety of my Veronicastrums. While the other, taller ones have barely any flowers left, this white beauty is just starting to bloom. It is standing in a spot where is more shadow. I guess that's the reason why.

Another thing I noticed today is my Rosa Glauca. She thinks that it's almost autumn so it seems. The rose hips are starting to turn red and dark, the leaves are turning yellow.

It's all going so fast in this dry and hot weather... Thankfully an other rose thinks it's springtime. 'Moonlight' is getting a lot of red young, fresh shoots and leaves. Beautiful to see it when the sun is shining through.