Yesssssssssss

Today I worked hard on the Alder branch. And it went well. But I must say it is maybe one of the most difficult subjects I've done so far.

Anyway... this is just the beginning. It's going to be a big drawing. I hope I'll finish it.

No progress today...

I am working on a large drawing of a branch of the Black Alder tree. It took me one day to make the sketch and get the drawing on the Fabriano. Today the drawing wasn't leading me anywhere. That's very frustrating. I used to keep on working, hoping it would look alright in the end. But most of the time that ended up in a ruined drawing and tears. So, having learned from my mistakes, I decided to stop the drawing for today. It's not good to mess the drawing up now (as if it ever is a good time to mess it up).

I thought I would do some crocheting instead. I am making a cat. And since it is a bit cold, the cat needs a scarf. I made her a grey spiral scarf but it was too dull for her. So now I've made another one. It's purple.... I guess I will have to make a second cat to match the grey scarf...

Aaah, life is hard.....

Winter Buds of Cornus mas

I first had no idea what kind of shrub this was but my friend Michiel Thomas helped me with that. It's a European Cornel, one of the Dogwood family. It was planted beside the road in our village and I liked it. It will get very yellow flowers soon, but for now it is still looking very pretty (I don't like very yellow flowers).

My first coloured pencil drawing after the surgery. Not a masterpiece. But I'll keep trying.

Coloured pencil on Fabriano designo 5 Liscia paper. 25 x 11 cm (the branch)

Check out the large size: View On White

Arum

I found some drawings last week in an "old" sketchbook. Amongst them was this sketch of an Arum italicum. I made this drawing in October or November last year. This is the moment the Arum makes new foliage. The entire winter it stays green and in the end of spring, beginning of the summer there are huge "flowers" hidden between the leaves. At the end of the summer and in the autumn, the foliage dies and the cones (first hidden inside the flowers) are covered with large orange berries. It is not a very healthy plant (poisonous) but it's very beautiful and interesting all year round.
My idea is to make a drawing of this plant in all these stages. So here's the rhizome and a fresh young leaf. Next I want to draw the flower and finally the orange cone. Not very original I know, there have been hundreds of artists before me that did the same thing. But I just love this plant.

Foot

Last week I started to draw in my new sketchbook. After some weeks of pain in my wrist, I am very happy to say, the pain is almost gone. Of course I can't do everything yet, and some sudden moves still hurt but, most of the time, the wrist is painless. I still can't bend it very well though and that's the reason why I'm not touching my coloured pencils just yet.
This week however, I did my first drawings with graphite pencils. First I made a drawing of Bertus. I made it from a photo. Normally I don't work from photos but Bertus just can't keep still (and I really doubt if he ever will). It is Bertus playing on the beach of Schiermonnikoog last summer. His first time he saw the beach and the sea.

The next drawing I made was a botanical one. Small, but nice. It is a branch from the Climbing Hydrangea next too our front door. It really isn't big....

And yesterday evening I decided to draw my foot. On Flickr there are a lot of people now uploading self portraits. Very nice.... but I am just so scared of drawing my face. I know it will frustrate me enormously. It will drive me absolutely mad.... So this is my self portrait. My foot. And so I started to draw my right foot. I had never made a drawing of my foot before and frankly I thought it would end up in the dust bin. But it didn't. It actually went really well. And after sketching my foot I sketched my ankle, also good enough.... So I sketched some more, calf, knee, thighs... stop... hold on.... Thighs????? Oops, that was a lot of foot!!!!! I just didn't know where to stop. Lucky for me and the rest of the world, the paper stopped before I could. So the thighs is the end of the foot drawing.
Anyway.... I am pretty pleased with this first drawing of my "foot" ;-)

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Heuchera brizoides "Melting Fire"

Have a wonderful 2009 everybody!!!

Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'

I made another watercolour today. This is a Prunus in my garden. It flowers from November until April. I made a coloured pencil drawing of it once and I like the tree so much, I thought I'd try a watercolour too. I love my Winsor & Newton "Opera Rose"....

Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'
about 15 x 4 cm, watercolour on Fabriano designo 5 Liscia.