Love Doing Landscapes

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Clingendael – 16-03-23’ follows shortly after my last one of Castle Wittenburg two days ago. Frankly I just love doing landscapes again. I can’t wait to go outside and see everything in bloom. Nice weather for shorts and a pint on a terrace after scetching. Even though it’s not so dire cold anymore Spring hasn’t arrive yet. April can be unpredictable in The Netherlands as well. Anyway, the next coming 6 months will be grand and I yearn for sunshine that comes with them. Well, I can’t go much further in my present painting in progress. I simply have to wait for my regular model who’s in the art work, to model for me. Just some quick checks and adjustments. A nice time to practise my sketching techniques in between.

All about Values

This one is also done within two hours. I didn’t want to overproduce it even though the depiction of leaves can be a challenge. Especially when they are stacked behind eachother like in a scenic landscape. Sometimes you can’t make head or tail of where a group of leaves end and another in the back starts. In other words, leaves on a tree in the foreground seem to melt into the background. The more when coloration is excluded and obviously this drawings is monochromous. Therefor I decided to fade the treelines in the back with a stumper a bit. The three trees (actually 6) serve as repoussoirs to push back the meadows behind them. Through the rhythym of light and dark tonal values in the grasses and rhododendrons the attention stays there. I even managed to suggest the barbed wire hence with some cows behind it.

Clingendael

This drawing is not the first depiction of Clingendael I made. It’s quite near by and I often dwell there, especially in season. The last one was in August 2022. That one depicts the hill and canal in the back of the estate, this one is near the entrance. There is a path that leads to the Japanese garden. That’s the one you see in front of the fence. Imagine yourself walking there. 200 meters farther at the left you will step into the Sterrenbos with the most beautiful forest of rhododendrons in it. When the sun shines right through the trees in May it almost sets the blossoms on fire. Heavenly magenta!

Graphite pencil drawing (Sakura 0.5 mm, 4B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers

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