The Duivelsberg

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Beek – 21-07-19’ I made during a trip to Beek-Ubbergen with my parents. We returned to the place where I sketched two previous drawings. The last one was of a path leading to a bit of a meadow with a bench. That is where I saw the potential to sketch at the very spot. It’s opposite to the Duivelsberg (Mount Devil) and the hilly atmosphere shows charming treescapes with lots of sunlight and shadows.

Great but Inaccessible Spots

Often there are great views to draw or paint but from a narrow path. Working outdoors can quickly be interfered by too many people passing by, not to mention bad weather or inaccessibility. The latter is strange you’d say because when see a view you like then you can be there too. That’s not always so. By car for example you see beautiful places near the river Waal. Unfortunately you can’t park there and the traffic on the dikes is too dangerous for sketching or painting.

Focus

So there we were. My mother on aforementioned bench and my dad and I sketching the opposite hill. I decided to focus on the clairobscur scene made by the tree in the front left. It showed a great maximum tonal bandwidth set off against the faint Mound Devil treeline background. A great 2 hours sketch and quality time spent with my parents. The purest form of creating: directly with the motif in front of you – landscape or live model. Not suitable for my surrealist paintings but I’d like to do more drawings and pastels on the spot in the future.

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Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Winsor & Newton paper (10.5 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A6 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers