Monday, February 6, 2012

Two girls, an insect and a wornout musician... with courtesy to my daughter E

My oldest daughter encouraged me to finish this messed up watercolour painting of two girls on a scooter in Maastricht. I had ruined the background completely so my motivation was down to zero.
But E challenged me to finish it, so here it is!!
I have washed the background several times to get rid of it as much as possible.
In reality the skintones are deeper and the girls are even a little sunburned. Also the scooter is in a more deeper colour and the white dress is shaded with grey tones who aren't visible here.
This pic has almost a mediterranean feel.
Probably because Maastricht is the most southern city of the Netherlands and borders to Germany and Belgium.

Anyway, although I am not happy with the way this turned out, I did learn a lot!!! For instance: I have to know more about my subject; like a scooter and all the mechanical parts.... I have to plan the background better and I have to do something about the scanning onto my pc.This exercise was not in vain so I thank my daughter for pushing me into finishing it....



I am not to keen on insects so as a strange form of therapy I have tried to draw a fly.
I discovered that a fly has a lot of eyes and strange feet that cling on to anything or anybody that it lands on.
I do have made some misstakes that I figured out later with the shield on his/her back and the place where the wings are situated when in rest.
Not that easy huh??
Didn't know they were that hairy either....
Am thinking about drawing a spider but I am not there yet (fearwise) to be able to look at one.... let alone study one!!

The quote in Dutch  is difficult to translate but very true...
Freely translated it means: the best place to hide is in plain sight.





And since it seems I am showing off all my failures; here is another one!!
I have made this one from a picture which my daughter E took in Italy.
The man is obviously a tired and not very succesfull musician when you look at his appearance (clothes, shoes and face).
I liked the contradiction of the old neglected building with the wornout musician in front of it, and the luscious green leaves of the plants.
I am not unhappy with the way the leaves turned out, but am not contect with the musician (especially not his face) and the wall behind him.
But... I liked working on it, so I will make an adjusted painting of it.
Will make the musician bigger and more the focus and leave the wall vague. Perhaps make the suggestion of a garden wall with overhanging leaves...
Am now working on a watercolour of shells, seaweeds and a can on the beach. (Am longing for spring and summer!!!) but maybe I will make a snow landscape also.
Tomorrow the horse of daughter S gets new shoes and I am helping the blacksmith with the horse (the horse is kind of rebellious with strangers) while S is at work. Later this week have to babysit her cat for a couple of days. Hope she doesn't get more animals... sigh!! A mother's job is never done!!!  (fit of laughter here, I happen to like my hairy grandchildren)

No comments:

Post a Comment