Bananas

Practice with light and shadow. I'm not too sure about it, but some people were quite positive, so I guess it's okay. Maybe it's because I know what the original looked like...

Back in the Netherlands

Back in the Netherlands I'm starting to try out some new things. Someone at a forum mentioned that my sketches seem to be focused on lines and that I might try out some colorsketches without using lines first.

I'm always up for a challenge so here's one of the colorsketches I made to practice with acrylics. so no lines were used, just shapes. But a candle like this is so simple it could hardly go wrong there.

My apologies for the scan btw: I made this in my sketchbook, and I forgot to erase the bending of the page before uploading this picture. But since it's just a random sketch it doesn't really matter I guess.

Piece of wood

Piece of wood I thought was fascinating. I love the shape and the small pieces of bark that still clung to it. I don't know from which tree it was. I picked it up on the bibbelmum track between Long Point and Mount Claire, right where the track leaves the dunes and its shrubs behind and enters the forrest.

Skin scales

For the mother of a friend I got some of these crocodile skin scales to draw. I never knew those creatures had scales like this. But she said she found them (and a whole bottle full of siblings) on the rotted carcass of a crocodile... It doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But they were clean now and interesting to sketch.

Grass tree

These "trees" are really amazing. Instead of leaves they have grass and their flower looks like the big stick you see in my drawing. They flower after they've been burned by a mild fire (after a very hot fire they might also flower, if they're still there ^^)

Old man rhyme

A childrens rhyme I heard while in Australia just remained stuck in my head and I felt like making a drawing of it.

Pink mushroom

Yes, this mushroom was really pink. I was making photos of mushrooms for some friends and I found this one while my card was full. But I thought it a shame to not record this one in some way. Luckily I had my paintset with me.

Banksia nut

While I was in Australia I was really struck by how different the trees and plants looked. This banksia nut is probably nothing special to australians. Like chestnuts, or acorns are nothing really special to europeans. Just something that you always see lying on the ground during a certain time of the year, or something that you used to make spiderwebs with.

But! I've heard that there is an australian childrens book that has main characters that look like nuts and berries and stuf. The main characters are two cute honkey nuts (from the karri trees) and the bad guy is figured on the banksia nut!

Poor banksia nut, I don't think it looks like an evil banksia man...

Paper bark

I just love the twisty shapes of these south west Australian paper bark trees. They're a swamp species and are tolerant to high water levels. The one that I pen sketched here stand on the water side of the Walpole inlet, where part of the Bibbulmun runs past.

Colorful coral

This image was scanned from my sketch book / diary that I kept during my travel to Australia. This is a water colour sketch of a piece of coral that a friend borrowed to me for just that purpose.
Pieces like this can occasionally be found on beaches, so it doesn't really harm the reefs to pick up things like this. But it's still not quite legal to have, or at least to take across the border, I heard. I guess there's no way to tell the difference between a found piece and a piece that was broken of.
Luckily there are no laws saying I can't make a picture of it.

Rock Lobster

I made this drawing standing in front of an aquarium with a dozen or so of these creatures. And since they are appearently sensitive to light, there had been very sparce with the lamps and this is essentially a "blind pen sketch". It gives it a bit of freedom.

Tamara in Australia

This is the complete picture that I used for the lay-out of my new Sketchblog. I made this while I was in Australia doing volunteerwork for two months. It was a wonderful experience!