For most people drawing foreshortening is difficult and I am no exception. I remember very well my first exercise from the Bert Dodson book “Keys to drawings” (my favorite drawing books on amazon). He requests the reader to draw the own left or right hand with the fingers pointing to the viewer. That exercise gets [...]

The local bookstore has proven indispensable one more time. I found one copy of “Oak,one tree,three years,50 paintings” by the British painter Stephen Taylor lying on top of a pile of art books as if it was left there with purpose to be found by the right buyer. A quick look made clear that I [...]

A couple of days ago I went to the same place I started the forest diary sketchbook on a grey afternoon in January 2009. I started with a humble sketch in ink, black and white,which still reminds me of those insecure days when the financial crisis hit. Now at beginning of autumn 2011 the scenery [...]

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle There are windy days, the wind howls up in the trees. I have walked to the very edge of the village district. Looking through the trees I can see some orchards down hill and in the far distance the next bigger city in front of hazy blue background [...]

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle The end of summer has come with some hot days, but autumn is near. The sound of falling acorns can be heard everywhere and the cobwebs glisten in the evening sun. The growth of foliage on trees, undergrowth and grass is at its peak now. Each and every [...]

Buy this sketch on a postcard in my Zazzle store We are approaching the most boring time in the year from my perspective now. At the peak of summer there are not many colors in the landscape, all the different greens have changed to almost the same dull, saturated green. There is not much light [...]

This is a quiet forest path, people rarely walk here. The birds were very active on this morning. Young woodpeckers made such a noise that I had to choose another place. I regret that I was not able to catch the vivid contrasts of light and shadows in and under the canopy of the trees. [...]

This is a study of a typical forest in the so-called Stromberg area near Maulbronn. Oak and beech trees are the most common trees here. There are some pines trees and only a few areas with spruce and Douglas fir. The images do not need much commentary I think, it is obvious how the sketch [...]

-buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle- On this rainy day I headed straigth to a hut in the woods. There was this typical laundry kind of smell in the air,temperatures well over 10°C and high moisture. The woodpeckers where very busy, but also other birds. I could identify a new bird, a warbler To [...]

I documented this sketch of a clearing in woods in a few snaphots with my mobile phone camera. 1.First the sky and the background were sketched with a big brush (2 inch brush from the DIY-market) in thin washes of colour 2.With the next smaller brush size (no16) some more detailed forms and darker tonalities [...]