Some time ago I have written a short tutorial how to draw pine trees in charcoal for artgraphica.net. The tutorial is published now. I tried to document the drawing process also with some short phone videos, mainly to show the use of a soft eraser to creat structures on bark etc. Artgraphica.net is a great [...]

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle I needed two sessions to complete this gouache sketch in the forest diary. It is the mating season for the roe deers. Today I heard a roebuck jumping through the undergrowth coming nearer. Finally there he stood some 40 yards opposite of me staring curiously at the intruder. [...]

buy art print pastel still life flea market on Zazzle For some time I studied light and shadow in a number of dry pastel paintings. Some old vessels bought on the flea market were arranged to still life that I lighted with a strong 1000 Watt light bulb to get dramatic shadows and strong lights. [...]

The many spring greens already merge into the more or less uniform,saturated and dull summer green. The images above show how the latest sketch developed. The advantage of gouache is that it is opaque and it is possible to paint in layers. Especially for depicting foliage this property can be very helpful as it is [...]

I spent some time following a small brook in an ash forest. There is always a lot to see when a stream of water can meander freely, it has become a rare situation in our heavily used landscapes. Outside of the woods water streams are regulated and their natural way has been straightened. The reflections [...]

It was already raining a bit when I left home. First birds could be heard, especially the woodpeckers were very busy, spring is coming soon. I sat down in a dark, young douglas fir and spruce tree forest. Green algae covered some of the trunks and contrasted with the dark wet bark. The wind was [...]

It amazes me how many hunting perches we have in the woods over here. No matter where you can see a hunting perch every 300 meters or so, not to speak of those ruins that lie around decaying slowly.  This one obviously has been rebuilt.  The place around was made up almost like a workshop. [...]

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 [...]

How to draw trees by Frank M. Rines is the second cheap book on drawing trees I want to review here. The first edition of this book was published already in 1936 under a different title. The paperback copy I bought was published in 2007. The book is similarly constructed as the previously reviewed one [...]

Today I try to explain a bit how I do the gouache sketches in my forest diary. Step1: It begins with the choice of place and the preparation of the sketchbook which I lay on the forest ground. I always have two clams which I attach to the top edges of the paper to avoid [...]