Mini Skizzen für riesige Bildwirkung, oder: Bessere Bilder durch ein bisschen Planung
Ich schreibe heute über den großen Wert der kleinen Skizze, die mir dabei hilft, neue Motive vor meinem inneren Auge entstehen zu lassen.
Christmas Special
I recently taught a workshop which I called ‚Christmas Special‘. First we painted a still life with candle and then a snowy landscape. I composed the still life myself using my still life box. I’m not sure where exactly I
Loose vs. line | Locker vs. nicht-locker
Here are the most recent sketches. They represent two approaches: the first one works entirely without a line drawing underneath whereas the second one represents the opposite approach, the good old line-and-wash method. I had a leisurely moment on a
Gammut mask and a painting (English only)
Hello dears! I hope you are all doing well. Do you remember my recent series on limited palettes? I used a different one each week in October last year (you can see the results and reflections about them here, here and
New palette | Neue Palette
The fourth and for now last combination of colours I want to paint with for one week is this one: Burnt Umber (W&N), Magenta and Ultramarine Blue (both Schmincke). As you can see, there is no yellow in this palette,
Why I paint with a limited palette | Warum ich mich auf drei Farben beschränke
This is the fourth week in a row of me painting with a limited palette. I will introduce the current palette tomorrow. Why am I doing this at all though? I have already hinted at how my thinking about the
Painting with a limited palette | Mit eingeschränkter Palette malen
I have two weeks of painting with a reduced palette under my belt – what can I say about this approach so far? In the first week I used the Zorn palette adapted to watercolour: yellow ochre, alizarin crimson and
Zorn-Test: The reduced palette (English only)
This week, I am experimenting with Anders Zorn’s reduced palette. As an oil painter this would have me using four tubes of paint: titanium white, ivory black, alizarin crimson or cadmium red and yellow ochre. As a watercolourist, I am
Ink sketches with watercolour | Tuscheskizzen mit Aquarellfarben
The other day, I let myself by inspired by a German sketcher who fills his waterbrushes with ink and then makes wonderfully monochromatic drawings. Totally the copy-cat that I am, I filled one of mine with W&N non-waterproof ink and
Neutral tones development | Entwicklung hin zu neutralen Tönen
The way I came to watercolour painting, I learned that a smaller palette is more, that highly and purely pigmented paints are best and that you can mix all the colours you need yourself. I learned about neutral tones which