Marlot – 27-04-23

Still Freezing Cold

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Marlot – 27-04-23’ follows my previous drawing of Park Arentsburgh. This how it goes, walking to and fro. Going from one spot and back again. The amazing thing is it’s still freaking cold, even at King’s Day. It was freezing in some areas in The Netherlands last night. Consequently I still haven’t sketched outdoors yet this year. Amazing, isn’t it? In Spain temperatures hit a scorching 39 degrees Celsius this week. Here we still face a chilling northern wind. When I look at drawings from the past I see I sketched in nature as early as March. However, weather forecasts are in favor of those who want to dwell outside next coming weeks. Hopefully so!

Along the Path

This having said, still drawing from my stock of reference pictures. This time Marlot was on the menu once more. My last one depicted the old mansion over there. I remembered I had taken some pictures along the canal that ends in some kind of pond in front of it. This drawing is situated a couple of 100 meters to the left, towards The Hague. During corona times I often dwelled there. That was a welcome deviation from my daily drawing and painting activities, not being able to teach in groups. I was caught by the great lighting on a sunny day in May. The tree line in the back actually is the same as in an earlier drawing of 10 years ago.

Overcoming Difficulties

I set out on this drawing like I am used to. Simply hatch the paper up with diagonal lines and erase back the lightest parts. See what’s next from there. Soon I figured out I had to change my plans and come out with a better scheme. The thing was that the tree line in the back, being Marlot Forest, wasn’t showing too much contrast. The leaves in the front just weren’t contrasting the trees in the back that much. Where it all boils down to is that I had to crosshatch suggestions of leaves in the trees upfront. Hence the typical hatching disappeared quite a bit. Sometimes that’s what it needs. Working in monochrone hues sometimes it’s difficult to create enough contrasts in different sections. I hope it’ll be enough to distinguish between all intended objects.

Graphite pencil drawing (Sakura 0.5 mm, 4B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers