Noteboompark – 06-04-23

Willow Trees

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Notenboompark – 06-04-23’ follows my sketch of lambs in Clingendael of last week. Suddenly I wanted to do one of Voorburg again, the city where I teach art. In fact Den Haag borders Voorburg so an outsider wouldn’t take notice crossing over. There is this strip of vegetation stretching from Den Haag all the way to estate ‘Vreugd en Rust’. Towards the end there is this cosy little ‘Noteboompark’, adjacent to the Juliana-Bernhard Park. That’s the one I cross through on my way to Brugman. The region Haaglanden (the greater The Hague) is well renown for its lush parks. You can find lots of ponds, weeping willows and what have you not. This one is no exception and I liked depicting these willows on the verge of Spring. It’s very cold though but the sunshine almost seems to scare away the icy northern wind.

Not Much Contrast

Whereas the previous drawing was full of hefty tonal variations this one is different. Before I go into details let me state I took a picture of the scenery. The photo was taken from a bridge where I couldn’t draw. Although the view was great the lighting wasn’t. So I took another photograph a day later. Finally it was sunny again and it lit the trees beautifully. This having said this one proved to be a tall order. The thin leaves didn’t contrast much with the blue sky. Only enough to make a difference so I can show the light on top of them. On the other hand, I got two reference pictures that showed the best of both worlds. The vantage point was a bit different though but that didn’t bother me. I could use the first photo and just use the other one to interpret the lighting.

Water Reflections

The wonderful part was the reflections in the water. I just love them like I have stated dozens of times before. The funny thing is that reflections give you both a recognition of the trees and the water as such. How about that for a double whammy? I only had to mirror structures to get a maximum effect. The bridge in the back is the actual bridge I almost cross daily. Can’t wait to get my foldable camping chair with me and sketch outdoors when it’ll be warmer. It’s still a freezing 9 degrees Celsius. Brrr!

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