Castle "De Wittenburg" 14-03-23, Drawing, Pencil/Colored Pencil on Paper, 2023

Corné Akkers  

Always gloomy This graphite pencil drawing 'Wittenburg Castle' – 14-03-23 is a rallying cry for spring. The dates indicated in the old drawings show that I sometimes started drawing outdoors as early as early March. For the coming week, there will only be rain under grey skies unfortunately. Winter will keep its claws on us longer, I fear. Unfortunately, I will be attending the big Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum accompanied by a gloomy weather next Sunday. However, the light has already changed spectacularly, here in the Netherlands. Outdoors, it stays longer and is no longer as bluish, compared to November. Therefore, I have decided to do a landscape now in a desperate attempt to impose good conditions for the outdoor sketch. A Quick Sketch Of course, there are other reasons to do landscapes and city views. Suddenly, I realized that it had been a while since I did the last one in August. The one before in small format A5 outdoors was done in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel last July. Without a doubt these Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencils are the best. I lacked the desire to draw with my old 0.5 mm mechanical pen. Let's see what I can do by doing a quick sketch in one or two hours. It is a welcome change compared to the large painting Psyche & Amor on which I have been working for months. This behemoth is almost finished but it absorbs a lot of artistic energy. Much to the detriment of my creative ambitions which want to push me further. Of Wittenburg Speaking of the gloom that is still winter, I found the perfect reference photo. It is Wittenburg Castle in Wassenaar, Netherlands. It is located there in the middle of the so-called 'domain road' in a forest near my home. I often lived in its surroundings, looking for artistic motifs. I also know the castle itself thanks to a friend's wedding and legal seminars in the 90s. Always on my to-do list and now it is time. I simply love drawing castles, old houses, churches in the middle of lines of trees. Hatching Regarding the actual execution of this little drawing, everything is a matter of practicing my hatching techniques. Maybe just to see if I could manage it on site rather than by precise proportional measurement. I did not need to make many corrective erasures. Therefore, I simply focused on hatching the very dark parts and erasing the highlights. It always works. I hope that these lugubrious representations, however beautifully they are, will soon be followed by the clearer ones. Graphite pencil drawing (Sakura 0.5 mm, 4B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Cornè Akkers :: Drawing :: Impressionist :: This work is accompanied by an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist :: Ready to hang: No :: Signed: Yes :: Signature location: bottom right :: Paper: Landscape :: Original: Yes :: Framed: No