They were in full bloom last sunday, the big light pink cherry blossom balls on the old japanese trees in the garden town Le Logis Floréal in Brussels. In the 1920’s these trees were send over straight from Japan, when the garden town was finished.

They’re fantastic.

So I went sketching again, but the weather was very cold. I think in the video you see I’m cold and my hands are frozen in the end.

Luckily next Sunday I heard the weather will be warm and sunny for the workshop 🙂

 Here are some important insights from the video :

• I first splash the cherry blossoms on the page, as they’re the main subject
• then I draw the trunk and the branches of the trees in watesoluble graphite.
• I think it’s important not to draw continuous branches, as some parts are hidden behind the blossom balls
• try to draw the accidental organic old shapes of the trees. Not two trees are the same. Old trees are quite different from young trees
• I paint quick strokes of grass and bushes. They’re quite geometrical. Some bushes are less geometrical: those may be “splashed”. I love to splash. Careful for your clothes as some colours don’t wash off.
• I draw a part of the house. A lot is hidden behind the tree and that’s good. The trees are the main subject.
• The parts of the windows and doors that have shadow are drawn darker by pushing harder on the pencil.
• For the grey of the houses and the tree trunks I use a mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange
• For the pinks I made a “blossom palette” with several kinds of pink. The main flowers in the sun are very light pink, but for the shadowy part of the tree I used darker pink like Potter’s pink.
• I used sable brushes, but you can use other brushes as well.
• A diagonal brush is interesting to make large brush strokes as well as fine brush strokes
• don’t forget the shadows

Here’s my pink palette. I made this last year when I went to Japan to paint cherry blossoms.

I hope you enjoy the video and don’t hesitate to ask questions or give ideas that my help others in the comments below.

Love,

Barbara