China, Beijing, CCTV and Birdsnest.

The latest update on two of the most impressive buildings I have seen recently: the CCTV tower in Beijing and the "birdsnest", also Beijing. The pictures were made last week by our special correspondent (Floor, the tourleader of our visit to China last year). The weather looks more bright than what we had.

De CCTV toren en het vogelnestje (t.b.v. de olympische spelen) in Beijing. Foto's gemaakt door Floor, onze reisleidster van onze China reis.

Gala St.Jan

Gisterenavond was het schoolverlaters gala van het St.Janscollege. Rianne en haar vriend Bob in grootse stijl. De trotse ouders staan niet op de foto.
My daughter Rianne and her friend Bob, at the grand final exam gala, yesterday evening. Everything to be proud of.

China Dino (2)

The China Dinosaurus exhibition in the Maastricht library draws to an end. I went there today to make some more sketches. The first one is a 8 meter high Yangchuanosaurus. You would not like to meet him 150.000.000 years ago. The bottom one is a Mamenchisaurus. In reality his neck is 3 times as long, but it did not fit on the page. To see its head, see my post of 2 weeks ago.

DSM

Another try with my new brush pen, a sketch of a Edea-transformer station somewhere on the DSM chemical plant.

BMW in Shenyang

Today a collegue of mine, Andre van Drunen, went to work for another Tebodin office, in Hengelo. A few years ago I did a project with him: the design of a BMW carfactory in China, up north in Shenyang. It was a very difficult project, but we had a great time in the long summerevenings behind a few good beers in the Munich beergardens. Some contrast with the dust and chaos of China. I made this painting for him: it is the entrance of the Chinese car plant during costruction. Based on some very old scribbels.

Brush pen

Bought a Pentel brush pen this week. A cross between a fountain pen and brush. The above sketch of a Banyan tree is the result of a few hours experimenting. I used a drawing of a tree that I found on Flickr (by Jane Y). I kind of like the result.
Afgelopen week een Pentel brush pen gekocht en uitgeprobeerd. Wel even wennen, zie bovenstaand resultaat van een Banyan boom. Model stond een tekening die ik op Flickr vond.

China Dino (1)

Went to the China Dino exhibition in the library of Maastricht. They exposed full Dinosaur skeletons coming from China! 140.000 years old!

Here the sketches I made on site. Awesome! The large one was a 30 ton heavy mamenchisaurus, the other was a 10kg heavy pterodactilus (Dsungaripterus). Some contrast.

Schetsen van de China Dino expositie in Maastricht.

Hoensbroek Castle

A sketch of the little tower in the corner of the Hoensbroek-castle complex. As a child people said it used to house people suffering from the plague. Don't know if it's true, but it gave way for imagination. We called it the plaguetower for that.
De pesttoren van Kasteel Hoensbroek. Als kind hoorden we dat daar melaatsen in hadden gezeten. Bracht in ieder geval je fantasie op hol.