Citadelle Liège

 
More drawings from last saturday, when I joined up with the Urban Sketchers Belgium.
At first we went to the Citadelle, up on the hills surrounding Liège. On top you see my drawing (I just felt for a different style) and just under it the Lapin version of the same scene. He stood next to me.

And below a drawing of (nearly) all participants to the meeting, when we were seated on the terrace. Likeliness not guaranteed.

Liège, Hors Château

This is one of the places we went to with the Belgian Urban sketchers in Liège, Hors Château.
It's a renovation area of the early 80's, an example of city renewal when I studied architecture.
Architect Charles Vandenhove. And it still looks perfectly good!
Anyway, I had the opportunity to sit next to Gèrard Michel when we drew this scene. It was nice to see him at work as well, much more precise drawing work than my version.

Portraits in Kerkrade

(remark: I updated the photo)

A busy weekend, on saturday drawing in Liège, today (sunday) I stood on the Market of Kerkrade to make portraits. Something like a Dutch version of "place du Tertre".

I must have made about 30 quick portraits in about 4 hours; after a while I lost count.

I drew mainly children, two adults and.... a dog called Misty.
Both the children and the dog were a first timer for me, it took me a while to get the proportions of the youthful faces  correct.

Here is the final collection: 27 portraits.

Rodney was also there, he must have made as many as I did. We both had children waiting in line to take a seat in front of our easels.

Lapin et Gerard á Liege

Today I went to Liege, to have a fine day of outdoor sketching with some drawing friends.
We were invited by Gerard Michel, (the grandfather of Urban sketching), on the occasion of the visit of Lapin (from Barcelona).

We were with a group of about 15 people of 4 nationalities and had a super day. Not only drawing on some beautiful locations, but also drawing each other.

I'll show my drawings later, here's my impression of Gerard (top) and Lapin (bottom).

Drawn when we had coffee and an Orval on a nice terrace on Place du Marché.

Tools of trade

I thought it might be nice to show my usual drawing kit, for on site urban sketching.
This is what I always carry in my laptop case: a moleskine watercolour 13x20cm, a small watercolour case with 12 half pan colours, four different fountainpens with different inks (sometimes I add a Noodlers flex nib pen, but unfortunately it leaks lately), a pentel black paintbrush, some pencils and a water filled Koi waterbrush.
I also carry 2 red sable brushes; I had to cut the holder in half to make it fit in the pencilbag.
For neat works I have a decent Rembrandt watercolour set at home, and of course the other stuff like oil paint, acrylic and gouache, all types of inks, brushes, pastels and pencils.
Enough to keep me busy.
Only a month later, and this set was stolen from me, on our way back from a weekend in London.

St. Servaasbrug

Yesterday, the first of the grey rainy evenings, I was in Maastricht for a dinner appointment with some colleagues of ancient days. I was a bit early and took the opportunity to sketch the St.Servaas bridge as seen from the old Ridder brewery.

Chemelot

Very busy lately, no time to sketch. I made this one during lunchbreak a few days ago, somewhere on the DSM chemical plant in Geleen. My daily working desk is still there.

Ark in progress

Yesterday, after a holiday break of 6 weeks, my wife and I went to the atelier in Nieuwstad to work on our stained glass windows again. This is my "Noahs ark" slowly progressing. I am almost halfway now.

Hot rod pickup

 

Last Thursday evening I visited the Cruise-in in Heerlen/Kerkrade, a meeting of owners of oldtimers and classic american cars. I've been there before to sketch, it's always a feast for the eye.

This time I sketched this beautiful 1934 Ford Pickup hotrod, restored and adapted in a fantastic way.  I kind of liked the open engine, it makes you realise the beauty of a well designed motorblock. 

Drawn and painted standing on location.