Woudschoten

Went to a congress centre near Utrecht this week for a two day course in sustainability.
The centre was located in the woods, very beautiful. But the days are dark, not much chance to make walks and enjoy the park.
Except the first morning, I was able to make a walk and a little quick sketch of an old tree trunk loaded with mushrooms.

Mark

For the first time we had a live nude male model. I never realised it was so different to draw than women. But very intersting to do.
This is the result: pastel, washed out with water on prepared paper, 50x70cm. One hour to draw.

No right turn, a new chapter

The 8th pane of the collaborative comic noir "No Right Turn". A new chapter, a new twist, a new colour.
The last 7 panes were all set in the venetian blinds office in yellow colours. I found it time to change the scene, and leave the cliffhanger of the yellow box to add to the suspense. And I was a little fed up with the colour. So I made this panel to set new rules.
It was based on a 5 year old Urban sketch I made during our New York visit, in Chinatown, Doyers street. http://www.renefijten.blogspot.nl/2009/05/new-york-chinatown.html
I am totally surprised about the outcome of this accidental project,the twists and turns and creativity of the project. What more to come?
For the past panels: I keep the issue publication posted a few days ago up to date.

Vaesrade

 

Haven't done a decent Urban sketch lately, for almost a month now. It's very busy at work, dark when I leave for work, dark when I get home. And weekends filled with social activities. I am not complaining, but just stating the reason why I can't go out and sketch. Actually the weather hasn't been that bad for autumn. 

But wednesday afternoon I had some time after an appointment. This is the village of Vaesrade. In het youth my mother in law lived in the house behind the tree, opposite the church.

And Florence, another limbudedicated (french) urban sketcher, lives around the corner as well.

No Right Turn

I made this drawing of Cienega Boulevard, and it unexpectedly turned into an international collaborative "Comic Noir". I made an Issuu publication of the Comic so far (7 drawings at the moment of this post), with drawings from the Netherlands, London, Boston, Los Angeles, Sweden and so on.
Fascinating, as the story is invented on the way!

Progressing slowly

Finally, the painted pieces for this stained glass window are ready. They were burned into the glass last week. I can put the pieces into the lead now. Still a few weeks work to go.

"No right turn": Jim + Laura

This is getting somehwere incredible.

The comic noir "No right turn", which started a week ago with my "Cienega boulevard drawing".

All kinds of artists all over the world took up the challenge to draw next panes and invent the storyline as we go.

The bottom drawing is the one posted yesterday from Jim Scheel, Los Angeles.

Obove the chilling twist of plot by Laura F. Vasquez from Boston.

It is a little peculiar to put these drawings in this order, but as this is a blog, the newest drawing is always positioned highest.

So if you want to read the story start at the drawing that started all this:

la cienega

Jelle

Live portrait class, pastel on prepared paper 40x60cm. This is Jelle, the son of Annemiek who leads this masterclass.
I made three drawings in 2 hours. The idea was to use layers of pastels and wash it out with water. I prepared the paper with acryl binder, to avoid that the pastel soaks too quickly into the paper.
With this one I decided to stop after 20 minutes. I had the feeling I would only spoil it if I would go on. Sometimes you feel lucky when a drawing works out like this.

"No Right Turn": my turn

The 3rd pane of the collaborative "Comic Noir" called "No Right Turn".
This one is mine. I made the story twist towards a private eye story in Raymond Chandler tradition.
Sketcher Jim Scheel from Los Angeles is busy making the fourth pane.

"No right turn": Cat Andrew

Here is a post I did NOT make: a fantastic drawing by Cat Andrew, from London I believe.
Here's the story: I posted my Cienega boulevard drawing on a Facebooksite called Sketching Workshop, a sketch exchange site hosted by Jorge Royan.
Cat liked my drawing and remarked that it would be fit for a Comic Noir. So she made this panel.
Someone called it "No right turn" which seemd fitting enough. Isn't this great?
My next pane will be shown here tomorrow. Where will this lead to?

Siberisch krijt

Model painting class, after a live model. 50x70cm, pastels in earthcolours with siberisch krijt (which is charcoal mixed with clay and water, and pressed into bars; it give a very deep black lines).
It took about an hour to make.

No right turn: La Cienega

I am lagging behind with the Timeline series (on the 15th of each month I choose a picture to redraw).
I already picked the photographs, but I didn't take the time to redraw them yet.
On the 15th of July we were travelling through California, no newspaper, no Internet. So I picked from my own photographs, one that I made one night on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Don't ask me why, but this is my favourite photo of the trip. Just a parked yellow schoolbus in the yellow neonlight. I am seriously considering to turn this into a painting.
New developments around this drawing: it turned into a first page of a comic noir: "No right turn". See the following posts!

Drapes

Yesterday I finished painting the difficult pieces of my stained glass in-progress: the drapes and curtains.
I still have to do the middle part: the tower of babel itself. It took me about 3 hours to do the white and red parts.
So hopefully next week the pieces can go into the oven to be burnt onto the glass.

30 seconds to Mars

Yesterday evening my wife Gertie, my daughter Rianne and I went to a concert of the rockband "30 seconds to Mars", In Cologne.
A memorable concert.
It's a pity they started very late, there was almost an hour waiting between the support act "you me at six" (not half bad for a warming up band) and the concert itself. But the performance made it all worth while. Jared Leto is a very charismatic performer. And musician. And songwriter. And actor. And director. A multi-talent.

Sketches from my father, 1949

Last weekend my mother had an unexpected surprise: while cleaning up the attic she found an old travel journal of my father.
The journal contained a detailed description of a visit my father made to a family in Cambridge (UK), just after the war, back in 1949.
And to my surprise: it included 21 sketches of buildings, people and items like a television (which he had never seen before! See sketch above).

During the war some English soldiers were interned in my grandfathers house, and over the years both families kept contact.
My father was invited to visit them in 1949, when he was about to start his study as teacher in English and history. He was 19 years old at the time.
I knew he had made that trip, he had told me about it, but I can't remember that I ever saw that journal.  
Now I know from whom I inherited my drawing skills. Of course I always knew that my father was very creative: he could make anything he saw from wood. But I have never seen him draw or paint.
I would have loved to share this with him, but he deceased back in 1999; we still miss him every day.