Liège rooftops

I went to the presentation of the USK Liège book last thursday.
Some of the sketchers that feature in the book were also there: Florian, Gèrard, Lapin, Antoine and Fabien.

So we took the opportunity to go out and sketch. On friday Gèrard had the bright idea to go to a rooftop of an apartment building overlooking the Meuse/Maas. Mind you: the temperature was barely above freezing point, and there was a chilly wind. Only if you stood in the shade of one of the chimneys, the feeble sun would warm you up a little.
The sketch is the view over the city centre.


By the way: I was on the (French speaking) Belgian television again.
http://www.rtc.be/reportages/262-general/1468976-liege-le-travail-des-urban-sketchers-repris-dans-un-livre
A report on the launch of the book. 

The Liège book!

Here it is! The Urban sketchers Liège book. 
I recieved my book today, a fantastic book with drawings of Florian Afflerbach, Simo Capecchi, Fabien Denoël, Rolf Schroeter, Miguel Herranz, Lapin Barcelona, David Emdé Magli, Antoine Michel, Gérard Michel, Corinne Raes, Luis Ruiz Padrón and Inma Serrano. And I am proud that my drawings are among those of these talented sketchers.

Sander

Painted this morning, Sander, in a life model session.
40x70cm, acrylic. Took me about an hour to make.

The Liège USK book is out now!

Fantastic news! Gerard Michel made this idea come real, not only did he invite us last year on that 4 day sketching trip in Liège, but it's is now available in bookform! 200 something pages filled with the drawings of: Inma Serrano (E), Simonetta Capecchi (I), Corinne Raes (B), “Lapin” (F), Miguel Herranz (E), David Magli (F), Rolf Schröter (D), Rene Fijten (NL), Luis Ruiz (E) et Florian Afflerbach (D), Gerard Michel (B), Antoine Michel (B) and Florian (B). 

Imagine: in total 65 meter of drawings!

I haven't seen the book yet, but I am invited to the official presentation next week. I can't wait.

Wolfshagen, Germany

Quick sketch; view from my hotelroom in the Berghotel in Wolfshagen (Germany, the Harz).
I was there on business (again). I made this drawing in the early morning, just before breakfast. It was a few days before our present horrible autumn weather started, filled with storms and rain. Back then the air was bright and fresh, but windstill; the coloured leaves were still on the trees.
How quickly that all changed.

Coloured ink

An now its time for something entirely different. I bought a few bottles of coloured ink, to experiment.
Lately I am inspired by the work of the (outside Italy unknown) illustrator Sergio Toppi, and his use of (coloured) pen and ink drawings. This drawing is loosely based on a drawing of Toppi called "Dicono".
I was trying out several of his techniques, but I still have to work out and train myself on how he treats the ink. Anyway, for a first try I am pretty pleased. Not that I come close to his outstanding work, but it's a start anyway.

Volterra Leporello (3)

Here is the third installment of the Volterra Leporello.  Series of drawings of Volterra itself. The top one is the view from the "balze", a cliff on the western side of the city.
I left out one drawing, a drawing of a real original Roman theatre. But I don't like it. In each Leporello there is always one substandard drawing of which I wished I could cut it out. But that's the whole idea, you can't.
:(
Anyway, the other view is the view fro the park Settembre XX, where you can see the houses sloping down towards the valley below.

And the final drawing is a concise plan of Volterra. 

 Enough Volterra for this year....

Volterra leporello (2)

Here is the second set of drawings, these were made in Monteriggione.
The students had to do work there too, while we were sitting on a nice terrace in the town square.
It was a bit chilly, but a good espresso made up for that.
The top is the little medieval church, the second the bar and terrace next to the one we were sitting on.
And the bottom one the heavily guarded main entrance of the enclosed city.

Volterra leporello (1)

During the Volterra trip (already a month ago!) I was able to make a series of sketches. Like last year I decided to make leporello, but I was not able to make it as long as the previous one. Just about 2 meters.

On the top you see the total strip. I will show the different scenes in more detail one by one.
The top one is the little chapel at the Porta San Felice.
The second is the view through that same Porta.

The third scene is the view over the Tuscan hills. Furthermore a medieval carved stone, with the Volterra municipal symbols, which you can find on one of the townhouses on the main Piazza dei Priori.

Autumn in Goslar

This afternoon in Goslar, (the Hartz, Germany). I was there for a business meeting at Chemetall, a factory in Langelsheim. The meeting closed early, so I took the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather and walk around the beautiful old city center. It was at least 17 degrees, and the brown leaves are still on the branches.
And I could not resist to make a drawing of three of the beautiful old houses, one of them the old Brauhaus.

Is there life on Mars

Experimenting with ink drawings and digital colouring. It started as a doodle during a boring lunchbreak.