Abbey of Rolduc

Visited an exhibition in the abbey of Rolduc, in Kerkrade. It's a very old abbey.
There was an exhibition of art, very interesting. On my way back, I made this little one, rather quick, because it was quite cold.

SS Rotterdam

This a commision that I made the last few weeks. It's based on a 2014 sketch of the cruise ship SS Rotterdam. It's a hotel nowadays.

The original sketch was made on location, but I made it in a sketchbook (A5), not possible to tear it out. renefijten.blogspot.nl/2011/05/ss-rotterdam
So I made a new version on proper paper, and a lot larger (A3). I am glad to say that the client was pleased with the outcome.

Michael Lukyniuk, Jorge Royan

The comic "No right turn" is proceeding steadily. Again a few new panels, the first of chapter 8. As you may remember Desirée and Bob climbed the crane to check out the area, looking for Boris and the samurai girl. The first drawing is made by me, unfortunately a sketchers did not have enough time to make hers, so I jumped in.
The second is an adapted one by e late Jorge Royan. I added the silhouette of Boris into an existing drawing.
And the last drawing is by my good blog friend Michael Lukyniuk, from Ottawa, Canada, and his lovely drawing of the boat being lifted out of the harbour.

Rosamunda

Rosamunda

Als een reiziger, na drie dorstige dagen trekken door stoffige vlaktes, eindelijk de poorten van de stad ziet, met daarachter de vele op elkaar gestapelde torens met kleurrijk versierde balkons, dan.......

.... ontdekt hij dat elke toren een eigen functie heeft. Een bazaartoren, een herberg, een goudsmederij. De bovenste toren herbergt de bibliotheek. Daarin ....

.... zal hij, evenzeer dorstig van de reis als hunkerend naar kennis, zich kunnen laven aan de boeken, de oude manuscripten, de in verguld leer gebonden folianten, de slordig gedrukte stencils, de half verweerde paperbacks, en naar oud parkament ruikende atlassen, zich lui vleiend in eindeloze kasten, verbonden door trappen en balkons, door bruggen en wenteltrappen. Maar als hij dan deze werken opent ....

.... die hem met een glimlach door de oude bibliothecaris zijn aangereikt ontdekt hij dat op de eerste bladzijde van elk boekwerk een afbeelding van een roos prijkt. Hij vraagt de bibliothecaris naar de betekenis daarvan. De man kijkt verbaasd en ....

.... zal zeggen: "Maar mijnheer, de roos, dat is toch het begin en het eind van alles?". "Waar U een boek ziet, zie ik de dicht beschreven bladeren van de roos". "waar U de zoete parfum van een jonge ontluikende vrouw ruikt, ruik ik de frisheid van de roos". "Waar U de stad .....

.... ziet, zie ik de compositie van de bloembladeren van de roos. Dat was ook het model waarnaar onze stichters deze stad destijds gebouwd hebben".

Hierna verliet ik welgemoed deze stad genaamd Rosamunda, benieuwd naar wat de volgende stad, Tulipa, mij te bieden zou hebben.

Verhaal door Rene Fijten en Clemens Maasen.

When a traveller, after walking three thirsty days through dusty highlands, finally reaches the gates of this city, admiring the many stacked towers decorated with colourful balconies, then...

... he will realise that each tower has a function of its own. The Bazaar tower, a guesthouse highrise, a goldsmith. The highest tower houses the library. There.....

... he will, as thirsty from the travels as thirsty for knowledge, be able to submerge in all the books, the old manuscripts, the foliants bound in gilded leather, the faded stencils, the worn paperbacks, the atlases smelling of ancient parchment, all lazily reclining in endless rows of cabinets, connected by staircases and balconies, catwalks and spiral staircases. But after opening these books....

.... which are handed to him by the old librarian, he will realize that each first page of each book will show the image of a rose. He asks the librarian to its meaning. The man looks genuinely puzzled and... 

.... exclaims: "but Sir, the Rose, wouldn't you agree that it represents the beginning and end of everything?" "Where you see a book, I see the densely lettered leaves of the Rose." "Where you smell the sweet perfume of a young budding woman, I smell the freshness of the Rose!". "Where you see the city"....

.... "I see the intricate composition of the petals of the Rose. That was the model after which our founders built this city." After this explanation I good humouredly left this town called Rosamunda, curious what the next city, Tulipa, would offer.

A story by Clemens Maassen and me. I started with the first sentence, and Clemens did the second, etc. It slowly evolved into a Calvino type of story, neither of us knew where it would lead.....

Optoch va Gebrook

The Carnaval Parade of Hoensbroek. This is the float of the group "De Druim" (the dream).

Themed on Alice in wonderland. It was freezing cold, and it was snowing in between a few sunny patches. Strange weather.

This what reality looked like.

Koerenne op de mèrt

Kowrenne (Cowrunning) has started last evening. The start of Carnaval in Hoensbroek.
Unfortunately it was far too cold to make a live drawing (even though I had my sketching gear with me), we had minus 4 C and a cold eastern wind. So I made this at home while thawing my frozen toes. But I ran for 15 years under such a cow, so I have no problem catching the atmosphere.
Follow the label below if you want to see earlier sketches of Kowrenne.

Magdeburg Hundertwasser (2)

I noticed that I hadn't posted this drawing yet. It's the other side of the Hundertwasser building, the backside.

I had half an hour left to make the pendrawing before my train would leave.
I totally disliked the actual colours of the building, so I determined to keep it in slightly coloured greytones.
I think it works far better than the other drawing, of a few posts back.

This was also the first time I reused my Lamy Joy with a calligraphy nib (1.5), it had been lying in my desk for years.
Back then it didn't work for me, but now I really liked working with it. So I used it to make the Rotterdam drawing (Piekstraat) as well. Which I even like better!
Funny how you sometimes rediscover materials after time.

Rotterdam, Piekstraat

I was in Rotterdam, yesterday, for the final presentation of a 4 day training in Projectmanagement.
We finished quite early, so I had time to make this sketch at the harbour.
But is was cold, an icy wind was blowing in my back.
It's an old industrial crane, at the river Maas. The other side of the river is where the city center is.