Sketches

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Amstenrade

Lockdown had the unexpected result that I lost my appetite for drawing. I really prefer drawing outside than inside, so lockdown, even the less restricted one here in the Netherlands, is an ordeal.
Drawing the garden didn't work, neither did the back of our house, or the living room.
But we had lovely weather yesterday, at our King Willem's anniversary, so I took the liberty of drawing this scene, just a few 100 meters from my house. I swear, in the time that I stood there, I did not see a living soul, only a few cars and motorbikes on the road 10 meters behind me.
Anyway, it's nice to draw a view I have seen all my life. We take a lot for granted.

Sunday 26 April 2020

Springtime on Mars

Now isn't this great? The nice people of the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum used one of my drawings for one of their publicity posters.
The museum-to-be is located in Waukegan Illinois (not too far from Chicago).
Bradbury was and still is one my most favourite authors. 
Back in 1974, in highschool, I made a rough sketch based on the "Martian Chronicles". And in 2010 I remade the drawing, which you see here. I am thrilled that it is used for this purpose.
Check the original 2010 article:  https://renefijten.blogspot.com/2010/01/ray-bradbury.html

And I do love the caption: "Try the refreshing experience of springtime on Mars".
I couldn't have thought of a better one.

Friday 17 April 2020

Faces

So what do you do during these Corona days? Excercise drawing faces, after pictures on the internet.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Mosaic

I participated on a mosaic game. A picture, devided inti 18 pieces, each given out to a different artist. THe fun this is you have no idea where your part is, or how it connects to the next one, or what the total is. Mine is the brown one, on the rigth, near the bottom. Really fun to do.
Thanks to Laura S. Fiat who organized it, and Wes Douglas who provided the origical picture.

Monday 13 April 2020

The Outlook

I can't go out to do some nice on location drawings, and I just don't feel like painting after pictures.
So I decided to try some digital painting. I wanted to try Procreate, but you'll need a Ipad for that. So I used Autodesk Sketchbook, to be used with my touchscreen laptop.
It is my first all-digital drawing, and it took a while to get used to the pen and brushes, and find out where all the features are hidden. Not a very easy program to use. But here it is, something weird.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Dockyard worker


Still within the Corona days "intelligent" lockdowns. I am working from home, I am using my "drawing and painting" room now for work. But this means I don't like to sit there in the evening as well. And I am totally lacking of inspiration. Nothing to see, nothing to draw.
I found an old vintage picture of a few Italian New York dockworkers, back in 1910. Gave me something to draw. As excercise.