Moscow: minus 23

Business trip to Moscow. Freezing cold at the Kremlin: minus 23 Celcius.

Ikea flower department

We had a great time with all the sketchers together.
This is one of the drawings that I made: the flower department.
I had sketched the dooropening and flowers in pencil, when a woman came along to study a vase. She did not stand still for long of course, but the few seconds were enough to get the gesture right (in pencil). Then another woman came around, with a similar coat, another hairdo and a scarf. I still missed something, but a third woman had a bag like this, and that finished the drawing. The rest was just filling the colours.

Sketchcrawl at Ikea (7th)

We had another great Sketchcrawl again, the 7th. Like last year at Ikea again; at least it's warm and dry there.  Even though it was very crowded today, there was a lot to sketch.
In total we were with 18 sketchers this time. It's always great to sketch together and learn from each others drawings.

Jo-pie revisited

I was not happy with the earlier version, and I received some usefull ideas on what was wrong. So this afternoon during lunchbreak I went back and made a new version of the same curiosa shop in the Lantaarnstraat.
I think this one is already somewhat better.

't Winkelke Jo-Pie, Maastricht

A sidestreet in the Maastricht centre, the Lantaarnstraat. There is a small shop selling all kind of antique and old stuff, called 't Winkelke Jo-Pie (I think).
Even in the midst of winter he has a lot of brocante on display on the outside. Always a joy to see. Time for a quick sketch during lunchbreak.

I was reluctant to post the sketch because I feel there is something wrong with this drawing. It doesn't work. But I just can't figure out what.

So anyone an idea?

Mark

Portrait class with live model. 50x60cm, acryl. Took me about an hour to make.

Sketchcrawl 25 januari

Koekoewawa

Carnaval season will start in a few weeks, and there are preparations going on everywhere.
I made this drawing as illustration for our local carnaval newspaper, d'r UUL (the owl, according tradition a symbol for carnaval).

This small statue is called the "Koekoewawa", and is referring to an old local song (in dialect): "Doe bes eine KOEKOEWAWA, zuug 'm doa 'ns sjtoan!" (freely translated as: you are a silly man, look at you standing there).
It's always the first float of the carnaval parade as long as I can remember, even back when I was a little child.
This scene is loosely based on a picture I made last year during the parade.

Julia

Live model class. This time our model was Julia, it's always a pleasure to paint her because she can sit through difficult poses for a long time.
The exercise was to glue coloured paper at random on a 50x60cm sheet. Then apply transparent layers of acrylic paint over it, finding back the model, but without losing the background. Below you see the early stages. This one took about 45 minutes to make.
The procedure looks quite effortless, but the second that I made was horrible. I consider myself rather lucky with this one.

First: sticking the coloured paper.
Second: finding the contours with pastel and defining them with grey brown acrylic.
Third: blocking in the shadowed parts and light spots.
Fourth and final (top painting): adding details and painting the in between hues of colour.

More Stolberg

 

I still had a pencil and ink drawing left in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook. I made the sketch during my visit to Stolberg in December, but could not finish it because the dusk set in. I painted it yesterday. Originally I had planned to paint it in more detail, but I kind of liked the intermediate result so I left it this way.

This is the opposite view from the other Stolberg sketch (see a few posts back).

Glassworks

Working hard on my stained glass window again. Finished laying all the pieces in lead, next week soldering and fixing it in putty. I wonder how it will look like when the sun shines through it!

No right turn: The jewel

The final pane for Chapter 3 of our comic "No right turn". The secret revealed: an ancient jewel, which is broken. Leaves the quesion: where is the missing part, and what is the meaning of the jewel.

Starting 2014 with Wes Douglas

First: best wishes for the new year! May it be a creative one!
How about this surprise when opening my facebook account this morning: Wes Douglas (from Illinois,USA) made this fantastic portrait of me. I had no idea. How cool is this.
And so well made.
You already guessed that's a reference to the comic we are all working on: "no right turn".
I think that hat looks really cool, I'll have to buy one.
Thanks Wes!

Sinterklaas 2013

Like every year we have a tradition in the Netherlands, called Sinterklaas.
With Sinterklaas (on December 5th) presents are given to
children and family. It's what other countries do at Christmas.
When children get older, some families also exchange surprise presents, combined with elaborate poems, in which you are able to make fun of someone.

In our family it grew as a tradition that I do all the surprise presents. Here are the five for this year.
Mart: a toilet brush converted into a purple Christmas tree for his new house.
Brenda: a 12 page full spread glossy with fake articles featuring her: you can see her laughing at reading.
Rianne: a bird house with her new young cat (Sammie) in it.
Bob: a miniature lawn, to study gardening. Seeds were incorporated. They want to convert their paved backyard into something green next year.
Gertie: a coloured glass orthodontic set of teeth (set in lead). She may need braces next year.


So much for the presents of this year.  

Stolberg roofs

Last Saturday I took an afternoon to drive around and sketch. After the sketch of the trucks (see a few posts back) I tried to go to Aachen. But I had forgotten it was the last Saturday before Christmas, where everyone in Germany buys presents. Trafficjams. So I drove to Stolberg, hidden in the steep Eiffel hills. This is the view from the Castle, over the roofs of old Stolberg. The cold was bearable, as I stood covered from the chilly wind.

Best wishes

Best wishes for Christmas and the new year, from Gertie and me.

I made the above two drawings a few weeks ago in a collaborative project starting from Sketching Workshop.
Some 40 artists joined to make one or two 300x300pix drawings, which were assembled by Laura F. Vasques (Boston) into a Christmas card.

Internet makes for inspiring ideas!

Anke

Art class, (live) portrait painting of our model, Anke. We had to glue coloured paper at random, and use these surfaces within the portrait. All meant to learn to loosen up the use of colour and texture. Harder than it looks. Acrylic paint over coloured paper, size 50x60. Took me about an hour to make. Below a picture of the starting point.

Dodge 1948 schoolbus

At last, some time to get on the road and spend it sketching on location!
I found these old trucks on a parkinglot in an industrial zone in Heerlen (de Kissel). The owner imports them from the States and resells them to vintage car restorers. I chatted with him, and he told me these trucks are very hard to find nowadays.  The bus is a Dodge 1948 schoolbus. The truck is probably a 1952 Ford F2.
I had wanted to finish the left part of the bus as well, but my hands were too cold to proceed. I decided to leave the drawing this way.

Light in the dark

No time to draw or even to spend a lot of time on blogs and Internet. Busy, like always this time of year. I experimented a little with my camera, always hoping something interesting comes out of that. Hopefully more time next week.

No Right Turn, Chapter 3: The Run

This Comic Noir that I strated by accident, is turning into something incredible. The book is already 21 pages, containing 17 specifically made drawings, from sketchers all over the world. London, Sweden, Tunesia, Argentina, Boston, Los Angeles, Malaysia, and I probably forgot some.

The fist chapter was "the yellow box", a dangerous woman keeping a yellow box.
The second chapter is "Chinatown". which ended in a samurai sword attack.
And now I started the chapter "the run" with Police car chases.
You can find the assembled and regularly updated comic here:
http://issuu.com/norightturn/docs/no_right_turn01-03