Starbucks Utrecht

I travelled by train to the Dutch USK meeting, I was an hour early, so I grabbed a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks. This guy was staring out of the window, sipping his cup of coffee.
Later that day I gave an advice to some sketchers, something I have read somewhere: "if you can't draw a foot, draw a little dog in front of it. If you can't draw a hand, draw some gloves. If you can't draw a face.... you've got a problem."
The point being, that if you're not good at perspective, find solutions to avoid it. There are enough alternatives.
The above drawing would have been a nice illustration of: if you can't draw hands.....

Urban Sketching Netherlands

Last saturday I went to Utrecht, to partake in the first National Dutch Urban Sketching day.
Organized (very well) by Ruud Otten, Wiltfried Pathuis en Richard Veenema.
At least 60 sketchers were present that day, and even though there were a few drops of rain, it was a huge success.
I organized the only workshop that day: perspective drawing at Urban sketching. We assembled at the Mariaplaats in the middle of the city (a former convent). I gave the 17 sketchers who stayed behind tips and tricks on how to make and improve their perspective skills, while drawing in the wild.
For that reason I could not draw as much as I liked to, but that was okay, I think I fulfilled a real need.
The drawing you see above was the demo that I did on location.

Rome, room with a view.

A leftover from the Rome trip, a month ago. I had made this drawing when my wife was under the shower, it's the view out of the window of our Rome hotel room (hotel Galileo, near Statione Termini). I managed to fill the basic colours, but had to quit before I finished it.
Last Wednesday I as sitting alone in a restaurant waiting for dinner, so I had time to add some colours and details out of memory.

Urban sequence

My colleagues of the 'Master Model en Portrait Class" wanted to join me in Urban sketching.
So I organized a sketch sequence for them, the same exercise I give to my architecture students.
5 stages: they start in the street and make a sketch about what they observe. Then to a porch, the same thing. Then into an atrium, followed by a facade, and the last impression must be drawing of a rough stone in that facade. All max 20 minutes, that's hard work.
Next to giving instructions I managed to make a few sketches of my own, see above.

Unne Tèsj in Roame.

A little street scene in Rome which I hadn't posted so far.
The ladies wanted to buy a leather handbag (one of those things we men feel are a nuisance to carry around - that's why we have trouser pockets. But to women it serves as a vault with unbelievable contents). In our local Limburg dialect called "Unne Tèsj".
Anyway, in the time they choose the proper bag, negotiated and bought two of them, I managed to make this little sketch of the scene. Including painting it.
It was at a little street stall at Via Della Vergini, near the Spanish Stairs. And to be honest, they got a pretty good bargain at buying them.

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen, only 18 years old, won the Formula 1 in Spain last weekend.
First Dutch guy to win the F1, youngest driver ever, had only driven this type of car twice.
Hard to believe he received his driver licence just a few months ago (no joke).
What makes us very proud, is that his hometown is in Montfort, just a few dozen kilometers to the north from where I live. Actually, my family originally came from this village, but that was 3 or more generations ago.
Anyway, I am not a F1 fan, but painting something like this is always fun.

Checkpoint Charlie

Two sketches from Berlin.
Above Checkpoint Charlie, one of the worst tourist traps I've ever seen. You have to pay to get on a picture before this non-original shed with a few sandbags and actors in fancy military costumes. And you even have to bring your camera yourself.
Anyway, always good for a quick sketch.


And a less vivid sketch of the beautiful red "oberbaumbrücke" across the Spree.
I really had to work quick, only had a few minutes, as I made this while the guide was explaining its history during a stop in our guided bicycle tour through Kreuzberg.
These were all sketches I made in Berlin; I really enjoyed this trip with the church-choir of Hulsberg (my wife sing in this choir). So well organized, such a pleasant company.

Berlin Reichstag

No long stories, I just returned from a 4 hour drive from Bavaria.
This is a sketch of the Reichstag, made last weekend in the quarter of an hour waiting time before we were able to visit the famous and beautiful dome.

Florian, RIP

Last thursday, as I was in Berlin, I received the terrible message that Florian Afflerbach died in a car accident.
He was riding his self restored NSU "quickly", a small motorbike from the 50s, when 2 cars crashed into each other, and Florian was caught by one of them. Wrong place wrong time.

I worked with him several times, sometimes for days, sketching cars and talking about architecture, perspective and drawing.

I remember his softness, dedication and talent.
And I cherish the memory of one warm midnight in Liège, when we were fed up playing tablesoccer, and Flo said: I feel like drawing a car.
Lapi, me and a few others went to look for a car, and found this nice Renault 4 under the neonlights, and we all started drawing.
A curious neighbour even brought us cookies and tea.
Let's remember him by stories like these.

Berlin Brandenburger tor

Just returned yesterday from a fantastic long weekend in Berlin. (yes, lately I ain't home a lot).
My wife sings in a choir in Hulsberg, and they organised a 4 day trip to Berlin.
We had terrific weather, and visited a lot of sights. And had a lot of Bratwurst and Currywurst.
There are worse ways to spend a weekend.
I quickly made this sketch of the backside of the Brandenbuger Tor, while the group passed by, obviously there was no time to paint on location (I can't expect 50 people waiting for me). I painted it an hour later, while sitting on a nice terrace in the sun drinking a nice beer.

Accordeons in Rome

We were sitting in a restaurant in Rome, antica taverna, and this accordeon player was playing accross the street. He was tipsy and maintained his alcohol level by sipping his wine between his music pieces. But the misic was still okay. 

Rome Via dei Fori Imperiali

Sketch of the Via dei Fori Imperiali, and the backside of the Capitoline hill.
I sketched it on location, but as we were travelling as a group, I could not finish it. I painted it in the hotel a few days later.
Still, I love these scenes with these beautiful pines.

Rome Trevi Fountain

We just returned from a nice long extended weekend in Rome, accompanied with some good friends.
For about 20 years we have this little group (originally family, but nowadays others are included as well). And each month we put aside some money in order to visit a city within Europe every few years.
This time Rome. A perfect place for a trip of this kind: a lot to see, a varied city center, walkable, good food, nice people and very nice weather. Soething we could use after this cold and wet April (see my previous post).
This is an impression of the Trevi fountain, a regular tourist trap.

All it ever does is rain

All it ever does is rain.
Woke up this morning with this dream about torrential rain, watering cans and steam irons.
Yes, there was a lot of rain last night. Just a silly in-between.

Looking for Klimt (1)

This years exercise in painting Master class was making a painting based on the style of Klimt.

This does not mean trying to make a copy of one of his paintings, but studying his painting style and composition principles.
I never liked Klimt much, I considered him to be rather kitsch: a lot of gold and coloured patterns overwhelming the portrayed models.
But to my surprise I found that there was a lot to learn from him: especially his composition methods. Also how he paints the human parts very fragile, almost vulnerable, easy to hurt, and breakable within the storms of colours and patterns around them.  

Anyway, the exercise was even made worse by the theme that we had to use for the painting: intimacy.
I did not want to paint the obvious subjects: "the kiss", woman and child, two lovers, that kind of (in my male opinion) romantic stuff. So I decided to go for a girl being absorbed by reading a book.
On google images I found a picture that could serve as basis, see above.

 I made a lot of small sketches to make the theme work, here are just a few of them.
I tried all kind of ideas: positioning the figure in the frame, making the scene "flat" (a Klimt signature: a total lack of depth in his paintings), contrasts between colour and flesh, where and how to add textures/patterns, where less exuberant areas, centralised composition or dynamic, what colours to use etc.

Then I choose one idea and started painting on a large canvas: 90x80cm.
I had decided earlier that I wanted to do something in red/orange/yellow, for no obvious reason. Just because I had not seriously painted in these colours for some time.

Here you see the first version. A total failure. The figure too small, wrong location, not interesting at all.
You can see on the new thin lines that I enlarged and repositioned the figure within the composition.
By placing it higher and o the left, the subject filled the canvas better, and the dynamic came from the subject, not from the coloured blocks.

I tried to rebalance the different colour blocks (notice how the red squares form a triangle, to compensate the yellow triangle).


Also, the one visible leg with the arm over it did not work, it looked comical. Furthermore I enlarged the yellow blanket, and resized it to balance the colours.
This was how the basis looked like, at the point where I would start adding details and textures.

But after these three sessions I was still totally dissatisfied.
So I made a picture, then a print and used some tracing paper to start all over again. And I arrived at some new ideas for the composition.
I coloured it in Gimp, and found another way to do the image,.
I am still working on the new version, it's not very far from being finished.
More to come in the next post.

The fresh green colours of Spring

A sketch of yesterday, one of the first beautiful days of this year, >20 degrees C.
And the yellowish-green colours of spring are suddenly everywhere. Like in this "volksgarten" complex in Alzenau, just a few 100 meters from the hotel.
Most towns and villages in Germany and the Netherlands have them: places where inhabitants can rent a few 100 m2 to grow fruit and vegetables. And they usually have small greenhouses and gardensheds. Like this one.

Simca Ariane

Last week on my business trip I took a wrong turn in the little village of Dettingen am Main (not so far from Frankfurt), and found these two cars in process of restoration.

I had some time to kill - one should never waste a good opportunity when it finds your way.
It's a Simca Ariane, made in France during the early 60s. Also sold as Ford Vedette, but that one had some details that were different.
The car next to it is an Opel from the late 60s, a Kapitän, Admiral or Diplomat. These cars looked the same but were different in detailing, luxury and motors. I forgot to check which one it was.
I can still remember these cars driving around in my street, it's funny to see them as vintage cars nowadays.

Mila

Our new kitten, Mila. She is just 6 weeks old now. And so cute.

Hotel Krone, Alzenau

To Bavaria Germany again this week. This is the restaurant of the hotel I am stayimg in, Hotel Krone.
The restaurant serves very good food, traditional German, but not too traditional.
Time for a little sketch after dinner, while enjoying a good Weizenbeer.

Zehntmauerstrasse

Another little sketch of the Zehntmauerstrasse, in Wasserlos-Alzenau (Germany). A few hundred meters from the hotel.
Made last week, but it was getting dark before I could finish the paintwork. I finished it today.