Jake

Jake, our grandson is now 13 months old.
Even though they say never sketch a family member, I could not resist.
Made this while he was eating some bread, that's the only time they sit still enough.

Blauw-wit Mariarade

A scene from the Hoensbroek Carnaval parade, this afternoon.
Each part of town has it's own Princes, dressed up groups and carnaval floats. This is the float of Mariarade (where I live). The group is called Blauw-wit (blue-white, I guess after the iconic colours of Mother Maria). The colourful dressed up group is walking/dancing behind, on the rhythm of local Carnaval music.
We were lucky with the weather: the forecast had told us about heavy rain and gusts of wind, but that started only after the last float (of the prince of Hoensbroek) arrived at the market square.

Carnaval in Meers

Carnaval is here again. This afternoon we went to see the parade in Meers, where my grandson Jake and his parents live. It was his first Carnaval, and he was dressed up in a mouse costume. So cute!

The parades sometime halt for some time, as some large floats have difficulty to make turns in the narrow streets of these small villages.
That gave me enough time to make above sketch.

Indians

Just a doodle about Indians.
Ink on prepared paper, I pasted transparent paperwith acrylic binder on a sheet 23x30cm.
It wrinkled, and then I drew/painted with coloured inks.

Curry Wurst

I had to gravel to Goslar again, for business.
A very quick sketch of my lunch there, Curry Wurst. This was not the local Niedersachsiche dish, but the Ruhrgebiet version. In the the latter the curry is more spicy, the sausage is of the "bratwurst" type, and cut in pieces. But they both taste good.

And a little early morning before-breakfast-sketch, from my hotel room window on the 4th floor.
Houses and the theatre across the railroad tracks in Goslar.

Big Nelly

Just a doodle. Big Nelly, that would be Rocket Rosie's Space freighter.
As it is taking off from the planet Dandaliona-12. :)

Anita

Life portrait class. Two times the same model: Anita. Each painting took me one hour to make.
Acrylic 50x60cm.

Library reader

I took an afternoon off, to visit an art exhibition of the Chinese artist Cai-Guo Qiang, renowded for his gunpowder paintings. That sounds more like entertainment than art, but his works are better than it sounds.
Afterwards I visited the Maastricht Library "Centre Ceramique", where I had a coffee. And I took the opportunity to draw this man reading a newspaper.

Kasteel Amstenrade

The Castle of Amsterade, just a few 100 meters from my house. In the house where I grew up, my bedroom window looked at the tower of the castle, across the fields.

Anyway. It was cold today, but just bearable.
But I really wanted to draw something in real life.
Here the drawing and reality.

The guitar player

I will not say that this was supposed to be BB-king.
But resemblance was not my first goal, I tried to catch jazzy music in my drawing, and the movements involved.
Still some way to go. Based on a picture that I found on the internet.

Mission foods in Moscow

This is what I do. I design factories, in this case a tortilla plant to be located in Stupino, Russia, 80 km south of Moscow. I made the design for the Mexican firm Mission foods, the largest or one of the largest producers of tortilla bread in the world.
Of course, the aim is to make a production plant, efficient and clean, compliant to all latest food regulations (you can fill a truck with those regulations....). Even so, I always try to give it some touch.
But sometimes you just have to let go.
The plant will be opened within a few weeks, and this is what the building looks like in reality.
Try and spot the 10 differences.... :)

Painting for Jake

Jake, our grandson, just turned 1 year.
I made this paiting for him, to hang in the children's home. Not in his own room in Meers, but in the guest room we have here in our house. It was my former painting studio, but I still have my large self-portrait hanging on that wall. I don't want to frighten Jake whever he stays in our house. :)
The dog is painted after the little dog of Mart and Lisa, he is called Miku. And the cat is our very own Mila. The rest is just fantasy.

Novo Caladedina

Another imaginary city. Love drawing fantasies like this. This is the sister city of Caladedina, the one I posted some weeks ago.
Remains the big question: would they be aware of each other?

Maastricht, grote gracht.

Time for a quick urban sketch. Maastricht, the "Grote gracht" (the large canal, there used to be a canal in this street, some ages ago).
This is the view from the middle of the street. I made the pencil sketch standing on that location, moving aside whenever a bus or taxi would pass. The centre of town is practically unreachable by regular cars, that's why there are only taxis, busses and cyclists here.
After the set up of the compostion, I moved to the sidewalk to add penwork, panting and details. Just now and then I would go back on the street, to check if what I had done was fitting reality.
about 25 minutes all in all.

Goslar again.

The project in Goslar (north of Germany) is running again. Somehow my project there only proceeds well in winter, this is the third year in a row. We stayed in the hotel "Niedersachsichen hof", which is my favourite hotel over there.
This was the view from my hotel room window: the main train station in the snow. Made this morning, just before breakfast, and before we left for the meeting at the client. Which was very successful I may proudly add :) .

Painting linework

Art class. Live portrait session, acrylic 40x60cm.
The goal was to use linework to create a painting. And the lines should be interesting, moving, paintery, not just straightforward lines.
Hard to do, as drawing and painting are two different disciplines.
An interesting exercise.

Airship

Quick doodle, a fantasy airship. Just for fun.
Took me 18 minutes to draw and paint.

Another glass failure

Here are the results of the last cast for that Paté de Verre vases.
Again a failure. 2 vases ready for the waste bin.
Due to a malfunction of the oven, the glass heated up too high, and the glass collected itself on the bottom.
For the blue vase this was the 4th trial without result.

Perhaps hard to believe, but yesterday I made 2 new molds for the next try.
It should work once eventually......

Nude in ink

Still experimenting with inks in one of my sketchbooks. No idea where this will lead to.
This year I am not doing Annemieks Master Class Model, only portraits. So I exercise at home based on pictures. Training in proportions, background, textures, linework, light.
Still not content with the result. Acrylic inks on A4.

Caladedina

Caladedina. Let's start the year with a nice imaginary city, or rather building.
I had an idea of a tree-like building, high on stilts, almost falling over. That's where the balancing weight came in. Then I started drawing with the top, the lighthouse, and invented the building and details while drawing towards the bottom.
I love doing this, it's like meditation. I lose myself, just going on and on and not knowing where I'll end.