Nonke Buusjke

I took my bike for a 20km tour, and made this drawing on the way.
It's Nonke Buusjke, a complex of old farmhouses in Schinveld, in the middle of the forest.
It's located on the border of Germany, and I believe it's a museum now where they still practice old traditional ways of living.

Sittard oude markt

Another one made on the sketching day, a week ago. The challenge was to draw something, and just make one thing in colour. I tried to emphasize the depth of the street.

The Kraken awakes

The Kraken awakes.
Just a fantasy drawing. Stole the title from an old book by John Wyndham, one of the first books I read (and reread) in English.

Sittard market

Out sketching again with friends: Ruud and Desiree.
We organized a zoom urban sketching event. On different locations all over the Netherlands, keeping contact through Zoom. It was really funnyto do.
I made some challenges, one was: draw with little lines and scribbles, don't use a long line.
I saw some fine results from the other paticpants.
The terraces were opened again, this was drawn on the market of Sittard. with some nice coffee.
Outside again.

Our garden

We had a few days with fantastic weather. I made this drawing on my new laptop with the program Sketchbook Pro. All digital.

Zara

Tuesday May 19th: our fourth grandchild was born. After three lovely boys, now a girl.
Daughter of Mart and Lisa. How lovely she is! We are so proud.
It will take a few days before I can see her, due to Corona restrictions, but I guess we'll get chances enough.

De Soto Fireflite Coronado

Saw this old De Soto Fireflite Coronado, somewhere in Heerlen. It was standing at the curb, in front of a vintage car restore shop. There was also a nice old Nash, maybe next time

Heerlen, Maankwartier

Out drawing again, It felt good, the sun was warm, even though the wind was on the fresh side.
This is the central tower in the new "Maankwartier" in Heerlen. Translated it means "the Moon quarter". THe tower has a huge solar clock on top (the half-sphere).
It's an architectural project initiated by an artist, Huisman. Most architects don't like it because it refers to iconic buildings from the past; the first 40 years of the last century. But I must admit it's well done, and has an overall visual quality that seems to be missing from most shopping malls nowadays.

A digital face

A first attempt for an all digital painting. No reference images, models, tracings or whatever, just drawing with a digital pen on my laptop, starting from scratch.

Old barn

Another on location sketch, I've done this one already a faw times, it's near my daughters house.
Always fun to draw.

Romneyhut

An old Romney hut, I found this one on a quiet footpath along the river Maas.
Just a few hundred meters from my daughters family house.

Orangerie Amstenrade.

Already two weeks old, this sketch of the entrance to the gardens of the Castle of Amstenrade.

Harbour

Just a drawing of a harbour. Coloured inks, brushpens, inkpens.

Corona dreams are made of this

Today a page of my sketchbook was publicised on the internet site of our national newspaper.
They had a feature about: does Corona influence your dreams?
 volkskrant.nl/dromen-we-door-coronamaatregelen-meer-en-vreemder-dan-normaal
As it happens, I keep track of my dreams since January 1st. (as far as I can remember them the next morning). I already have about 35 dreams noted and sketched.
This is how the sketchbook looks like.

So far I had 5 Corona related dreams, most about social distancing. One was about virus falling from the sky (the one that was publicised, see the top story). And one of the Wuhan market (already on february 17th).

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.

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.

Faces

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

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.

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.

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.