Prepared paper and pastel

I was not able to buy coloured paper for the art class, no time to go to the art shop. So I took some leftover aquarel paper, let it dry in a wooden frame (to avoid wobbly paper) and pre-coloured it with acrylic in ochre, red  and burnt sienna.
During art class I made this life portrait with dry pastel and black oil pastel. I kind of like the effect of the underground. It took me an hour to make the portrait; 40x60cm.
Portret, droge pastel en siberisch krijt op geprepareed papier.

Shipbreaking

 

Still trying out my flex pen. This time a drawing inspired by a photograph of Edward Burtynsky of a shipbreaker yard in Bangladesh. The flexpen should be used before adding the colour, it loses it's subtlety when drawing on painted parts. Tekening gebaseerd op een foto van Burtynsky van een scheepssloperij in Bangladesh. Probeersels van mijn nieuwe flexpen.

Dumpster

Lunchbreak yesterday. I wanted to try out my new flex pen, but I had no opportunity to sketch later that day. So I looked out of the office (it's on the first floor) and just drew what I saw, a dumpster on the parking lot next tothe office. The pen feels very fine. Uitzicht vanuit ons kantoor, op de vuilcontainer op de parkeerplaats. Testen van mijn nieuwe flex pen.

Noodlers flex pen

Yeah. My long awaited Noodlers flex pen arrived. Took some effort and many weeks waiting before this one arrived from Goulet pens, California. Cost more on shipping and taxes than the pen itself ($ 14). It's a fountain pen with a very flexible nib, so you can draw lively lines with different thickness, just by pushing hard. My first trials are very satisfying; I used Bullet Black waterproof ink in the test above. Mijn nieuwe Noodlers flex vulpen arriveerde per post uit Californië. Hierboven de eerste probeersels, met watervaste vulpeninkt (Noodlers bullet black)

Pastels

I am very busy at the moment, no time to sketch. Trying to meet heavy deadlines at work, painting class, stained steel class, sports (running), family and household, and preparing little surprise presents for my family (Sinterklaas-St Nicholas  is coming up in two weeks). Obviously I can't show those self-made surprises here yet. So can only post what I did yesterday morning during art-class: a live model drawing, pastel on brown packaging paper, 50x70cm. Took me an hour to make.
Modelklas, gisterenmorgen, getekend met pastel op bruin pakpapier. Moeilijk vanwege het felle tegenlicht.

Room with a view

 

Last friday Rob Carey had this beautiful sketch on his blog, the view from his classroom window. 

http://kunst-by-rob.blogspot.com/2011/11/across-way.html

By sheer accident I also drew the view from my office window that same day. Spot the 10 differences. And try to tell who is the lucky guy. Afgelopen vrijdag tekende ik het uitzicht vanuit mijn kantoorplek. Toevallig deed Rob Carey hetzelfde vanuit zijn klaslokaal (zie link). Zoek de 10 verschillen.

Art class Yvonne

 

Art class, live portrait drawings, pastels on grey carton. Not my favourite material, but I think it turned out OK. Each took me about an hour to make, dimensions 50x70cm. Portretschilderen/tekenen, naar levend model, dit keer Yvonne. Pastel op grijs karton, niet mijn favoriet materiaal, maar wel leerzaam. Ook niet ontevreden eigenlijk.

 

Night of the Proms

Yesterday evening my wife, a friend and I went to Antwerp, to the yearly Night of the Proms. A combination of classical and popmusic. This year -among others- featuring the diva's (4 soprano's) Angie Stone (real old fashioned soul), Mike Hucknall (leadsinger of Simply Red) and the highlight of the evening: Seal. He knew how to play the public.
Gisteravond Night of the Proms in Antwerpen. Met dit jaar: de Diva's Angie Stone, Mike Hucknall en vooral... Seal. Geweldig.

Stained glass

My wife and I started another hobby: making stained glass windows. That's what you get when the kids leave the house: time to start to do those things you never got around to do.
Here you see the first results. It's painstaking work: you can't see the 12 hours of work that went into this piece so far, don't you? But very rewarding. I will keep you posted on the results.
Een nieuwe hobby voor Gertie en mij: glas in lood ramen maken. We zijn net de cursus bij Belmondo in Nieuwstad begonnen.

Colourfull autumn

Even though the weather is fantastic, and all the trees are dressed in all these beautiful bright colours, I have to spend my time working in an office located on a chemical plant. No time to go out and sketch. So I am left with lunchbreaks, drawing this view of industrial installations as seen from the parking lot of  "drie kruiken".
Mooi weer en prachtige herfstbomen, maar niet voor mij. Dit is mijn dagelijks uitzicht. Helaas.

Reactor vessel

Attempt to make a painting of one of the installations of the chemical plant next tomy present office. Acryl 30x30. Hmmmm. Not pleased yet.
Chemelot: poging tot een schilderij van een van de chemische fabrieken op het terrein naast ons kantoor.

Vianden, Luxemburg

Gertie and I had a nice long weekend in Vianden, Luxemburg. The weather was perfect for autumn, sunny and crispy fresh air. We made long walks, visited the castle, and toured through the surroundings. And had good food, like the cheese fondue I sketched below. The drawing of the castle was made while enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee in the local café du pont.
Lang weekeinde in Vianden, Luxemburg. Prachtig herfstweer, zonnig en lekker fris; perfect geschikt voor mooie wandelingen door de bosrijke omgeving. En niet te vergeten, goed eten.

Hands

Last weeks art class (yes, it started again). Two hours of drawing hands, just hands. Live drawing, looks easy but it wasn't. Oefening van het tekenen van handen, tijdens de masterclass potret en model schilderen.

Chemelot

Nowadays my desk is at a chemical plant, Chemelot-DSM in Geleen (Netherlands). When I look up from my laptop I see stacks, pipebridges, pumps, flares and vessels. This reactor is next to the office, but I have no idea what they produce here. I just see the orange neonlights reflecting in the vapour clouds coming from the cooling towers.
I brushed over my non-waterproof fountainpen drawing to get the grainy and gritty feel.
Mijn werkplek op het Chemelot terrein kijkt uit over de chemische fabrieken van DSM. Geen idee wat in deze plant wordt geproduceerd, hij staat naast ons kantoor. Gemaakt met niet-watervaste vulpeninkt en waterverf.

Java farmhouse

Experimenting with other tools. A bit like Sanjeev Joshi's style of painting/drawing, but not nearly as good as his. Wet-in-wet watercolour and sepia coloured paintbrushes. Based on a picture of an abandoned shed in Java, made during our biketour around Prambanan (Yogyakarta). Experimenten met nat-in-nat aquarel en paintbrush. Schuur in Java, vlakbij Yogyakarta.

Little India

After visiting the bright lights of the Marina, we went for the total contrast of Little India, just two metrostops away. All streets were decorated because of some kind of Indian festivity: Deepavali. The streets were still crowded (11 pm), and there were brightly coloured stalls selling all kind of Indian kitsch. This is a corner in Douglas street; evening lit grocery stores. We had some delicious Indian dinner shortly after.

Marina bay

Wednesday evening we took the metro to Raffles place and had this fantastic view over the Marina. What you see is the Marina bay casino, with a huge swimming pool on top. On the left a modern art museum.
Drawn on location, but painted at home, it was difficult to get the night feel right.

Jurong Island

On Wednesday we visited the building site for the new chemical plant I am designing. It is located on Jurong Island, an artificial island of about 30km2, just off the coast of Singapore city. The island is dedicated to heavy industry like ports, oil tanker parks and chemical plants.
There is heavy security before you can enter the island, sometimes taking more than an hour for making passes and security checks. For some reason you are not allowed to bring cameras to the island, so I had to fall back on pre-digital era tools like pen and ink. A quick sketch of the Lanxess building site.

Orchard road

I just returned from a quick visit to Singapore, for a building project I am working on. Me and my colleague Danny flew 12 hours on Monday to arrive in Singapore at 5 a.m. on Tuesday. We went to all kind of meetings untill 6 pm., and took dinner in a Japanese restaurant near our hotel on Orchard road. Which is the shopping heart of Singapore. I have never seen so many multi-story shopping malls so close to each other in my life. Next morning (still bothered by jet lag) I went out before breakfast to make this sketch of the Ion shopping mall. Painted it in the plane back home.
Afgelopen week een kort bezoek aan Singapore voor een nieuwbouw project.
Schets van een van de ontelbaar vele shopping malls op Orchard road, het shopping centrum van Singapore.

Singapore

I am in Singapore right now. Sketches will follow.