Oniropolis

A fantasy drawing, Oniropolis (dream city). Inspired by Piranesi and Sant'Elia. One of these drawings that develop on the way.
 

Abstract landscape

One of the paintings I made in France, trtying to turn a landscape into something more abstract, with focus on making the painted areas as interesting as possible, without losing the composition. A bit like Rothko.

Dungeons and dragons

My son plays Dungeons and dragons with a close group of friends. Buddies he still sees every friday evening, from his highschool days. He is the DND-master, that means he determines the story. They did a difficult quest, and just lost in the final battle. It happens. He asked me to make a drawing of his group (the Carnelians), and I came up with this. 

Ink drawing, scanned and filled with digital colouring. Really fun to do.

Any-Martin-Rieux (3)

The hills over Any-Martin-Rieux, near our Chambre d'hotes. Just when I had finished, an angry farmer dropped by, and said we were standing on private property. It looked like a country road, but who are we to know for sure. Actually, that was not the first time a farmer sent us away. Usually French are very friendly, but I assume we should have asked around in the village who the owner is, and asked permission before we started.

Girl on the train

On the train, this girl sat across the aisle. Very quick sketch with watercolour pencils.
 

Aubenton, France

 

A door of a workshop in Aubenton, the North of France.

I made this on location, using ribber carton, local newspapers, tilemortar on a wooden basis. And acrylic paint.

I tried to get the idea of the door.

Here you see a picture of the door, with the painting in the corner. It was fun to make.

Den Bosch: Hieronymus Bosch

 

Day 2 of the National Urban Sketching weekend in 's Hertogenbosch. I gave the perspective workshop again, so I had little time to sketch myself. I did this one on the central market place, a statue of the famous Den Bosch painter: Hieronymus Bosch. Not the L.A. detective by the way....

Den Bosch, the St. Jan

We had a great weekend in 's Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), where I helped to organize a 2 day Urbn sketching meeting. I gave workshops on perspective drawing for urban sketchers.

Just in between the workshop and the social activities I had the opportunity to make this sketch. It was drizzling a bit, but I was protected by a screen above the terrace where I was sitting. With a nice cup of coffee. What a joy. I used a fude pen with Platinum ink and some watercolour in my Moleskine A4 notebook.

Any St.Martin Rieux (1)

I just returned from a great week, drawing and painting in Any-St. Martin-Rieux, a small village in France, just south of the Belgian border.

We did several assignments, initiated by the artist Annemiek Jongen, who organized the week. All together our group consisted out of 12 painters. 

Great scenery, perfect warm weather, plein-air painting during the day, superb French food for dinner, great company in the evening, and don't forget the abundant amounts of white wine: making art doesn't get better than this. 

Wolf skull

 

Wolf skull. It was drawn with hard carré pastels, on a piece of paper they use to fill the voids in those far too large Internet shopping boxes.

Pentecost

 

During the mass of Pentecost I saw this old lady sitting in the front row of the church benches. I sing in the choir, standing behind the altar, so I could not avoid looking at her. As an excercise I tried to recall her face and draw her from memory.

Soul draining

 

I still record my dreams, for more than 3 years now. I already recorded and sketched about 370 or so.

This was an image from a dream I woke up with on May 23rd.. A metallic hovering machine with a writhing soft underbelly, draining the soul out of an old collapsed building. And a boy hiding behind a burnt out car. Weird, I know.

Terstraten, Nuth, barn door

Out sketching this afternoon. A short ride on my wife's bike (mine was stolen last monday), and I saw this barn door in Terstraten. The farmers wife came by; as I remarked that I loved that door she responded: "I only see an urgent paintjob".
 

Brunssummerheide (2)

 

Another one of the Brunssummerheide, on a location just maybe 100 meters from the previous drawing.

Brunsummerheide

Went out drawing in gthe nature, took my bike and cycled on the sanddunes and heath of the Brunsummer heide. Fountain pen and watercoour in Moleskine.
 

Porthgain Harbour

 

Portgain harbour Wales. Watercolour, based on a picture I found on the Internet by Cathy Cooper.

I have been to Wales, but never to this place. Seems quite lovely.

Coffeebar "Het Front"

Made during the Maastricht sketchcrawl last Saturday. A coffebar in a converted seacontainer. The Owner was quite enthousiastic and brought us coffee twice. It was nice to be out sketching again.

Zoe and Bèr

 

Sketchmeeting at the Fronten, Maastricht this afternoon. Here are Bèr en Zoe in action.

Sunday afternoon at the reservoir

 

Some doodling led to this image. Atramentis brown ink, and washed out brown Pentel color brush. I had that brush lying around unused for more than 10 years. I finally found use for it.

Bloody angle, NYC

 

Experimenting with watercolours. Based on an interesting technique I saw with the artist Tim Saternow. Contrary to the usual way of working where you start with light tones and you work your way to more darker colours, this one is the other way around. You start with the black parts, and work your way to the lighter tones. Based on a picture I took some years ago in New York: Doyers street, aka the bloody angle.