Maastricht: Laank Gresje

 

Yesterday I could get out sketching again. Maastricht, Laank Gresje. That is the local dialect for: Lange gracht, or in English: the Long canal). On the right you can see the remnants of the inner fortifications wall. Maastricht was always fought over.

Copenhagen: Sne-Sol

 

Sne Sol: a self-built wooden house in the alternative community Christiania, Copenhagen. All houses here were self built. I talked with one of the inhabitants: all houses had their own names, like: the red dragon, Buddha's lounge, the pentagon etc. According to him Sne-sol meant: the sun reflecting in the snow. A beautiful name.

Copenhagen: Nyhavn

 

I made three drawings in Copenhagen, this was the last one. A beautiful old harbour with coloured houses, very pretty. But it was very very cold, my fingers where aching when I finished the ink work. I knew the watercolour wouldn't dry, it usually spoils the drawing. So I decided to colour it digitally at home. Done with Gimp.

Copenhagen

 

After the meetings in Malmö I took a day off to visit Copenhagen, just across the water. This is a church with a peculiar twisted tower, near Christiania, the "Vor Frelsers Kirke".

Malmö: foodcourt

 

Quick sketch of two guys eating a burger. At the foodcourt of the Emporium shopping mall in Malmö: the Se7en Sin Burger restaurant. I was enjoying a Pokebowl myself.

Malmö: harbour

 

Business trip to Sweden, Malmö. I had to attend a meeting for a project to improvements Kidney treatment on a sustainable way. Very intersting.

I managed to go out and sketch on location: this is a sketch I made on early monday morning, in the harbour of Malmö. It was very cold, but I sat protected against the wind, it was manageable.

Igor Stravinsky

 

Igor Stravinsky, composer. After a B/W picture from the Internet. 

Holbein acrylic gouache on toned paper.

Portrait

Acrylic gouache on toned paper. Size A4. After a picture I found on the Internet.

Swimming lessons

 

This afternoon. Waiting for my grandson to finish his swimming lessons, at the swimming pool in Sittard. This father was bored as well, but I have a sketchbook :)

Nuth: Terstraten

Quick sketch of a country road in Nuth, South of Limburg.
 

Nieuwe Hateboer

On friday I usually bring my grandson Willem to swimming lessons. I sit in the canteen for a cup of coffee, there are always a few seniors meeting for an half an hour of coffee. This older woman was sitting on the table next to us.

Hoensbroek in the snow

 

Thick packs of snow in our region, all in just one day, 20-25 cm. That was something we didn't see for a long time. I remember it from my youth, but it is probably getting rarer. Anyway, I had half an hour left this morning, and I rushed to make a snow scene on location. The Castle of Hoensbroek, as seen from my (warm and cosy) car on the parking lot. A4 toned paper, gouache paint, brushpen and black ink.

Marcel Duchamp

 

Marcel Duchamp. Even as a young boy I was fascinated by this futurist/dadaist/surrealist artist, I would devour all available books from our local library. I especially like "The bride stripped...", which I still don't understand.

Anyway, it is painted after I black and white picture I found (from the NYT). With acrylic gouache, on black toned paper, A4. It was quite complicated to translate the black and white into colour tones.

Drawing

 

Ink combined with Acrylic gouache. Based on a painting by Izumi Kogahara.

Philip Glass

 

Philip Glass, my all time favourite composer. I went to a lot of concerts with his compositions, even saw him perform his work personnaly a few times. Based on a picture from the NYT, and a youtube tutorial of Emily Hues.

Lately I tried to handle gouache, but somehow it didn't work for me. So I bought a set of high quality japanese stuff: Holbein acrylic gouache. This is my first try, so far I am really pleased how it behaves.

Roermond house

 Roermond, last saturday, with Ruud Otten.

Drawing a house, protected against the chilly wind by the wall of a shopping mall. Someone made a picture of us both; we were so concentrated we didn't even notice :) 

Roermond Rattentoren

 

Went out sketching on location again, in Roernond. This is the "rattentoren" (the tower of the rats. No idea why it is called that way). With Ruud Otten; even though it was cold, out of the wind it was still okay. I was able to try one of Ruud's self made watercolour naps, the green tones in this drawings.

Jean Rochefort

Sometimes I get so frustrated doing portraits in colour, I just go back to my default mode: ink drawings in moleskine sketchbooks. This one is from a picture of the french actor Jean Rochefort. 

I found a page: 100 pictures to use to excersise drawing/painting portraits. Good training stuff.

Portrait in gouache

Quite dissatisfied with my drawings and paintings lately. The weather is too horrible to go outside. As compensation I have been trying to improve my portrait skills and trying gouache. But I already threw away quite a number of trials. Even this one, based on a picture of some soccer/football trainer, is not what I was looking for.

Slave ship

 

Busy time of year, all kinds of projects to be finished before January 1st. I read an old comic book "Master race" by Bernie Krigstein, dating from 1955. Beautiful B&W drawng work. Based on one of his drawings in the story "Slave ship".