New favourite sketchbook and some travel sketches

I found this Moleskine Storyboard Notebook in a shop in Hamburg and thought it would make a perfect illustrated (travel) journal. It has four frames on each page which are perfect for small sketches, and with plenty of room for notes. I started to fill it with sketches right away, working on them in the hotel in the evenings.

I had planned to carry a sketchbook with me all the time, and to make sketches during the day, but the temperaturs went up to 30 degrees Celsius, and with the heat, and all the walking I did, carrying my camera  all day was more than enough. So instead I used this notebook in the evenings, using the pictures I had taken during the day as references.

Luckily, I had taken a whole box of CdA Neocolor II and a couple of water reservoir brushes to add colour to my sketches. So here are a few first highlights from my trip to Hamburg last week:

• Of course the Strandkörbe ("beach baskets") at the beach in Travemünde
• The pier and lighthouse in Travemünde, where the river Trave flows into the Baltic Sea, and where in the evening the huge ferries from Scandinavia come in
• The charming Speicherstadt in Hamburg
• The Holstertor in Lübeck
• The weather forecast on Wednesday made me laugh. It said that in the following five days there would be: plenty of sun on Thursday, sunny on Friday, sunshine on Saturday, sunny on Sunday and lots of sun on Monday. It sounded as if someone was trying very hard to come upf with as much variation as possible to describe what basically was simply sunshine and blue sky one day after the other
• I almost missed the Queen Mary 2, which had arrived in Hamburg on Sunday morning for a day's visit. It was only thanks to a lazy detour that I saw her. She's certainly a very impressive sight
• I practically lived on ice cream, it was so hot all the time. My favourite flavours were: mint chocolate chips, blueberry and master of the woods. The first one is hard to find here in Switzerland, and the other two pretty much inexistent, especially the last one

 

I still want to add lots more sketches from my trip to Hamburg. An then of course take it with me to London in summer and Sweden in the autumn, and wherever I'll be going after that. I really love this journal/sketchbook/notebook.

Linking this up with Paint Party Friday. I missed last week's party. And while I really enjoyed an interenet-free ten days, it feels good to be back, especially with this fabulous and inspiring group of artists.

A trip to the north

I've spent 10 days in the beautiful city of Hamburg last week. It was my first time up there in the northern part of Germany. Have you ever been there? It's totally worth a visit, and definitely not my last time up there! I spent four of the 10 days there at a conference, but still had enough time to explore the city and even take a couple of day trips outside the city. Of course, being so close to the coast, I just had to see the sea. There was just one question: North or Baltic Sea?

The Baltic Sea was closer and more convenient, so the Baltic Sea it was. I took the train to the little town of Travemünde, and, when I arrived there, was overjoyed to see a whole big sandy beach full of Strandkörbe ("beach baskets"). Those Strandkörbe are typical of North Germany's North and Baltich Sea beaches, and while I had seen a Strandkorb as such before, I had never seen one actually standing on a beach. I don't know how many photos I took of them. They just made me happy :).

Of course I didn't just take photos of Strandkörbe, but I just wanted to quickly share these with you. It's a busy week, my suitcase is still waiting to get unpacked, and I will need a little bit more time until I'm fully back, and present in blog world.

I was glad to see that my blog post scheduling worked perfectly last week, and that my two posts were published as intended. But I must admit that I didn't really think about the fact that it all gets a bit onesided, especially as I didn't have any internet access. So I'll have a bit of catching up to do. I'm really looking forward to visit everyone's blogs. I'll just need a bit of time. But I'm back. And it feels good :)

Tea with Mr Berry and his friends Rasp and Black

I've been having some serious troubles with my Messy Book. It's simply amazing with what the others in the Messy Book Group come up with, all these different ways of misstreating their books, and creating a wonderful mess. But I've been struggling. I'm usually messy and choatic enough, and I've no problem in constantly creating a mess in my home. But when it comes to books, and art, and paints, there's my little tendency of perfectionism coming through, that wants to create something lovely, something nice, and that simply doesn't want to rip apart a book, or bury it in the ground, or throwing it out in the rain.

But I'm determined to give it a go, and I've forced myself to do something I wouldn't usually do. So meet Mr. Berry. He lives in an ancient little town, far far away behind the mountains, and he loves to spend hours on end in his comfy chair, with his somewhat undefineable, but very friendly, cuddly pet Black at his feet and his feathery friend Rasp sitting conmfortably on his shoulder.

They drink innumerable cups of fragrant Earl Grey Tea and Mr. Berry makes up stories about fairies, sea monsters and other fabulous creatures, which have a tendency to come to life behind his back, hiding behind the chair, without him ever noticing.

If you suspect that the words in italics have more to do with this creation than just serving as random names for the characters and their preferred beverage, you're absolutely right. I used all the ingredients of my delicious breakfast that day for this page: rubbing the juicy paper bit at the bottom of the raspberry basket on to the page, rubbing in some Ear Grey tea leaves, and squashing a whole blackberry between the pages.

The blackberry was already a bit mouldy, so it was perfectly juicy and it didn't involve wasting a perfectly good blackberry. For which they are far too delicious really :). But aren't the colours just gorgeous? I guess the fact that they're among my favourite colours made it a lot easier to mess up the page :)

Portrait #13

We didn't do self portraits after all in my drawing class last week (and I was not unhappy about it, to be honest). Instead we worked in pairs, sitting opposite each other, and drawing each other, defining the light areas and the adding more shadows and details. My 'model' was so absorbed in her drawing that she more often than not forgot to look up, but it was still a great exercise. I loved drawing this portrait.

I'm going to miss tonight's class, unfortunately, but I hope I'll get some practising done this week, and I'm looking forward to the next class next week. One of the things I enjoy most about the class is working together with other people. It's so fascinating, and inspiring, to see how seven people, all working with the same techniques and materials, at the same time, come up with seven completely different drawings.

Playing with watercolours

On Saturday, I felt like taking out my watercolours again, after quite some while. I had an idea, an image in my head that I wanted to get down on paper. I have started doing more and more figurative and portrait painting lately, but abstract painting is something that still fascinates me and that I will always come back to. I just love the interplay of colours and textures.

I wanted to use a cool palette of greys and dark blues, with a touch of red and bright turquoise, putting one layer on top of the other to create depth, and light and shadows.

The finished piece, by daylight. I put it into a white frame, behind glass, to see how it would look. It makes such a difference.

I'm sure that a traditional watercolourist would have a thing or two to say about my use of black and white paint and pen, and about transparency. But I'm not a traditional watercolourist, and to be honest, I've never quite understood that thing about not using black and white paint in watercolour (although some of the white areas above is the paper). I think they work just wonderfully.

Linking up to the terrific Paint Party Friday. Make sure to go and have a look at all the wonderful, inspirign work there. It's always a treat.

I'll be away from my computer for a few days, and I'm not sure if and when I'll have some internet access in. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, have fun and create. I'll be back again soon.

SPRING*SUMMER*AUTUMN*WINTER

Sometimes you have a great idea in your head, and you get out your paints, and you start working, preparing all the pieces, only to find out, when you're putting them all together, that it just isn't going to work.

I wanted to contribute something to this month's Art-Journal-Journey Challenge, for May's theme "Zeit / Time". What is time for me? What comes to my mind when I think of time? Time flies, already it is mid May, which means that the spring season's in full bloom. Within a few weeks, the bare trees and brown grass have exploded into the freshest greens, the crops are growing in the fields, gardens are blooming, and the meadows look like green and white carpets. Very soon the summer sun will bleach out all colours, make the pale blue sky flicker, and send people flocking to the lake and river to find relief from the heat and humidity. Slowly, the days will begin to get shorter, the air will get cooler and drier, and the trees around will start to look as if they're on fire, glowing in the brightest reds and oranges, and the leaves rustle under your feet when you walk through the forest in the early morning mist. Soon, it will be cold even in the middle of the day, the air getting chillier and clearer, and beautiful delicate snow crystals start to cover the earth with a soft fluffy cover, turning the world into a perfect winter wonderland. I'm glad I live in a climate where the four seasons are very distinct (although I could do with a bit more snow in winter and less heat in summer). I had an idea about what I wanted to do and made a quick sketch for later, when I would have time to get to work.

I had been working all Saturday afternoon on a watercolour painting (more about it tomorrow), and I wanted to use the same technique for my seasons to reproduce the colours of the seaons.

Summer I found the hardest to do, probably because it is my least favourite season. Even though my idea of a perfect summer holiday does not include lying on a beach, baking in the hot sun and bathing in the sea, I usually spend them in countries where the sea plays an important part - Britain and Sweden.

It's probably not a coincidence that autumn, and especially winter, are the ones I like best. The warm oranges and cool greys and blues just work so well next to each other. I also like spring, though, green being one of my favourite colours after all. But winter is definitely my favourite :)

A palette full of colours of the seasons - spring greens, summer holiday yellows and blues, autumn's oranges and reds, and cool blues and greys of winter.

 

My idea was to create backgrounds and then stick the cut out watercolour seasons on to them. I used the same to colour palettes, and added some text. But when I was finished with them, I realised that it wouldn't really work the way I had imaged.

Even though I had tried to keep the art journal backgrounds as simple as possible, there were too many different things going on in them and the watercolours, that combining them would just be too much. So I'm leaving them as they are, as two different versions of the same theme.

As with the watercolours, it's again autumn, and especially winter, that I like best. I'm going to add some more text, I think, writing down some things about the seasons, and what I like about them.

By the way, have you ever noticed that all four seasons in English consist of six letters? That was definitely a very convenient fact for fitting the words on my art journal pages :).

Linking up to the fabulous Art Journal Journey and the wonderfully 

inspiring Palette & Paint.

The joys and challenges of life model drawing

I signed up for a portrait and figure drawing evening class at the Volkshochschule (community college) in my city. I really like online classes, they are so convenient, as you can watch the video instructions whenever you want, and follow the lessons in your own pace. But I miss the "critial" part a bit. Sometimes it's helpful to be told where you're going wrong, what could be improved, and how, an experienced teacher pointing out something you've never noticed yourself. And this preferably while you're drawing, and not after you've finished the piece. And of course it's nice to meet some "real" people and have the whole thing in your own language.

The class began last week Tuesday, and after introductions and looking at basic portrait proportion guidelines, we got to draw our first portrait. The teacher had taken her daughter with her, who was going to sit for us as a model. I found it very exciting, but also a bit scary, as I had never drawn from life before!

It certainly is a very different experience. What I found the hardest was the different relationship you have towards your model. I usually use photos from magazines, or other sources, and don't care so much about likeness and such. They're just images, serving me for practising, and my relationship to them is very detached.

But with life drawing, it's entirely different. It's so more personal, even if you don't really know your model personally. I really wanted to produce a good drawing of her, a good likeness, a pretty, nice one. As I progressed with my drawing, I was more and more concerned and dismayed at how stern and severe she looked on my paper. She was a lovely girl, and I somehow felt that this should show in the drawing. That she should look happy and friendly, and smiling, even though she actually wasn't smiling but looking rather serious as she sat for us. But there's this constant urge to please, that fear of offending.

So when the teacher came round to look at my work in progress, I felt I had to apologised for making her daughter look so sad and stern. She said I didn't have to apologise, as I was just trying to draw what I saw. I sometimes wonder though how much of ourselves goes into a drawing. Of the 100% percent that makes the finished portrait, how many percent is the model we draw, and how many percent is ourselves? I notice again and again when I draw a portrait, that there always seems to be a certain touch of sadness sneaking in. And it makes me think, and wonder. Is that just my own, personal drawing style emerging? Or is there more to it, on a deeper, subconscious? Should I be worryied?? I prefer the drawing style option...

Although my drawings from photographs usually look like humans, there's often not muchof a likeness. I think this portrait is the first one that actually really looks like the model it's drawn from. What made me most happy was that the model herself thought it was a good likeness (and that she wasn't offended at all :) ).

At the end we only had about 20 minutes left to discuss and draw he profile, It was even more of a challenge. It can be difficult at times to persuade the brain to see what is actually there instead of what it thinks how it should be. The face, the profile is one smooth line, without any sharp, protruding edges, it keeps telling you. But it is wrong, and you have to learn to ignore it, and trust your eyes. With your eraser, if necessary. And even if you successfully manage to turn off your brain, there still is the challenge of putting on paper what you see. That chin line was a real battle, I can tell you!

Tonight's the second class, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be self portraits tonight, though, which I think will be a really difficult challenge. We'll see how it goes...