Oude Gracht/Bakkerstraat
Yesterday was a busy day in Utrecht. Sinterklaas was coming to town. I saw a few kids with black painted faces and dressed as Zwarte Piet (black Pete) walked beside their mom to go the event. Other people were already busy shopping for gifts for 5th December. I was busy shopping too. I needed a new coat, had to go to Bigoli (a wonderful store that sells Italian food products), and needed to shop at Toko Centraal (a store that sells asian produce and other products. These two stores carry ingredients for making Pastitsio and ayam Magadip, that I made this weekend.
In between shopping, I stopped to sketch this building on Oude Gracht, on the corner of Bakkerstraat. It was pretty cold to just stand and sketch. The day was quite grey, but luckily it stayed dry.
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Oh, Evy, this is so very charming–I want to BE there!! (I think I say that often about your sketches ;D.) I love the way you’re deliberately skewed the lines a bit to give a more accurate (paradoxically) feel to what you’ve rendered.
Comment by Laura — November 14, 2005 @ 3:27 pm
Very nice. Did you do the colouring outside? For me it would have taken a lot of time. I love it.
hfm
http://tcores.blogspot.com
Comment by Anonymous — November 14, 2005 @ 5:09 pm
Thanks all!
.
Laura: the skewed lines are more likely the result of me standing outside in the cold. Lol. In addition, I somehow approach my moleskine with more nervousity than my other sketchbooks, at least most of the times. Weird, I know but true. I hope you know what I mean.
Helena: I colored it at home with Graphitint. I actually seldom color my sketches on the spot. My bag is usually heavy enough without the extra weight of for example watercolor or color pencil set
Comment by Eefje — November 14, 2005 @ 10:20 pm
Evy, there was much discussion, admiration and ooing and ahhing among us Chicago sketchreawlers yesterday at the mention of your blog. We all are crazy about your work. Ilove this drawing. I read your above note…I think coloring away from the subject would be hard. do you take photos? or notes and stuff?
Comment by Lindsay — November 14, 2005 @ 11:07 pm
I thought so but I would like to be certain. I do the same. But as I am only drawing for about 2 years I am too shy to draw at public, so I just do a quick sketch and at home I draw and colour it. Sometimes I take photos. Here near home there is a nice park and at certain hours I am begin trying to draw without thinking at the people passing by.
Comment by hfm — November 15, 2005 @ 7:09 pm
Lindsay: Thanks for your comment and encouragement…I am blushing here
I am happy to know that the Chicago sketchcrawlers like my blog. About coloring away from the subject: I usually take a mental note on the major colors. When I only do one drawing that day, it will not be a problem. Staring at a subject for 20 minutes - 1 hour is usually enough to let me memorize a lot of information about the subject. When I do several drawings on the same day, then I do have to note down the colors. I never actually take note of the colors in detail and try to get the exact colors on my sketches, because at the end my materials (e.g. color pencil/watercolor) with limited color choices will decide what the colors will be. So they can be similar, in the same range as the reality or completely the opposite. It is actually easier for me to let my art supply decide the end colors rather than the real subject.
I don’t take my old camera along with me because it’s quite heavy. And I think, drawing from life is a good exercise for my memory and allow me the freedom of improvisation in the end sans photographic reference.
Hope this helps.
Comment by Eefje — November 15, 2005 @ 10:31 pm
I love the composition of this and your line work has such a joyous feel to it, one of my favorites of your work.
Comment by Cin — November 16, 2005 @ 9:38 pm
I really like this drawing! You always have such beautiful lines and cross-hatching details.
Comment by Kathleen Marie — November 21, 2005 @ 10:43 pm