In the bus
Shoe
I had to laugh when I was sketching this person’s foot. I know that people sometimes get intimidated when somebody stares at their face (and draw). But this time, the person felt intimidated because I was drawing his shoe/foot. He sat one row in front of where I sat, across the aisle. He looked back twice, but not at me. And I didn’t look up either, pretending I was not really looking at his shoe. I guess he could feel that someone was studying his body part. So he moved further down, on my side of the aisle, facing me…
04.05.2006
A minus point of this new journal is the thickness. I had trouble scanning my sketches. The thickness caused the shadow on the side of the image (s). Otherwise the new journal is great.
New schedule
Click to enlarge.
I didn’t realize that the trains between Amsterdam - Utrecht run on new schedule starting this past weekend. On top of that, there are now only 2 trains per hour which stop at Duivendrecht. I didn’t know that and lots of other people didn’t realize that either. We all ended up waiting for about half an hour for the next train. Same thing for going to the other direction. I saw those people on the other platform waiting for a train to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Zuid/WTC
Click to enlarge.
Again, I followed another watercolor instruction book. And I love the result. It was about miximg complimentary colors to produce soft pastelly grey. And what lovely colors I got from the experiment! I can tell you that Amsterdam Zuid/WTC station has never looked half as good in reality. Hah! 
Me
Click to enlarge.
My reflection. I was in the train going home. There was a problem with the train traffic and so I had to take a detour. I had to take the train to Groningen from Duivendrecht and get off in Amersfoort to take a train back to Utrecht. I had to stand the during the whole journey, because the train was really full. Luckily the trip didn’t take as long as I thought. I thought of drawing other people, but I was not in the mood for getting caught or looking for the ‘right’ subject. As I was standing facing the windows, I could clearly see myself. Seeing my own reflection made me think, ‘there, I have found the right subject. I don’t need to look to far’. I couldn’t let the chance slip away. So here is my entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #56 - Self Potrait.
Overamstel
Click to enlarge.
Almost forgot to scan this sketch I made last week. It is showing a house, floating on the river Amstel (a boathouse?), under the bridge/metro station Overamstel.
Late etc.
Some sketches from the last few days. Gotta work hard, no time to play/blog. I experimented with a brush pen, which gave me an excuse to draw fast and simple. It’s incredible how a sketch can take less than 5 minutes only because it is done with a brush pen. This pen forced me to leave details out and stick to the primary items. My hand & arm do react different and handle the pen different. I’ll experiment more with it.
I went home late and while waiting for the train, I decided to do this one above.
Sketches below are result of experiment in drawing people. Kinda like it. One has a caricature feel to it, although unintended. These are drawn based on photos. They are well known here.
This last one is obviously my cat.
Weer een trein…
A sketch that I did on Tuesday last week, but couldn’t finish it until yesterday. It is of a train that is operated by the Dutch Railway (Nederlandse Spoorwegen). They operate several types of trains, and this is one of them. One of the older models, I think.
I was at the Naarden-Bussum station when I sketched this. I was waiting for another train, which would take me back to Amsterdam.
Personally, I think that the end result is a bit overworked. I did the colouring at home. Pen/Ink/Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (markers).
Burger King
Yesterday was so bad… I ended up in Burger King twice!
And I am a supporter of gastronomy??? Knowing what I ate yesterday, I am slightly ashamed now. Yes, I visited BK 2x yesterday. Yes, I ordered almost the same thing. I ate at BK Amsterdam Centraal station for lunch, right after a site visit. Then my dinner was at BK Amsterdam Amstel station. The dinner was actually unexpected. I worked late, went home late, and guess what? A train broke down between Amsterdam and Utrecht and made the rail traffic irregular. What traffic? There was not a single train on sight for 1 hour. So I called Nor asked him to pick me up. I’d figure that it would still get me faster than any trains.
After that I went to wait for him at Burger King. I was starving and needed to eat. Other options were not that appetizing and all of them are fast food as well.
So now you see my sketches of what I consumed from de Kiosk, Smuller, and BK. All of them are fast food chain available at larger train stations. And you think: she claims that she loves gastronomy and cooking? Well… I still love gastronomy despite my consumption of fast food. I can only really cook in the weekend. I do think that train travel is not very healthy and it is making me fat right now …may be some money back from the NS (Dutch Railway) as a compensation?
‘Puur Genieten’
…or “Pure Enjoyment’ it says on the coffee cup. Well, not in the situation I am in at this moment. Pure confusement is more like it. However, drawing this sketch calmed me and the hot chocolate warmed me up on the way home. The sketch shows a coffee cup, but it actually contained hot chocolate. I was afraid if I drank coffee I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. And decaf coffee is no where to be found, except by special coffee bars. People don’t tend to drink decaf here. So just to be on the safe side, I chose hot chocolate.
I think the simple napkin fold can be considered as an entry for the Everyday Matters Challenge #40 ‘Draw something with folds’. It’s simple, but hey, it has folds!
Note: Click to enlarge.
Keys
Everyday Matters Challenge #37
On the train home Friday night and after the miraculous flying bike, I wanted to draw something else. Hmmm… think…Oh yeah, the keys. Then I set up a small temporary ’studio’ on the train, right where I sat. I had loose drawing paper scattered all over the small table (see the bike I drew previously?); the cheap drawing pad that I had with me decided that it had enough of my rough handling. I set my keys on the table and started drawing. Poor fellow passenger, who sat in front of me. I totally monopolized the table, that there was no space for him to put anything on it. The train journey was just long enough to complete the sketch (only in ink). I added some shadows afterward from memory, and I made sure that I was more awake this time. Just before scanning, I added a bit of wash and color. I used a fountain pen with soluble ink and a red colored pencil for this drawing.
NOTE: Click on image for larger view.
Bike (Unfinished)
I originally drew this with a goal in mind, to complete Everyday Matters Challenge #35 (Draw a Bicycle). I did it in a metro on Friday night on the way home. Eventhough I drew it quite fast during the bumpy metro ride, I couldn’t finished the drawing because I had to get off the metro. Then, while waiting for the train to continue my journey home, I added a few elements from memory. Well, it turned out that my memory was not working all right at all that night. I added more mistakes to the original bike drawing, which was not quite right in the first place.
I didn’t realize that I drew the bike straight, while it wasn’t. The front wheel of the bike was resting on a bike rack. So only the back wheel touched the metro’s floor. I was still not aware of this mistake, when I added the shadow and the metro’s window from memory. If I had been more awake, I could have corrected it by placing the window and shadow a bit different. Now the result of my drawing shows that the bike can fly; It floats in the air in a metro…What an amazing bike…
In the train
A super quick sketch I did in the train this afternoon. Notice that the perspective is off; the size of the seats is not right (front seat should be higher not the other way around)
Just another passenger
We saw this person yesterday morning. He was just another passenger in the tram. Part of his face was hidden behind the tram’s seat. But the part of his face that was visible interested me to draw him. I had to do it quick. He looked a bit sad or possibly just a bit tired. Or it could be that he just has heavy lidded eyes. In general, his feature radiated or said something like, ‘I am a wise guy’. May be that was the thing that attracted me to draw him in the first place. I don’t know.
Just another car
This car was parked on the street near a metro stop. While waiting for the metro to arrive, I thought to better use my time by drawing something. That something was this car. I started drawing the side closest to me, and suddenly the metro showed up. It was unfortunate, but I tried to finish the drawing while sitting in the metro. I think, I got the perspective and the length of the car not quite right. It looks a bit squashed; the nose is too short. It looked a bit bland without any colors, so I decided to add some colors at home. The colors sort of make up for the wrong perspective and length, I think. Now it looks rather cute…
View from my car
There has been a discussion on the Everyday Matters Group about doing some speedy blind contour drawing while being in a car and stopping for a red light. Hmmm…one thing, it is not advised when you are the driver, but it can certainly be done when you are the passenger. That’s what I did this morning. I didn’t do it “blind” nor while waiting for a red light. I did it while we were on the highway going to work. So everything passed by so quickly that I had to start while the object is still in a distance. If I couldn’t finished the sketch after we passed by the object, I had to draw whatever is left from what I could memorized. So they are very quick sketches of 5-10 seconds in ink. I colored the page in the car too, and at home I applied a bit of water with a brush. It was really fun and challenging to do.
Where were these sketches made? Where are these things located?
- Classic windmill on the left is located in Breukelen.
- Classic windmill on the right is located in Vinkeveen.
- We passed by this motorcyclist while approaching Holendrecht
- Modern windmill on the right is located near Holendrecht
- In the bottom middle, is station Amsterdam RAI
- The cranes are located nearby the station.
- The trash containers in the middle are located near the ING House
Yesterday - color version
OK, this is the color version of Yesterday (a post from a few days back). I am actually not sure which one is better. There is something “unsettled” in this color version, which I can’t figure out. May be it’s the use of too many color in too many areas? I don’t know…But it was still very fun to do it!
Click to enlarge.
Yesterday
Just as some other members of the Everyday Matters group, I really like Tom Judd’s work. All of those overlapping lines and doodles. It’s so exciting!. So I also decided to give it a try. Despite the bad day that I had yesterday, it ended really well because of this journal page! It was so much fun to do. The result suprised me. I didn’t intend to make it look cartoony, but it turned out that way. May be it’s just my ’style’. Next time I will try to be a bit looser and may be put less stuff on the page. This one looks just a tad too densed.
Oh and I am planning to color this one too. I will post the result sometime this week.
Note: that derailed train…I didn’t make it up, it was real and mentioned on the radio, in the news.
Click to enlarge.
View from Duivendrecht
Duivendrecht is a somewhat weird train/metro station. It is built around the late 80’s or very early 90’s. It is modern, but nowadays it feels a bit dated. The design team was/is really proud of it (of course!), and I do know these guys. Why do they think so? Because it was the first station in NL that had two levels of tracks. The tracks cross each other but on different level. Both levels are above ground. On the top level, the ‘island’ platform are sandwich between the train tracks and the metro lines (in the middle). The station is the major transfer point for people going to Schiphol Airport or the center of Amsterdam. Blah blah…etc..etc…I personally think that it is time to remodel the whole think and the NS/goverment should put more money on maintenance.
My simple sketch shows what is on one side of the station as seen from platform 8 on the upper level. I believe it is the side of downtown Duivendrecht. My effort on the tree failed horribly. Now I hate it because I think it attracks too much attention. But it’s just a sketch, I had fun doing it. I will draw what’s on the other sides of the station sometimes. I believe I did one which shows the Amsterdam Arena stadium, but I might just give that one another try as well.
The view on the opposite side of the church is really quite mind boggling….a huge flyover (for the train again) built right on top of a golf course. Just imagine your own golf course with humongous concrete pillars that makes the players look like dwarfs. It’s enough to ruin anybody’s attemp on relaxation, I say. Not too mention the train and the dB level of the sound it produces when ‘flying’ top speed above the players’ head. It’s amazing that I still see people play there. It makes me wonder what attracts them to this particular golf course.
Porta Potti
While I was waiting for the hybrid metro #51 to arrive, I saw this Porta Potti standing across the street from the metro station. They are doing some maintenance on the rail, but by looking at the amount of new steel tracks, they are probably going to replace the current tracks. So this Boels Porta Potti is placed there exclusively for these workers.
I am not sure when they are going to finish with the work. I do hope that it’s really soon, because the station is now only accessible from one side. This means that I have to walk around it all the time to get to the station or to my office. It’s not that far but an inconvenience.
No train … is a pain…
They (NS, the dutch railway) should really work on their schedule better! When they say maintenance on the rail begins on July 1…then it should start on July 1 not late afternoon on June 30! I was stranded in Duivendrecht until 9.30 pm because of them!!!!
Daily breakfast
Everytime I commute with public transportation, I (almost) always have these as breakfast: a cappuccino croissant and a medium size cappuccino. I buy them at Cafe T at the train station. Then I wait til my train comes, jump in it and fight for a seat. I sit down and read the newspaper people leave in the train. Cafe T’s coffee is served at a good enough temperature for me that I can finish it before I get off the train. The train travel is so fast that sometimes I have to gulp down my hot coffee. Quite dangerous for my throat. But may be I am just a slow coffee drinker.
By the way, I do eat the cow (beef) but not the bike or the stop button. They are just what I see everyday…
Traveling
I commute everyday to my work in Amsterdam. From home I have to walk to the tram stop then take the tram to Utrecht. Then I have to take my usual train from station Utrecht Centraal to Duivendrecht and switch to metro to get to the Amsterdam World Trade Center. From there I have to take tram #5 in the direction of Amstelveen Binnenhof and get off at two tram stops away and vice versa for going home in the evening.
I realize that there are actually so much things happening while commuting and so many objects to record in my sketchbook. Here is one.
Connexxion is promoting the new chipknip machine for paying one’s fare instead of using the usual ticket (strippenkaart). Paying with chipknip is cheaper, they said. While sitting in front of the machine to sketch it, I realized what their logo means. Clever!
