People: Tram
Noses
EDM Challenge #65: Draw a nose, can be a human’s nose or an animal’s nose. In this case, I drew the noses of my cats.
Milner n Illy
My answer to EDM Challenge #48 - something that represents my new year’s resolution. Enjoy the moment, enjoy life. A small plate of milner cheese and a cup of decaf Illy coffee for the evening….mmmmm…..
One apple or two
I was planning to use these apples to make apple chips following a recipe from Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres cookbook. However the baking including preparation time needed is about 3 hours. I got demotivated after only reading the recipe and they ended up modeling for me for this particular EDM Challenge (#91).
Artis
Another day at another zoo. This time I visited the Amsterdam Zoo (Natura Artis Magistra). Visiting zoos is so much fun.
A type of Egret (Grey Heron?), Ardea cinerea or de blauwe reiger (thanks wikipedia!). Many of them live inside the Artis freely. They come and go when they want and some even have their nests at the zoo.
Same bird, slightly different build.
Other visitors at the zoo were looking at the lions who were busy eating their lunch.
Three cubs were born last year. This one stole a chunk of cow rib from one of the adult lionesses. She was lucky that she got away without getting any slap.
Meerkoet
Meerkoet (Fulica atra). One of the residents of the VU Hortus Botanicus. If everything goes well, the birdie family will have seven little ones soon.
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.
Queen’s Day
Queen’s day falls on Sunday (tomorrow) this year. And the government does not allow the country to celebrate it on a Sunday, so the celebration is today. Every year on Queen’s day, people sell what they have and want to get rid of (read: junk) on the streets. The cities are usually packed with people. Everywhere, there will be (loud) music, drinks (mostly beer), food, and the color of orange (Dutch national’s color).
I was very excited this morning. I was already thinking of what I wanted to buy and so on. However, we went too early. We were there at about 10.30 a.m. and people were just started to take their stuffs out. After a couple of hours, the sky did not co-operate. Rain and ice poured on to the streets. Yes, ice! People covered whatever they were trying to sell with plastic. We couldn’t see anything and got really annoyed. We decided to go home, empty handed.
Then one way or another we ended up at IKEA and bought lamps for our bookcase. Queen’s day this year didn’t turn out as we expected.
Pens II
The second entry for my Toolbox. More pens in my collection. Some of them are meant for writing/calligraphy. However, until this moment I haven’t learned that much on calligraphy. Which is such a shame, I think. I do have problem in dividing my time between drawing/sketching/journaling, cooking, calligraphy (all my hobbies), and work. I am still hoping that soon I will be able to give more time on exercising calligraphy.
Other categories in my toolbox will follow. Oh, and in reality, the Rotring Artpen does not look as fat and short as I have drawn it 
.
Pens I
I am starting to illustrate art materials that I own to post them on the page ‘Toolbox’ on this blog (see link under Main Menu, right). This is the first part of category Pens. The rest will follow.
Pathe Rembrandt
We went to the cinema (Pathe Rembrandt, Utrecht) this morning to watch Ice Age 2. We went to the earliest show, which played at 10:45 a.m. And we liked the experience very much. Not only we only had to pay 4.50 euro per person (compare to 8.50 euro full price, evening show), we also had the whole viewing room for ourself. A private cinema! I changed my mind 3 times before I finally decided on the ultimate seats for us.
About the film, I found Ice Age 2 slightly dissapointing. It was not as funny as the first one. May be too much drama rather than stupidity? The funniest was the squirrel and his effort to keep his acorn (he kept loosing it all the time).
Ribeye steaks
Hergo in Amsterdam is one of the best butcher I found so far (the other is Chateaubriand in Heemstede). They sell fresh very high quality meat, that most local butchers and all supermarkets cannot beat. So sometimes during lunch time, I buy meat at Hergo and carry it all the way back to Utrecht. Today, I bought two Irish ribeye steaks for dinner. And they were superb!
New schedule
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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.
A twig
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A twig from one of the trees on our street. For the first time, I used watercolor without pencil or pen & ink line drawing. Just 100% watercolor. It was such a refreshing change!
Amsterdam Zuid/WTC
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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!
Tomatoes
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This is actually an another experiment, based on a book that I have. Usually I draw my subject first using pen and ink, then apply watercolor over it. For this one, it was the other way around. Something new that I had never tried before. It was fun and more spontaneous! My sketch does not look as neat as the example shown in the book, but I think it looks pretty good.
Imagine
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I bought ‘the artist’ magazine march 2006 edition (UK) this past weekend. In the magazine, there is an article by John Lidzey on ‘How to build up a subject from cuttings and photographs’. It was a very inspiring article, and no wonder they put it under the chapter ‘Inspiration’. It tells you how to do a painting from various resources: photos, newspaper clippings, reference book, etc. You isolate the relevant subject(s) from each source and put them together in one painting. So it is similar to photo montage. I was so inspired by this that I decided to experiment. But instead of making a (real) painting, I did a sketch (typical me). I loved it! The technique and process certainly give new possibilities.
So here is my first try, based on several sources. And it got my imagination going, a nice side effect. This could be:
- my next vacation destination, with me reading a newspaper under the sun.
- my villa somewhere in Southern Europe (if I get to be filthy rich), with me reading the Wall Street Journal (oops, de Telegraaf)…
Me
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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
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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.
At New King
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I had to go to a workshop last Tuesday evening in Amsterdam. So after work, I had to stay and wander around the city for a little while, before the workshop. I went to get something to eat at my favorite chinese restaurant in the city: New King on Zeedijk. Their food is always delicious. Here is a selection of the dishes listed in their menu.
Note: my RSS feed problem is still not resolved. I apologize to those, who have trouble reading my blog via Bloglines or other rss readers. I can’t fix it (yet) and I prefer to spend my time drawing rather than twiddling with gibberish php stuff. So it can be a long time before it can be resolved. Sorry!
More Poppies
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I totally abused my moleskine this time. When I finished it was very wet.
I was trying to follow the technique described in a book. Using a sketch I made last year as a reference, I drew the flowers using a bamboo pen and waterbased ink (Ecoline). By the time the pen, which was loaded with ink, hit the surface of my moleskine, the sketchbook sucked up all the ink at once. It was quite difficult to control. I then brush some water over the ink.The sketch is supposed to be a loose ink wash. But the ink didn’t want to spread at all. I soaked the page with loads of water, it didn’t help. Once the sketchbook absorbed the ink, well, that was that then. I then added some watercolor to soften up the sketch a bit. It helped.
This makes me wonder, what kind of paper actually is best for ink wash?
IKEA Klantenservice
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Waiting @ IKEA Utrecht. Want some help or service? Take a number and wait for your turn.
Starbucks, Oxford St.
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View from Starbucks @ Oxford street, inside Border bookstore. London.
Medicines
In my fight against cold, I use the following medicines. I really have no idea if they actually work or not. Because the last time I went to a doctor over here, he said that there is actually no cure against cold. Just take enough rest. What they sell in the market, is just an illusion. Yes, I still buy that illusion and I just wish that they find the real thing against the ’simple’ rhino virus.
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Droste - Chocolate letter
A couple of months ago I wrote a little bit about ‘Chocolate Letters’. Well, here is a sketch of a chocolate letter that I still have to eat (before Nor steals it). This one (the letter E) is made of 135 g pure/bittersweet chocolate from Droste. Droste, is a famous chocolate factory in Holland that produces chocolate letters (seasonal/end of year), chocolate bars, filled chocolate, and cacao powder.
Although the sketch above shows my collection of the PITT pens from Faber-Castell that I used for the train sketch (see previous post below), it is actually done by using dip pen + ink (bordeaux) + watercolor.
BCF Nor
Well, I really thought that I would not make it this week. I am pretty busy at the moment, so lately I have to make extra hours at work. But I persevered, not only work has deadlines, BCF does too!. I drew the line drawing blind in the car this morning. We went to work together and Nor drove the car. So I did blind contour drawings of his profile. However, honestly none of the drawings looks anything like him. I think one of them looks more like a cousin of Shrek. Another one looks like something right out of LOTR. I did have fun. Eventhough it does show that I am bad at drawing people, blind or not. BTW, colors were not applied blind.
And it will be Friday in about 5 minutes…
For blind contour drawings of other participants, check out Inkfinger
Bar Salvador - BCN part 19
I can’t believe that it has been a month since my wonderful holiday in Barcelona. And I am still not finished with my holiday story. I have been quite busy lately and haven’t been drawing as much as I’d like. But I think I just have to finish it a.s.ap. before my memory fails me. So here we go…
Day 6 - 07.10.05
This is my sketch of Bar Salvador. We went there to get some breakfast on that Friday morning. It was our last ‘full’ day and we would like to use it to explore the old center. Yes we had been sort of walking around the old center everyday, but we had not really looked. So we started the day by visiting this bar, which we found out from ‘The Rough Guide’. Eventhough it is called a bar, it opens actually only from morning to late afternoon. It is not a place for late night drinking. But not to worry, they do live up to their name. Inside they have enough supplies of alcohol to last for months. It was an amazing experience. However, don’t really expect to be able to get what you want to eat here. There is not really a menu. We noticed that they had only one tiny green board on the wall with a very limited list of (what we suspected) food/sandwiches. Everybody knew what they wanted to order without the help of any menu. Now, we didn’t know what to order; we couldn’t understand the list; we asked but staff do not speak english. I decided to order what I had two days earlier from Cafe Dakmar. I remembered some words, told the waiter, and then it was just wait and see what I was getting. Well, I apperently communicated my order well. I got pretty much the same yummy sandwich.
Between sketching (with pen & ink only, watercolored later), sipping my cappuccino, and eating my sandwich, I did notice the whole space. We were the only obvious foreigners. We were drinking coffee/cappuccino, while the rest were having wine, cava, or even whisky with their breakfast at 10:30 a.m! Just fascinating. My only question was: would they be more productive and creative at work after breakfast with some alcohol?
NOTE: Click on the images for larger views
BCF Spa Blauw
I am annoyed with Blogger! I tried to upload my blind contour drawing last night, but Blogger wouldn’t let me. I kept getting ‘Unknown Host’ error messages, while I didn’t do any changes on the setting! It is exactly the same this morning, last night and last week. Duh!
So here is my Blind Contour Friday (drawn on Thursday night) for this week.
It is of a ‘Spa Blauw mineral water’ bottle drawn 3 times. The line drawing was done blind (see below), the color was not applied blind (obviously), the splash was done somewhat blind. I did take precaution for the last bit, I did it in our bathroom.
c/ Hostal d’en Sol - BCN part 17
Day 5 - 06.10.05
Here is a sketch of the front door (complete with the graffiti on it) of our apartment in BCN. I quickly drew this (in pencil) that morning before going to Montserrat. The street cleaner and the garbage bags are drawn from a combination of memory and imagination, since these city’s employees cleaned our street late at night (not in the morning) and the trash were put out in the evening. It was really annoying, but also amazing at the same time that these people clean the street so late and every night. I can’t imagine that being done in my own neigborhood here in Holland. The whole neighbourhood would storm the city hall immediately to protest. I still don’t understand how my Barcelonian neighbors upstairs and on the right of our apartment could/can stand the noise every night. We couldn’t really sleep through this. We could hear everything because our bedroom was one floor above the entrance but right behind the two small windows (shown on sketch). The street was a little quieter in the mornings. But we had to get up by then, grab some breakfast, and continue our sightseeing.
Cafe Dakmar - BCN part 16
Cafe Dakmar on Travessera de Dalt, 77 Barcelona serves yummy sandwiches. The visit to Parc Guell left us hungry. Getting lunch inside the was not really an option. The cafes in the park served limited choice of sandwiches that didn’t look very good. So we opted for going downhill back to the busy Travessera de Dalt and we found Cafe Dakmar. The owner was very friendly and it seems like a family business. They served our sandwiches pretty quick and they were incredibly yummy. It was very satisfying. I told myself that I should try to make the same sandwich at home. It didn’t look very difficult to make. But I realized that I would not be able to find the same kind of delicious sausage at home.
After lunch, we just went back to town.
BCF 28.10.05
An entry for Blind Contour Friday (BCF).
My blind contour drawing is ’slightly’ late. It is still Friday at this moment, but it is already late in the evening overhere…Well, I am just late with posting it, since I did draw it yesterday. Anyway, guess what this is….Again, I applied the colors with my eyes wide open staring at the line drawing. Only the line drawing was done blind.
Check out inkfinger for the list of sites of other BC participants.
Click to enlarge.
Answer: Le Creuset casserole.
More Parc Guell - BCN part 15
Now, let me finish my story about our visit to Parc Guell BCN on Oct 05, 2005. We did manage to find the park ok.
It is actually located right in the middle of a residential area up the hill. The entrance is slightly hidden from the main road. The park does not charge visitors anything, if they just look around. It will cost them a few euros for an audio tour. We had enough of audio tour by now, so we decided to just look around. We started from the bottom, went up the stairs that led us to the Room of a Hundred Columns and just continued up hill. We sat down on the famous snake-like bench, which is located right on top of the Room. This bench is actually the edge of the Room’s (flat) roof. Eventhough it was not a comfy bench to sit on, it was really a great place to enjoy the sunshine and make a few sketches.
After this bench, there wasn’t actually anything to see up the hill. There is a house on top, but it was closed for visitors. As we continued to the other side of the park (down the hill), we found another house, the Casa Museu Gaudi (see sketch). It was originally Gaudi’s house, but I read that he didn’t design it. It does look quite ‘normal’. His assistant, Francesc Berenguer, designed the building. It is really a lovely building. Although pink is not really my favorite color, I kind of like the colors of the house; the effect of the pinkish walls versus the green roof and wooden shutters.
The yellow dots on the pointy roof of the small tower make it look like (I think) Merlin’s hat. But I can’t remember whether his hat has some stars motive on it. This detail and other details of the building definitely give the building a ‘fairy tale’ quality, just like the others in Parc Guell.
We continued our journey downhill. We passed by some awesome porticoed stone pathway and ended up at the location of the snake-like bench again. At this point, we were asking ourself where the famous Gaudi’s dragon (a statue) is located. This dragon is the icon of the park, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. We saw a large empty patch of grass, and thought that the dragon was being repaired. Uhmm…may be not. We decided to go to the tourist info near the entrance of the park. The lady there pointed it out to us…”up there, can’t you see it?” Where? There! Well, well….it is snuggled right in the middle of the stairway leading up to the Room of a Hundred Columns! It is so small that we have missed it the first time, or at least it is actually a lot smaller than we expected! We were glad that we could see it in the end. It gave us a feeling like…now we’ve really been to Parc Guell.
First BCF
I am not finished with my BCN stories yet. I haven’t even finished scanning all the BCN sketches. Gosh, scanning CAN take a lot of time….But right now, I am interrupting the BCN flashback with something more important. A blind contour! Here is my entry for the Blind Contour Friday.
I know it’s a day late, but I actually drew this on Thursday night in the metro on the way home. It’s a cup and a saucer (can you recognize it?) from the Riviera Maison winter catalog. On the far left, I drew a BC of one of their armchair. In case you are wondering, the color is not applied blind. I applied the color today, just before scanning.
I decided to join the BCF cult after reading Karen Winter’s post on ‘Conquering the Inner Gorgon’. I have done some BC drawings but never posted them. I/my inner critic considered them as ugly. However, I want to get rid of my perfectionism and I am on my way there. So hopefully, doing BC exercises will get me there faster. I will most likely post my BC drawings later than Fridays, since I usually don’t have enough time to post drawings on the day I make them.
MNAC - BCN part 13
We took the metro to go to Placa d’Espanya. When we got out of the underground station, we were surprised by the sight of (what was left of) the old Arena, which is was an old bullring. From what I read, the Arena is being converted into an entertainment complex/shopping center and will be called Plaza Arena. At this moment, nothing but the shell/facade of the building is left. Heavy new (temporary) structures under the facade are keeping it standing.
We continued walking in the direction of MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) with a short detour to the Pavilion of Mies van der Rohe. The MNAC building/palace is located on top of the hill. It was quite a trip to get up there. Once we reached the top, we could see BCN from the other side of the city. We went up there actually only for the view, not for the museum.
Then we were off to the Fundacio Joan Miro and to see the rest of Montjuic. It was unfortunate that the whole line of the teleferic cable car to the Castell de Montjuic was being repaired (or completely renewed). We could have walked uphill to the castle, but at that point we were only willing to go downhill. My legs were just about to give up…
Starbucks Pelayo - BCN part 12
After the market, we went to the direction of MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art). What we didn’t know was that MACBA was closed that day (Tuesday). So we just enjoyed a bit of sun on the square in front of the building, then continue our tour of the area. Not long after that, we saw a Starbucks, and decided to take a rest. We spent about a couple of hours here, just to relax while enjoying our Frappuccinos, observing what was happening outside on the busy street, drawing the interior of the shop. I think once we found out about Starbucks in BCN, we made a goal for the holiday: to drink as much Frappuccinos as possible before we had to go back home. There is no Starbucks in Holland, but the irony is…on the coffee packages, which Starbucks BCN sells, I found the text ‘Made in Holland’. I checked out packages from all types of Starbucks coffee (Kenya, Sumatra, etc), and I found the same thing. I don’t believe that the coffee itself is ‘made’ in Holland, since the country does not produce coffee beans. But the fact that the beans get roasted and packaged in this country really annoys me. When is Starbucks going to sell this ‘Made in Holland’ in Holland? Is it possible that they are afraid of Douwe Egberts…Or is it possible that Starbucks buys coffee beans from Douwe Egberts or Max Havelaar? Hmm..interesting thought…
Mercat de la Boqueria - BCN part 11
Our next stop was the Boqueria market. The market is said to be a popular tourist attraction and I wondered why. We couldn’t see that from the outside, but once we stepped inside between the narrow aisles…The market was very cool! The most interesting one I’d been to till that moment. We could find fresh produce, fresh meat, varieties of sea food, even some insects. To me, some products which were being sold, were very ‘unique’, e.g. heads of an animal (young cow/goat/sheep?), some organs that I couldn’t name. I wondered what they do with those heads. For soup? I saw the biggest fish head (the body was missing), masks/faces (used to belong to cows/goats/sheeps?), other types of seafood that were new to me. Everything was fresh, some of the sea produce were still alive, e.g. clams, mussels, snails, etc. Rabbits, ducks, chickens, were skinned/cleaned but being sold whole. It was such a different market than what I am used to here. And the prices…we can’t get those produce at such low prices here. The fishes offered here are so dissapointingly small compared to what I saw at Boqueria. I wished I could move the whole market here…well, may be leave the heads, feet, some organs, the preserved scorpions, and insects behind .
NOTE: Click to enlarge.
La Sagrada Familia - BCN part 8
There has been a lot of progress made in the construction of the Sagrada Familia for the last 10 years. I remember back then, that they managed to add part of the roof of the main nave to the original, which is built by Gaudi. Now the project team has added a lot more. Bravo! However, I could see that the additions do not have Gaudi’s touch. Not because that they are new, but because they are too systematic. Nothing is the same in the original design by Gaudi and the new additions carry too much of the same things. Of course it is cheaper when elements are standardized and a lot easier to construct. But, it is un-Gaudi.
Nor insisted that we took the stairs to go to the top of one of the towers. I insisted that we used the elevator that they installed fairly recently. I did go up to one of the lower towers 10 years ago (about 60-65m high) and they didn’t have elevators back then. And I knew that I would be puffing and fuming by the time we reached the top. But seeing the length of the queue for the elevator I though..what the heck. I needed some breaks a few times a long the way, but we managed to go up to the very top (about 75 m high). The view from the top was beautiful; we could see the whole Barcelona!
Going down was a bit trickier than going up. It might take less energy, but the narrow spiral staircase felt a bit more dangerous. It made me dizzy, which didn’t help at all. Despite my woozy head, we arrived on the ground floor safely and went out to look for somewhere to sit down. It was quite an exercise for our thighs and calfs, especially mine! While sitting down on a stone balustrade outside, I noticed this lovely lamp post across the street. Its design is a reflection of the top of the church’s towers. Barcelona is full with this kind of urban (design) details, lovely and elaborate at the same time. So I decided to sketch this one too.
According to what we read in the museum inside the church (basement), the church is expected to be finished by 2017. It’s now been more than 100 years. When it is really finished, I will want to visit it again.
Passeig de Sant Joan - BCN part 7
After La Pedrera, we decided to go to La Sagrada Familia by way of Rosello. There is this art supply store called Barna Art located on Rosello, which I wanted to visit. Too bad, when we got there it was time for siesta, so the store was closed. We weren’t used to this siesta thing and store opening times yet. But I decided that we could go back to the store after the visit to Sagrada Familia. We continued till we reached Passeig de Sant Joan, which is a boulevard with a strip of green and pedestrian section in the middle. We sat on one of the bench and gave our feet and legs a rest. It was a long walk. I sketched these people around us: a woman who was calling and then read a book while laying/sunbathing on the grass, a tourist who was making pictures, a dove in front of, etc. I used a pencil and then watercolored it on site. I didn’t and still don’t really like the result, though. I think it is a bit too pale. May be I should have used a darker/softer pencil or just pressed harder. Or may be I am just too used to ink in combination with watercolor. It usually gives sharper result, which I like. Off to the Sagrada Familia …
La Pedrera - BCN part 6
Our next stop was La Pedrera. It is another building designed by Gaudi on Passeig de Gracia, about one block away from Casa Batllo. Again, this is another ‘organic’ building and very beautiful. However my favorite is still the Casa Batllo. It may be the colors, lots of cream or more neutral colors, that makes it just a tad less interesting.
We took the stairs to go up to the amazing attic on the 6th floor. The construction of the attic is just amazing. The attic houses a permanent exhibition on Gaudi’s work, which is also very interesting.
Then we went up to the roof top. It was really grand. Again we found beautiful chimneys. I have to admit that they look a bit like cake decoration. However, these chimneys are very unique. I drew one of the chimneys while sitting on a step, leaning against another one. It was a glorious sunny day…it made me wonder if the residents are allowed to hold a BBQ party on this lovely roof top…