Pen & Ink
4
Jan 07
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.
31
Dec 06
Fijne jaarwisseling!
Ready for the New Year’s Dive at Scheveningen (Beach)? Tomorrow at noon!
26
Dec 06
The day after
We celebrated xmas at the Okura hotel, Amsterdam, yesterday. We dined at their restaurant ‘Yamazato’ and the food was wonderfully delicious! They used origami birdies as part of the presentation, and we got them as souvenirs. We will surely go back for more fantastic food.
11
May 06
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.
9
May 06
Helleborus
Official name: Helleborus argutifolius ssp. corsicus
Location: VU Hortus Botanicus
9
May 06
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.
29
Apr 06
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.
24
Apr 06
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 
.
23
Apr 06
Sketch Crawl – Den Bosch
I joined the Worldwide Sketch Crawl yesterday from Den Bosch (‘s Hertogenbosch). Den Bosch is located south of Utrecht and only 30 minutes by train. It was still quite cold yesterday, but the sun did show up in the afternoon. I think, everybody must have checked the weather channel the day before just to make sure the weather would co-operate. Loads of domestic tourists were there to explore the city by foot or by boat. One can go around (under) the city by boat, see sketch #2 below. So may be I’ll do that the next time I am there and I think a boat ride around (and under) Den Bosch at night time will be very cool! Click on images to enlarge.
1. Uilenburgstraatje, Den Bosch. A corner of ther street.
2. Uilenburgstraatje, Den bosch. Another corner of the same street.
3. Zuidwal, Den Bosch.
4. Station Den Bosch. A person on another platform has had a great shopping day.
5. In the train on the way back, Den Bosch – Utrecht. A fellow passenger.
17
Apr 06
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.
15
Apr 06
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).
14
Apr 06
Grote Kerk, Den Haag
Easter weekend is always a long weekend. Today is Good Friday. And although it is not a national/bank holiday in Holland, my office is closed anyway. Then Monday is 2nd day of Easter, which is a national/bank holiday. After checking on the internet on how the weather would be in the rest of the country today, I decided to go to Den Haag (the Hague). They said that this afternoon it would be sunny there, and they were right. It was a beautiful day just to be outside. While sitting on a terrace of a cafe and waiting for my lunch to be served, I drew this church ‘de Grote Kerk’ which is located right across where I sat.
12
Apr 06
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!
10
Apr 06
Oil lamp
An oil lamp which was on the table of Restaurant/Tapas bar Abrikoos (Oude Gracht a/d Werf, Utrecht). We were there Friday evening. The place was packed with people, which was amazing considering that the food was just ok. The serve mix match mediterranean food: tapas + mezze. The place is cozy, but the tapas they served is no way near the tapas of Barcelona. It’s just dutch tapas.
9
Apr 06
Fanta art
Fanta orange, one of my favorite drinks, and some rambling. I think I have come to a point where I need new inspirations of what subjects to draw. I know that there are still many and I can do them in other medium, etc. But they all do not seem to be really interesting…everything just seems ‘bland’. Hmm…(thinking).
14
Mar 06
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.
9
Mar 06
Amsterdam Zuid/WTC
Click to enlarge.Â
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!
9
Mar 06
Tomatoes
Click to enlarge.
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.
7
Mar 06
Imagine
Click to enlarge.
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)…
6
Mar 06
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.
6
Mar 06
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.
4
Mar 06
At New King
Click to enlarge
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!