The clutter in my ‘studio’ (actually, I do not have a real studio…). Stacks of books (art books, graphic periodicals, biology textbook, etc.), candles, tealights, manequin, etc. etc…
11
Jan 07
The ghost says …
Honestly, I have no idea what he is saying…I was just doodling aimlessly. This is just one of my ‘rambling sketches’. I was inspired by the fact that I have to go to my biology class this evening (first lesson). However the weather outside is not co-operating at all. It is raining hard and very windy. An umbrella will not stand a chance and I do not have a rain coat!! Phhhwwttt!
09
Jan 07
Figures
It’s been 10 years since I took a figure drawing class. And I thought that it would be good to follow a figure drawing workshop this time. I made a call to day and (sort of) register myself to take the class. However, the instructor told me that she is still looking for 2 more students, before she will start the workshop on the scheduled date. I do hope she can get them.
07
Jan 07
Eggs
EDM Challenge #93: Draw an egg carton with or without eggs in it. Here is my version with eggs in it.
04
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.
03
Jan 07
The cats say …
Miauw miauw…in 2007 we want better quality food, more food, longer massages, regular manicure and pedicure, better grooming….etc, etc.
I have made sketches of them over and over again but I have never shown their photo’s on my blog. So here they are. I had 8 cats on Januari 1, 2006. This year the gang has only 6 members. Pirozjki has been living with her new owner in Hilversum for a year now and sent her love (via the owner, see bottom picture). Red passed away last spring.
Joseph Guy (Joe; Joey). Ex-male. Type: Maine Coon. He’s the boss at home.
Bacardi (Bac). Ex-male. Type: Ragdoll. He takes 2nd place in the ranking.
Wasabi (Blobp; Wasaaab). Ex-female. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Can get really catty to the others especially to the ex-males. She suffers from chronic renal failure.
Salami (Fatso, appropriate name seeing the size of her body). Ex-female. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Always runs screaming throughout the house, but is relatively friendly to the ex-males.
Koolrabi (Koolcat or Kool (o pronounced as in owner)). Ex-female. Type: Half Norwegian Forestcat, half European shorthair. Very sweet, likes to sit close to us or on our lap. Will sit on your chest when you sleep.
Gurami (Gui). Ex-female, sister of Salami, but then the skinny version. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Very hyper cat, tough to approach, but can also be close to us.
Joey vs. Bac. Sleep boxing.
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Pirozjki or Pi (below) enjoys her new home in Hilversum very much, according to Madelon, her new owner. We are very happy to hear that. Madelon sent this pic of Pi to us along with the Xmas card. Very sweet. We still miss her.
03
Jan 07
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…..
02
Jan 07
People; Main Library
People at the internet cafe in the Main Library.
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New Year = New Resolutions? I think I’ll keep it very simple this year. I could not keep up with last year’s resolutions due to some changes in my life and career (excuses…excuses). Anyway, my resolutions for 2007 will be:
- Keep sketching, drawing, painting, doodling….
- Keep it fun and enjoy the process…
- Relax, loosen up, enjoy life (life is short)…
- Less perfect is more!
- Spoil the cats more (their life is shorter…)
A short recap of 2006: Although there have been major changes in my life and mostly my career, 2006 was still a good year for me. I decided that I wanted to do more; do stuffs that have more meaning for me and my life. So I quit my job back in august/september and have been preparing my self for the study of Veterinary Medicine by following required courses for the enrollment. I passed the Chemistry exam in November and the Biology course will start next week. In the mean time I also do a little freelancing as architect/designer on the side. And I can combine all of these with my other hobbies: cats, cooking and sketching! At this moment, my life just could not get any better! Happy New Year to all!
01
Jan 07
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).
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.
27
Sep 06
Update
It’s been a long time since I last updated this blog. And in the last 6 months or so, many things have happened in my life. First, the last drawings I did.
I realized a long time ago, that I was not happy with what I did. I kept rambling about it to many people, but I did not taken any steps to really change it until 2 months ago. My job didn’t hold any meaning anymore. Everything seemed to be superficial and I am not really excited about the field as in the past. So I have decided that it is time to find out what really matters, what will give me emotional reward and contentment in the end.
In early June, we went on holiday to Paris for a week. I made only 3 sketches while I was there, unfortunately. This holiday was more like a food therapy holiday for us and also some soul searching for me. We discussed lots of things about where I want to go, how do I go from here, etc.etc. We came back 3 kg heavier because of all the delicious food we ate and I found my answer.
Back at home, I enrolled myself in a local university and have gotten a response. I need to do 2 courses (chemistry + biology) and do the exams before I can start on the study I want to do. Not a strange decision from them, seeing that I didn’t do lots of chem of bio at my old university. Then I enrolled myself in the chemistry course and wrote my resignation letter.
The chemistry course, which started a month ago, has been really keeping me busy almost full time. Homework..homework..and homework. It is afterall an intensive course. However, I didn’t realised that chemistry is actually really fun to learn. The downside is that it really leaves me with almost no time to draw or blog. Internet has become a luxury to me. But I have no intention of stopping with drawing/sketching!
14
May 06
Koolrabi 14.05.2006
The pink ink blotch is caused by my sketch on the previous page (the flowers). The ink bled through the paper and I didn’t mind it.
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.
10
May 06
Diergaarde Blijdorp
I am having several days off and went to the Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp) today.
The Bos javanicus javanicus shares her living quarter with her family and a group of Antilope cervicapra.
Giraf/giraffe. One of my favorite animals. They have such lovely gentle eyes with great eye lashes!
09
May 06
Helleborus
Official name: Helleborus argutifolius ssp. corsicus
Location: VU Hortus Botanicus
09
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.
04
May 06
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.
03
May 06
1 year and still going
It is one year ago that I picked up drawing/sketching (again). Since then I’ve been drawing pretty regularly. So let’s see what I have done so far.
I think that I am doing pretty good so far. There have been times where I was really productive or really lazy and being uninspired by anything. I have promised myself several times that I would draw every single day. Well, I found out that that one promise is really a tough one to keep. I am still not able to fulfill that promise. However an easier approach is to not blog everyday (to post drawing) and use the time to draw instead. I find this approach gets me a lot closer to achieving the goal ‘draw each day’. So that is the reason why I upload my drawings only on Sundays now. I give the post the same date as when I do my drawing. I safe so much time to draw more or do other things, which is really great.
Within one year, I filled about 4.5 sketchbooks/journals with bad and good drawings/sketches. Filling in every single journal page with a ‘good’ sketch is very hard for me to achieve at least at this moment. However I do notice that I am getting better at sizing my subjects and therefore I lately get them right on the page the first time. I also notice that the smaller the sketch book (e.g. that journal with the medieval Utrecht map on the cover) the harder it is for me to get the scale of my drawing right. I almost always miscalculated the size of my subject and the size of the paper.
I notice that my style is looser. I like that a lot. However, I often have difficulties in finding what to draw, eventhough there are actually many possibilities. That I hope/want to change in the coming year.
I have been playing with various medium. But so far, I haven’t used acrylic and oil. I think I’ll try to use them this year.
Composition is something that I have to study this year as well. I usually don’t think about composition when I am drawing something. It’s just usually trying to get whatever I see in front of me on the paper. Often, I am not very satisfied with how my drawings turn out, eventhough the drawing itself is good. Paying more attention to composition will help, I think.
Back to sketchbooks, photo above shows the sketchbooks filled with drawings from the past year. Only one of the spiral bound is half filled. It is only filled with my sketchcrawl and vacation sketches. I keep that sketchbook as my ‘side’ sketchbook.
Below is a photo of a new journal, which I am going to use starting tomorrow.
I am threatening my new journal to co-operate here. 
And I hope it will.
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.
