Day four

After an day of washing heavy old machines, i was in desperate need of some energy to get me going for the evening. So I bought a coffee at the train station and did some ultra speed sketching: trying to capture the people on the escalator: i could see the persons for approximately 10 seconds, but at the beginning of those from the front, and in the end from above (or the other way around). I stood no chance - but it gave me the energy needed!

Brushpen, A5, 20 min, central train station zurich

Actually, it had a lot more people....but it was really funny

Day three

Today, I hadn't a lot to do (again...), but always something small. In the morning I still had some letters to transcribe (I started with them yesterday) and in between two of them i quickly drew my table. I love the contrast between the clumsy keyboard and the elegant handwriting of those letters. I wish that letters would be used more often today. They are also a more elegant time-document than what our emails and short messages will be in 100 years, if they even still exist then!!

Black marker, A5 (well, its always gonna be A5...), ca 30 min (or even more, those writings...), Schloss Lenzburg

i didn't like the first "B" so i had to rewrite it on separate piece of paper and put it over the old. I definitely have to get more exercise on writing nicely. 

Day 2

I hadn't a lot to do today, but never had time to sketch something - so i expect that there will be a lot of commuter train sketches in here.

Brushpen, A5, ca. 20 minutes

I have to get used to the shaking of the train - and a method of putting people on chairs which already drew...

Day One

Today I started my alternative civilian service at the museum in Lenzburg, which is located in the Castle of Lenzburg (actually, its on the "Lenz-castle", since "burg" already means castle). After spending the morning with getting known the castle, i spent the rest of my day doing almost nothing. I even had time for a sketch!

Pencil, A5, about 30 minutes.

These is the view from the north side, where my bureau is, to the south one, across the court, and between the "pallas" on the left and one of the biggest and oldest knight-halls (?) of switzerland on the right side. 

square

it's been a while...but i haven't stopped sketching. Trying to get more comfortable with colored pencils, so here are some small, square sketches:

Urban Sketching in the green. this is the river Sihl, that runs through Zürich

Humans and the nature (II): a small cottage in the mountains around Gstaad 

The nature (II) and the Humans: an artificial lake at 2000 meters over the sea and power lines of course. Also near Gstaad

Villa Hohenbühl

To end two weeks of absolute university-stress, i had eight hours of colloquium today - and was pretty tired afterwards. To get my head cleaned up i went drawing this wonderful villa, sitting on top the trainstation Stadelhofen and overlooking the city. The villa is actually part of the highschool, in which i went, and houses (mostly) the rooms, where the drawing classes are. It's so beautiful, and i really want to discover it more through drawing (although i did this quite often during school as an assignment - i don't have enough yet).

Villa Hohenbühl - 23.5.15 - Brushpen - ca. 21x15cm

This is actually the basement on the right, where the ateliers for 3D-works are located.

Beautiful weather

It's such beautiful weather outside, but i have to study for the university. Sometimes though I take a break, go for a walk, and do some sketches. Yesterday evening, the sky was so beautiful at the lake: the main difficulty was, that the light and the clouds moved so fast. Today, something different: blue, cloudless sky, so i sat in the shadow and sketched this nice little villa in front of this ugly big monstrum...

it even had a rainbow - i couldn't quite grasp it....

Bürkliplatz at night

I went for a short sketchwalk in the evening. I walked down to the lake, where the orange lights reflected on the darkblue lake...a shame i left my watercolors at home. As i turned around i could see through the almost black trees onto the bright street. The Brushpen died during this sketch, so for the second one, i had to use a simple ballpoint pen to get the rich contrast between the lit pavilion, where a lot of people where dancing to some swingmusic and the already dark surrounding.

art-history

Yesterday I had a course at the university, which actually has very interesting topic. But yesterday, the presentation given was...lets say, hard to listen to. So instead of doing art-history, i did some art myself.

22.4.2015 | SE: NL. KUNST (seminar: art from the netherlands) | Bruspen | ca. 20x27 cm

Thats the good thing, if you're sitting in the last row: you can do some urban (universitary?) sketching!

Sweden

I've done a little voyage in the north of europe: I went to sweden for a few days. I took a new sketchbook with me and quite a lot pencils, crayons and my watercolors, but i didn't used them a lot; i mostly drew with pencil or the brushpen. It's quicker - and captures more the moment than an actual scenery. Since i was not on my own, I didn't drew a lot of architecture - only from the warm inside of a Café. And since the landscapes were too beautiful too look at only one place, i tried to just look everywhere and save it in memory - for later.

It was a different kind of sketching; it was more a diary of moments than a studing of the foreign architecture and landscapes.

various techniques | 6.4. - 15.4 |

Titlepage

We were travelling from Zurich to Stockholm in one go: 24 hours (almost). This is where the train gets on the ferry to Denmark

And then, somewhere in the middle of sweden, we ate something, but hadn't the right tools with us...
On the ship again the next day: Vaxholm is lovely, Ramsö is the only island, where the ships goes, since "its still winter"

This is a bit mean: Marc was sleeping in the Bus back from Vaxholm

Välkommen! This is the view from a funny cafe on Djurgården Island, were we had a coffee.

Eating and drinking wonderful in the "gamla stan", the old town of Stockholm: Elk-goulash (lovely!) in the Sta. Clara Bierhaus.

Best thing at the Bierhaus: the cellar: Open Jam Session every wednesday, for the students. I had to be quick - the jazz was driving!

change of musicians

At the Restaurant in the "Skansen": Some little plants on the table and window ledge

After visiting in the morning the "Skansen" (sooo many people! No nerves for drawing) we went to drink a coffe on the Island Skeppsholmen. While the others already drank their coffee, i still had some left, before it landed on my sketch - which wasn't that bad, because i messed it up anyway!

We left Martina behind in Stockholm and took the ferry to Visby on Gotland. It was such a wonderfull day, the sky was blue and the sun was warm. We took a stroll around the old city wall, were i tried to catch the evening sun.

And again, trying to catch the shadows of the evening sun on the hilly terrain and the majestic city wall towers.

No Sketches on the 11th...An elderly couple invited us to show us around their home-island: Fårö, in the north of Gotland. Such wonderful Landscapes!! But it was a thight day, and I couldn't sketch - i did so in my mind!

A lovely little Crêperie in an wonderful little house in the old part of Visby. The inside was completly painted white/gray, everything was made of wood and the crêpes were delightfull!

 

We still had a lot of time to spend, untill we had to board the ferry back on mainland Sweden. So we were drinking another Coffee and i tried to capture the view through the window - only with b/w. It was really difficult, also because there were a lot of glassware on the table and the window ledge.

And then, at 4 P.M. the ferry MS Visby took off - the 15 minutes before i drew the view through the bended windows on to the harbour buildings.

On the train from Kalmar, where we only stayed the night, i did some color sketches of some views i encountered in sweden.

 No sketches from Copenhagen - it was much to windy and cold, and not as cosy as Sweden...

This is already in Hamburg, were we had 4 hours between trains, in the night train back to zurich...the thought bubble is an insider...

Museum Rietberg

Finally, i've got more time to draw - I have holidays! I met up with some other sketchers at the Rietberg Museum to sketch the exhibition about "the cosmos", and how it is seen in other religions. Very nice exhibition, with lots of meticoulsly drawn pictures of the cosmos!

Here are few less complicated objects!

18.1.15 - fineliner, pencil, pastels (neocolor) - sketchbook: A5

A flat astrolabe, first made in Morocco in 1323 and later modified in India around 1800. Size of the object: about 15 cm in diameter.

The gathering: there was a free tour and it had so many people. In the back a huge painting with lots of details; height about 2 meters!

a fellow sketcher - or so i thought! It turned out later that this girl was actually taking notes!

A pectorale of Pa-nehesi, made over 3000 years ago in egypt. The scarab in the middle stands for the heart, where the mind of the dead lays. height of the object: about 10 cm max!

the top of an oracle from Nigeria, cut from wood. The outer ring is supposed to be made from flies or similar, and in the middle the shaman would spread flour to read cosmological omens. Diameter about 40 to 50 cm

color

made a little sketch walk with a little booklet and neocolors (Pastels)

started at the Toni Areal, finished at the Prime Tower.

16.1.15 - Neocolors on brownish sketchpaper - each one about 5 minutes - A6