AEDM days 5 to 12 (minus day 10)

Last week has been a very busy week at work, including having to stay at a hotel for two nights, a very very long Friday, and working on Saturday as well. I did manage to do some sketching on most days though, but I didn't have any time at all for keeping up my blog, or visit any other blogs. But now the busy time's finally over, and things should get back to normal again.

5/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 5: Dalahästen

These carved wooden horses have a long history and they are very pretty too. They're usually painted in bright colours, the most common one being red, but my favourite one is this plain wooden one with white pattern.

6/11/2012 ~ ADEM Day 6: My Cup of Tea

When inspiration's just gone on a little tea break and you just really don't know what to draw, simply draw what's next to you. Like your favourite tea mug.

7/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 7: Doorstopper

And if you still don't know what to draw the day after, just take the next closest thing that's lying around. Like this turquoise paint tube-shaped doorstopper. Not that I've ever really used it as a doorstopper.

8/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 8: Fighting that Cough

Trying to get rid of that annoying cough with cough syrup and sage pastilles. They seem to be working.

9/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 9: The Conference

The best thing to do to pass the time at the conference was to just sketch it.

10/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 10:

Sorry, no sketch. After an intense and exhausting two conference days, I just didn't have the energy to do even a simple little sketch.

11/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 11: Leaves

Spent all day on the sofa, reading or watching films, and recovering from the conference and all the preparations it required. It was raining cats and dogs all day, so that was just a perfect excuse too. And I even remembered to do a little sketch. Just some simple leaves.

12/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 12: Clementines

I always love the first clementines, they're always the best.

AEDM days 2 to 4, and day 1 with a splash of colour

My intended "quick sketches" are turning out to take much longer to do, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the process, whether it's a quick lunch time sketch with some colour added in the evening, a relaxing evening sketch, a sneaky sketch during art class or an early Sunday morning warm up sketch before spending the rest of the day painting.

2/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 2: Basic Tools

 Some of my very basic brushes (some of them are simple pastry brushes from the supermarket) and my favourite green water jar.

3/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 3: The Artist

M painting teacher at work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look anything like him. I'm still far away from getting a real likeness when trying to sketch people. But the first step is to practise sketching people at all - and getting quicker at it. Why can't people just stand still?

4/11/2012 ~ AEDM Day 4: A Pocket Full of Pink

I received a pocketful of Pink the other day, including these lovely buttons. Just perfect for sketching on a Sunday morning.

And the Ginkgo sketch from Day 1 got a bit of colour too:

Have a wonderful, creative Sunday!

Pearology

I wanted to do something for the Artists' Playroom this week, as I haven't managed in ages, but I think I'm actually too late, as it's already Saturday. But I didn't have the time to sit down and paint until last night.

This week's theme was pears (or your favourite fruit), as Jenn loves to draw, sketch and paint pears in particular. I was thinking about doing my favourites, blue- and blackberries, but then decided to give the pears a try, especially after having a look in the internet, and finding all those gorgeous colours. I didn't even know there were purple pears! So I got out my Moleskine sketchbook, my Necolors II and some gouache paints, and spent a relaxing evening painting pears.

They all have such beautiful names too. I meant to add some names, and writing along with black outlines and details, but decided that it looked right as it was, without anything.

Well, even if I'm too late with my entry for the playroom, I totally enjoyed painting these pears.

New favourite sketchbook and some travel sketches

I found this Moleskine Storyboard Notebook in a shop in Hamburg and thought it would make a perfect illustrated (travel) journal. It has four frames on each page which are perfect for small sketches, and with plenty of room for notes. I started to fill it with sketches right away, working on them in the hotel in the evenings.

I had planned to carry a sketchbook with me all the time, and to make sketches during the day, but the temperaturs went up to 30 degrees Celsius, and with the heat, and all the walking I did, carrying my camera  all day was more than enough. So instead I used this notebook in the evenings, using the pictures I had taken during the day as references.

Luckily, I had taken a whole box of CdA Neocolor II and a couple of water reservoir brushes to add colour to my sketches. So here are a few first highlights from my trip to Hamburg last week:

• Of course the Strandkörbe ("beach baskets") at the beach in Travemünde
• The pier and lighthouse in Travemünde, where the river Trave flows into the Baltic Sea, and where in the evening the huge ferries from Scandinavia come in
• The charming Speicherstadt in Hamburg
• The Holstertor in Lübeck
• The weather forecast on Wednesday made me laugh. It said that in the following five days there would be: plenty of sun on Thursday, sunny on Friday, sunshine on Saturday, sunny on Sunday and lots of sun on Monday. It sounded as if someone was trying very hard to come upf with as much variation as possible to describe what basically was simply sunshine and blue sky one day after the other
• I almost missed the Queen Mary 2, which had arrived in Hamburg on Sunday morning for a day's visit. It was only thanks to a lazy detour that I saw her. She's certainly a very impressive sight
• I practically lived on ice cream, it was so hot all the time. My favourite flavours were: mint chocolate chips, blueberry and master of the woods. The first one is hard to find here in Switzerland, and the other two pretty much inexistent, especially the last one

 

I still want to add lots more sketches from my trip to Hamburg. An then of course take it with me to London in summer and Sweden in the autumn, and wherever I'll be going after that. I really love this journal/sketchbook/notebook.

Linking this up with Paint Party Friday. I missed last week's party. And while I really enjoyed an interenet-free ten days, it feels good to be back, especially with this fabulous and inspiring group of artists.

Lazy Sunday sketches - radishes and berries

It's Friday again already, just a few hours till the weekend, and of course two great parties to join. As I don't have so much time during the week to paing, 'm always looking forward to spending all day in my studio during the weekend. Last weekend, though, I just couldn't get myself to pick up a paint brush at all. I felt totally uninspired, and so I finally gave up and decided to just take have a really lazy weekend and get some rest. By Sunday evening, while happily watching telly, I at last managed to pick up my sketchbook  for some lazy Sunday sketches (although I was too lazy to finish them).

One of the first lessosn in The Art of Wild Abandoment was about sketching radishes. You didn't have to do radishes, of course, but somehow I found them a comforable subject to sketch, and I keep coming back to them. In supermarkets over here, they are sold in bunches with their greens and other bits still on, not in the "tidied up" version found in some other places.

I love all the berries available at the moment. My favourites are no doubt blueberries, but I also love blackberries and raspberries. The blackberries are especially delicious at the moment. Firm and perfectly sweet. Irresistible. And their colour is just gorgeous.

I grew up with Caran d'Ache Neocolor. Well, actually with everything Caran d'Ache. Since it is a Swiss manufacturer, they're the dominant brand here, and the only brand used in school for everything, from pencils to fountain pens (no ballpoint pens allowed in my time), to watercolour and gouache paints, and of course the Necolor crayons. I still have my very first box of crayons, but I haven't used them very often since my school time. It wasn't until I took the first online course with Christy Tomlinson, actually, that I re-discovered them.

I've been using them more and more often lately, and I'm adding new colours to my palette. They're quite cheap here, actually, and I think I'll soon have the whole range of 126 colours! They are especially handy, in combination with a water reservoir brush, for lazy sofa sketchings. But I'll also take them with me on my planned trips this year (not long until the first one now :) ), to do some sketching. I've always wanted to sketch while on holiday, but somehow never managed. But this year, there are no excuses. A sketchbook, a box of Neocolor II crayons and a water reservoir brush - you can take these anywhere!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday (even though they're only half finished sketches) and Palette & Paint (even though there isn't much of a palette to show, and even less paint, I'm afraid).

But this coming weekend, I'm going to spend much time in the studio, and get my paints and brushes, and hopefully, I'll have some more to show next week. Have a great and inspiring Friday everyone!

Spring blooms for the eyes and soul

I mentioned last week that I was going on a day trip to Germany on Friday, including a little "visit to Sweden". Well, last Friday, me and my mum went to Constance for the day, which is just an1 1/2  hours train ride away from Zürich, on the other side of the border. We left early in the morning and after arriving in Constance, took the next bus to the beautiful Mainau, a little island in Lake Constance. It wasn't hard to find beauty there, as the whole island is an abundance of beauty. Floral beauty. And right now, it's a feast of spring blooms. Daffodils, poppies, and many more, but most of all tulips. Tulips everywhere, whole carpets of tulips, and in so many colours and varieties you didn't even know existed.

I remember coming here for the first time (at least as far as I can remember) a few years ago, and I was somewhat puzzled that all the information was in German (obviously), English (makes sense) - and Swedish. Swedish?? Well, it all became clear when I read a bit more about the history of the island.

In 1928, Grand Duke Friedrich II, to whom the island belonged at that time, bequeathed it to his sister Viktoria, who was married to Gustav V, king of Sweden. The island so became property of the Swedish royal family. In 1932, Viktoria's grandson Lennart Bernadotte was given charge of the island. After his marriage to a commoner, he quite the royal house and moved to the Mainau and started to turn the island into a beautiful park and opened it to the public. Today, the island is still managed by the Bernadotte family, who continue to live in the palace. Many of the buildings on the island have a Swedish touch, and the oldest of the restaurants, the "Schwedenschenke" (Sweden tavern) serves some typical Swedish dishes.

The baroque palace, church and palm house on top of the island.

There was an orchid show in the palm house as well. Some of them look like little alien flowers from space.

They are fascinating flowers, orchids. But sometimes a little bit too fancy for my taste. I really prefer the simpler, more "common" flowers, and anyway, it was a hot day, and even hotter inside the palm house, so we soon went outside again, to continue wandering around the island and adoring yet more tulips and other spring blooms, sometimes displayed in rather unusual ways.

After lunch we took the bus back to the city for some retail therapy before taking the train back home. It was a wonderful day, and I took tons of photos of flowers on the island. I want to use these photos to practise some botanical painting with watercolours. And although I was far too exhausted to get started with it straight away that evening, I couldn't resist making some drawings into my sketchbook and colouring them with Neocolor while resting on the sofa.