A visit to the zoo

I love visitng the zoo here in Zürich, it's so beautiful, and now they've added a new enclosure - Australia, with the koalas as main attraction.

The emus and wallabies are free to roam and mingle with the visitors. The wallabies were a bit shy, though, and prefared to keep their distance. The emus, on the other hand, were very interested in investigating...

The elephants enjoyed some quality family time.

The Masoala hall is always a special place to visit. You never quite know what you're going to see. It's something different every time. But there's always something to see. And this little mouse lemur was just the sweetest little creature!

Mouse Lemur from Nordljus on Vimeo.

That plant must be especially delicious, because on our way back, we saw this little fellow. Usually, they just sit motionless upside down on tree trunks.

Gecko from Nordljus on Vimeo.

One of the animals you pretty much always see, is the chameleon. This time, we saw four different ones. What characters they are. And their colours, patterns and textures are just amazing.

The end of another wonderful day at the zoo, and one last glimpse back in the later afternoon light, before the zoo shut it's gate, and the animals got some well deserved peace and quiet.

Just practising

Thank you everyone who commented and shared their views on blogging on my last post. I am glad that there are still many of us out there, who value blogs and are continuing blogging.

I've been busy these past few weeks mainly practising in my sketchbook. As I've mentioned earlier, I'm exploring botanical art at the moment and I'm taking a class to learning more about it. At the moment, it's all about drawing and graphite. I enjoyed drawing the tone scales, I never really quite realised how much difference there is between different brands. I always sort of assumed that an HB pencil was an HB pencil. Well, it isn't. My favourite brand is the classic Faber Castell 9000. This is also the lightest of the ones I tried out and it gives a good variation of tone. Caran d'Ache Grafwood and Staedtler Mars Lumograph are nice too. The Derwent Graphic I didn't really like. They were almost impossible to sharpen. For botanical drawing, you need a super sharp point. Often this is achieved by sharpening your pencils using a craft knife to cut away the wood, and sand paper to get a really long and pointed point. Here I used a new sharpener by M+R, which sharpens the pencil to a concave point. It sharpened the Faber Castells to a lovely point, the Grafwood are too big for the sharpener, the Mars Lumographs were okay too. But with the Graphics, the leads just kept breaking off. It was okay for the 2H, H and F, but for the rest, it was pretty much impossible. I have a few of those pencils, and I'll use them for other drawings, but definitely not for botanical drawing. Taking the time to make these tonal strips is certainly a very good way to getting to know your pencils - and finding your favourites!

I'm also practicing leaf drawing. And I still have a lot of practising to do! i have to admit that I became a bit sloppy with this one and the result is a very irregular drwaing. But it will be useful as a measure for my progress. In traditional botanical darwing, the subjects are drawn in actual size, which can be rather tricky. It's amazing how much detail there is in a leaf! A magnifying glass is quite essential, not only for getting a closer look at the leaf, but also for drawing. Drawing through a magnifiying glass is actually quite amazing! Especially when you look at your drawing afterwards and see the even layers that you would have had difficulties to achieve with the naked eye.
I started a new leaf but only got as far as the outline. Which means I now have to start all over again. That's the problem with leafs. You have to work relatively quick, as they wilt, some faster than others. Or maybe that's the advantage of drawing leaves. Once you've started, you have to keep going. No room for procrastination.

I also started working through Sue Vize's book Botanical Drawing Using Graphite and Coloured Pencils. I love the good old pencil, and am discovering the potential of coloured pencils. I wasn't aware how much you can actually mix colours by layering them. The colour wheel was done using just three colours, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarin Blue and Alizarin Crimson.

There's lots of exercises in the book with both graphite and coloured pencils. They're a useful way to pracise your drawing skills as well as getting to know your tools. There are of course exercises in actual botanical art as well, I just haven't got so far yet.

Last weekend, there was a Medial Market here in Zürich, and my Mum and me went to have a look around. It was very nicely done, with a great mix of stalls selling hand made goods, food and entertainment, and wonderful costumes. It wasn't quite as hot as it is now yet, but I still wouldn't have wanted to wear some of those costumes, they look so hot!

The guards at the main entrance to the market - very popular with the Asian tourists...

The Medicus demonstrating is skills

The knights in their best plumes

Quackery and amber

Modern Middle Ages

The basket maker

Focus52/5: *ice* cold

Week five's theme of Focus52 couldn't have been more appropriate. "Cold" it is indeed this week, with temperatures gradually dropping lower and lower below zero, and bringing, at long last, some snow - and turning the waterfront along the lake into a spectacular natural ice garden. Pure magic.

In need of a little break...

Somehow the days just don't seem to have enough hours at the moment, and I feel like I'm not getting anything done at all. I'm so in need of a holiday, of a change of scene, a few days to lean back and relax. Luckily, that's just what I have ahead of me, and I'm so looking forward to visiting Christmas markets, drinking mulled wine and hot chocolate, eating cakes, and taking lots of pictures in lovely Salzburg. And spending the whole day painting, without having to constantly run away to do a thousand other things while the paint dries. Hopefully, I'll learn some new watercolour techniques, get at least one decent painting done, find lots of inspiration, and meet some nice people. It's really just what I need right now :)

And hopefully, there'll be a few snowflakes too. It's been snowing a lot up in the mountains these last few days, but unfortunately, down here, we've only had lots of rain and wind, and the temperatures, well, it feels more like early spring than winter... It's only the Christmas lights and decorations, and all the Christmas markets that remind me of the season. But I keep hoping for that white Christmas :)

I'll be back in a week, with my batteries recharged, and looking forward to keeping up and in touch again with everyone. Have a wonderful week!

Art Every Day Month: Day 29

Only one more day to go with Art Every Day Month, and till Decemeber. Today, I thought I'd do some baubles to help me get into Christmas mood.

I also went to the city after work, to enjoy the Christmas lights everywhere (and to have a constant battle with White Balance, I really never know which option to chose at night, and with all the lights. None of the options really seem to work...). But I just loved the reflections in the river!

I also bought some wool to knit a scarf or two. I'm really bad at knitting, and I can only do simple and straight, so it really has to be just scarves. It'll be my challenge for December. At least I'll be ready for when the snow comes :)

A lovely autumn walk instead...

Last Sunday, I boldly announced the second part of my Three Favourite London Shops series to appear today, but I'm afraid I'm not able to deliver. I've been feeling quite bit under the weather these last few days, and this morning, the mere thought of having to find the energy to sit down, take out my all my stuff, get creative and produce something worthy of the post, take pictures of it all, process them, and wrap it all up in a blog post, simply totally stressed me out. And as this blog really is supposed to be something I enjoy doing, I decided, that I'd just had to admit defeat, postpone the post, and head for the sofa and some much needed rest instead. Especially as I've got a busy week ahead, which will require all of my energy. 

I would have been very happy with a rainy, or at least grey, Sunday, but no, it was blue sky, (far too) warm for the season, and all the trees still glowing bright and colourful. So in the afternoon I just felt too guilty to hang around on the sofa all day and went for a walk. And it did me so much good, both physically and spiritually. So instead of the planned post for today, I'd like to share some images of my refreshing Sunday walk.

I still plan to write those posts about the other two shops. Hopefully, the second part will be ready next Sunday, but I think I'm better not making any promises this time:)

I hope you had a terrific, inspiring, creative, and restoring weekend!

Week in the life ~ Saturday

Saturday, 6/08/2011. Saturday morning, time for the weekly shopping. I buy a bunch of purple dahlias. I love flowers in my home, and I love dahlias. They always remind me of one of my favourite National Trust places, Angelsey Abbey. They have a wonderful dahlia garden there.



Texture by Kim Klassen

 I'm going to meet up with a friend in town in the afternoon, but I go to Zürich a bit earlier, in order to take some pictures for today. It's strange weather today, hot and very humid and oppressive. It's sunny but the sky's full of clouds hanging low over the lake. It's going to be rainy later on.

Grossmünster

Limmat

Limmat

Limmat, Grossmünster, Fraumünster, St. Peter

Walking along the Limmat to the lake in the welcoming shadow of the trees. Love the bright greens!

There are many bathing places around the lake and the Limmat. This one is the Frauenbad. In 1837, a bathhouse for women only was opened here, which in 1888 was replaced with this building here. It is still a bath exclusively for women.

On clear days, with the Föhn, a warm wind from the south, the alps look like they begin right behind the lake. Not so clear today, but you can still see them in the distance.

Lake Zürich. We love our lake.

All ships and boats on the lake and on the Limmat, as most other ships and boats in Switzerland, are part of the public transport system, which means you don't need to buy an extra ticket. Go on a cruise, or take the ship instead of the train to get to one of the towns and villages long the shore.

Or just hop into the lake for a refreshing swim in this oppressively hot and humid summer weather.

I walk all the way to Bellevue for an ice cream - one of the very few places in Zürich where you can get mint ice cream. I simply love mint ice cream. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to very popular...

I walk back on the other side of the river, along the Limmatquai. This is my favourite bridge, the Münsterbrücke (minster bridge), connecting the two big churches, Fraumünster (which you can see here) and Grossmünster (see above).

Along the Limmatquai, there are numerous guildhalls. They still have their flags out because of last Monday, the 1st of August, our National Day.

I have to go to the Zentralbibliothek, the Central Library, to pick up a book before I meet my friend. This is the canton, city, and university library, and I've been here many times during my studies.

I don't get to take any more pictures this afternoon. Some shoe shops get in my way, and I have my hands full. And over all the chatting, and catching up, and drinking coffee with my friend, I forget all about my camera.

Back home again, and time for a nice cup of tea. It's going to be a quiet evening at home. I'm not one for going out on a Saturday night, really. With all the commuting and long days during the week, I'm just glad to be able to relax and do nothing. There's no Terry & June on on the weekend, but there'll be an episode of Wallander later on BBC4 - the original Swedish version, with English subtitles.

And of course, we mustn't forget about the music. Here's one of my favourite bands, Patent Ochsner. Together with Züri West from yesterday's post, they're among the most successful rock bands here. Both of them having been around for over 20 years. Here's a version of one of my most favourite songs by them, W. Nuss vo Bümpliz from 1997, a live version with orchestra.