Grid drawings

The love of grids never ends. Never ever ever.

Here are five pages from my moleskine XL softcover book full of grids and therefore full of grid drawings.

I wish I could explain why these patterns are so satisfying to draw and colour in. I think they take a special kind of focus that requires concentration without too much deep thinking. And that makes it possible for me to listen to podcasts while I do them, which I find more difficult with some (not all) other types of art.

It's nice that there are art forms you can do while learning new things through podcasts while also sitting on the couch with your feet up. Life doesn't really get much better than that. Well... maybe with a latte or a cup of tea to accompany me. And a cat, don't forget the cat!

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend.

Morning Collages

Shortly before my vacation I finished my morning collage project. As you (may or may not) know for over two years now I have been doing morning art (almost) every morning, usually (but not always) before breakfast. This has had different forms and the most recent one was doing 30 minutes of collage every morning until a cahier style sketchbook was filled up, which it now is.

I still have several collages to show you, enough for two posts, so I will do a little reflection on this project with the last batch. But here are five new collages for your viewing pleasure (I hope).

'Uitgeslapen' means having slept late, but also being sharp and smart.

I did not do my morning art in my vacation (I never do, vacations are about stepping out of your routines), so after I got back I was a little rusty and not fully ready for a new project, so I simply worked on some pattern drawings in an already started sketchbook to get back into my rythm again.

However now I'm slowly getting back into things, it's time for a new themed project. What it is? Well that's for a later post isn't? (oooh a cliffhanger, haha).

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day. 

Impressions of a lazy vacation

Hello my blogsy people, I'm back from a lovely week in sisters house. Lovely and wonderfully uneventful, which is exactly what I wanted, but also why there won't be a huge ten part slide show as is usually the case.

Usually when I go on vacation I want to explore a lot, take photographs all the time, see new things, walk new trails, and so on and so forth. But this week I just wanted to relax and pretty much do nothing.
Of course 'nothing' is a relative term. I had to take care of my sisters dog after all and a week without journaling is unthinkable. But mostly I read or just kind of zoned out. Many naps were taken I can tell you.

The weather was mostly quite warm with a few cooler days in between which kind of supported me being less active than usual. My little foster dog Jinte did not care for the heat at all, so even if I had wanted to take really long walks with her I wouldn't have been able to. Instead we went on shorter walks and lazed about in sisters lovely patio and home. It felt very luxurious.

Anyway, here's a short photographic impression of a very nice laid back week. As I said, no new places were explored, but that doesn't mean that the surrounding area of sisters house isn't stunning in itself and deserves a pic or two, not to mention the cute doggy. ;-)

My travel journal stuff. I took a set of three pocket moleskine cahiers and some felt tip pens..

My vacation bonus. Her name is Jinte and she's as adorable as she looks.

This picture pretty much sums up my entire vacation best.

Sister lives on the edge of a rural town. If you walk a few minutes from her house there is farmland aplenty.

These are the types of drawings I did in my travel journal, so no sketching or anything like that.

After your wake your sitter for a ridiculously early morning walk, you really need a nap.

The only really long walk I took was on a refreshingly cool day. Still wore out the dog.

I took exactly one bike ride. To Slangenburg Castle, because it's one of my favorite places over there.

Reflection perfection.

Some days were just too warm to do anything but this. Not complaining by the way. ;-)

Another farm land walk, not so far this time.

Sheep telling me I shall not pass. Then Jinte barked and they let me pass.

Sisters patio. The perfect place to cool down late at night.

Another farm land walk with a tired dog.

Every day I wondered more if she would fit in my suitcase, so I could sneak her home.

Flowers in sisters patio.

They were gorgeous.

Last morning right before I left. I did not put her in my suitcase.

Mostly because I had this waiting for me at home.

And that wraps up my third (!) vacation this year. It gets even more decadent, because in October I can go there again since sister and her husband will be going away again. This time they will take the dog, so I will be able to explore a bit further out without having to leave her at home all day. This really is a very luxurious year as far as vacations are concerned and I am certainly enjoying it.

But for now we are entering the summer season on the island. School vacations will start soon and for a holiday atmosphere I can just stay home (although truth be told I'm always glad when September comes around and it gets a bit less busy here). Anyway I never take any time off in the summer, it's simply not necessary, haha.

Hope you have lovely summer plans and wishing you a wonderful and artsy weekend.

Good to be back!

Around here lately....

Just some pictures of the past few months of all kinds of stuff that is my life too:

The journal. Always the journal, no matter what.

New beach pavillion. Approved.

King of the Castle and he knows it!

My beautiful handmade B6 Traveler's notebook by R Atelier/ Rosie Tian. It is my current journal.

The love of grids never ends.

Reading the Flow special about houses and interiors  made me appreciate my own.

Festival Time! Here Comes the Summer is a small festival on my island. Three days of music shared with a friend.

Impression of day one. The Reverend Shawn Amos (bottom left) was the absolute highlight of the festival for me.

Impression of day two. There were lots of fun activities for kids, like making protest signs.

Impression of day three. By the way, despite its name it was quite cold that weekend.

Drawing an egg on the ferry, because the holder was so cute.

The beach chairs are back. I guess tourist season is really here now.

Spring is definitely here!

Walking, walking, walking...what else is new?

Finished the Bunny Book journal.

View of the Wadden Sea through dead branches and fresh greens.

Somebody wants to move in....

....but somebody already lives here.

And that's how things are around here. Not bad as far as I'm concerned. So far 2017 is proving to be a much more pleasant year than 2016 and I am very grateful for it.

Speaking of pleasant things, I have another vacation coming up! Yup, it's my third vacation this year. How spoiled can you be?

In January I went to the island of Schiermonnikoog and in April I went all the way south to Valkenburg and the coming week I will be going back to my sisters house in Zelhem for a free vacation in the east of the Netherlands. This has become a bit of an annual tradition.

I will be having a furry companion there too, since just like last year I will be taking care of her cute dog Jinte who I would totally dognap if I didn't already have cat in the house.

I'm not planning anything special, just lots of relaxing and walking the dog and reading books, but I'm sure I'll have some pics for you when I come back on the blog. That will be in about two weeks. So until then you will have to do without me. I'm sure you'll manage. ;-)

Until then I wish you all a wonderful and artsy time!

Portrait Practice

With all my love of grids and patterns and doodles I almost forget that there is such a thing as drawing and sketching actual realistic things. But it's good to keep a bit of practice every now and then, if only because variety is the spice of life.

So recently I sat down and focused on doing some portraits. I chose to do them in my huge A3 sketchbook and for models I chose my regular ladies: the mail order catalogue girls. It is exactly what it sounds like: just open a mail order catalogue that has people in it (in my case mostly women) and draw them. They stand perfectly still, they are professionals after all. ;-)

First I did four sketches in a brown graphite stick:

I found it challenging to work big and as you can see I have a lot  more trouble with a three quarter view than a full frontal one. I did like working with the graphite though. The third one is my favorite by the way.

The next day I wanted to take it a step further and do a watercolour portrait. The paper in the sketchbook is not suitable for watercolour, so I got out some watercolour paper of a somewhat smaller size and tried to capture another girl.

I enjoyed the play with paints and trying to layer onto previous layers to get it looking at least a little bit right. I'm not a great watercolourist, so this is about the best I could do.

I used to draw women and girls all the time, but now I hadn't done it in quite a while and I feel like I grew out of it a little. There's only so many hours in a day after all and if one is obsessed with patterns and such, those take priority over everything else. It's however good to keep your art muscle flexible and versatile.

Hope you are doing something different every now and then to keep things interesting and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.