Oslo

Last weekend I visited Oslo. It was supersunny and warm. A few wonderful summer day's in Norway. On Sunday we took a boat trip to see the oslo Fjord. It was stunning, and lovely to be on the water. Although the surroundings were beautiful, I couldn't resist and took out my sketch pad for a quick drawing of the other tourists sitting in front of me.

Here's a page from my journal. I made a quick drawing of the tiny houses we saw on the coast during the Fjord Tour. In case you're wondering why the chili in the glass: at night I drank a spicy cocktail in the Aku-Aku Bar: the Chilli Sour!

Illustration Friday - Faded

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is 'faded'.

Although I'm still very busy and this is just a quick drawing I made for Illustration Friday, the overwhelmed feeling of too many things to do has faded a bit. As you can see.

Screenprinting

Last week I screenprinted a stack of birth cards with a friend and for a friend who just became a mom. It worked out very well. I made the design after some brainstorming with my friend. She and her husband wanted to keep it simple but colourful, with a touch of nostalgia. I made the designs in black because we had already decided we were going to be screenprinting the cards by hand using one bright colour ink on a bright coloured card.

these are the first designs for the nostalgic look

It looked like these 3 images would be part of the design. The name would be printed large, right above, but than the baby came early...

 

The baby was early and he was born on our national holiday queensday, so the parents decided they wanted to refer to that on the card. I made it look a bit festive by adding small flags, and we decided to give the puppet a crown.

When adding the text ('geboren' means 'born') and date, I decided it looked much better to choose for only the image of the puppet. Isn't that what they call 'to kill your darlings'?

The parents were super happy with the design so I started preparing the screen for printing. First added a few layers of light sensitive emulsion that took ages to dry because it was warm and humid when I put them to dry.

When the film on the screen was finally dried, I exposed my design on it in direct sunlight for 4 minutes and I was very happy to see it appear on the screen when washing the none-exposed emulsion off. The screen was ready to use after it was dry again. I didn't make any progress pics, but will do this next time, now that I know the steps to take.

We duckt taped the screen to a wood plank on one side so it was hinged.

 For pressing the paint through I use a rubber thing that's normally used for pointing or flushing? Not sure what the English word is. My friend and I were a great team: I did the printing, she placed the cards neatly in their place one by one and took them away from under the screen after printing. 

 

It was so much fun to do, and I'm so proud. I'll do more screenprinting soon, because I have the emulsion mixed and ready, and I need to use it, otherwise it'll expire. Then I'll take some pics of the whole process. I found all the info that I could find online on how to DIY screenprinting very helpful.

things I love

This is a quick drawing I did a few weeks ago in my diary. It's a small list of things that I know I can do (left) and things that I love. This was as an inspiration for an assignment on Pikaland's bootcamp 'making your mark' For the assignment you needed to list 5 in each category.

I know drawing, photography, observing (listen and watch), cooking (creating recipes), graphic design

I love drawing, travelling, cooking and eating, people watching/listening, and typography and handlettering

Illustration Friday - sight

Just in time for this week's illustration friday. The topic is 'sight'. Although I had a crazy week and didn't have a lot of time, I made this quick drawing with my bic-pen.

another crowd

It's been a while since I drew one, but here's another crowd!

journal pages

yesterday's paper cup for a morning cappuccino -  today's sunglasses for a beautiful summerday

another drawing in a different style

For the Pikaland e-course Making Your Mark this is my submission for one of the assignments. Here, in one of my previous blogposts you can see the drawings before this one.

The assignment was to go to a museum and find a piece of art to inspire you.

An afternoon of outside drawing in Amsterdam

Yesterday my friend Yvonne and I met up in Amsterdam to draw outside together. We were lucky: after some rainy and grey days the weather was beautiful. We sat in the sun, chatting and drawing and painting. It was awesome to finally be creating together, and to see how she creates her beautiful watercolour paintings and drawings. She let me use her carbon ink filled brushpen and I loved working with it. She inspired me to take my watercolour set outside.The drawings took me way longer than usually when I use a pencil or pen (the extra time it took me might also have to do with the chatting we did while drawing :)) but I like the result of the drawing I made of this typical Amsterdam housefront. Stepping out of your comfort zone and picking up a different medium to work with can give surprising results! 

So here's my Yvonne-inspired piece:

Then I took up some more courage and decided to make another drawing, using only watercolours and without making an ink outline first. I chose to draw a houseboat that was in the canal in front of us. It's a nice experiment, but I didn't know how much detail to pick up and the result is a bit stiff and definitely not my best sketch or drawing ever. But it was very nice to try out something different!

Today's sketches

It's a public holiday today in Holland, so I decided to finally take a real day off. I went to the Van Gogh Museum, where I found this piece that Vincent van Gogh made in Paris of a glass of Absinth.

After my museum visit, I cycled by a new cafe in my neighbourhood and sat down there with my sketchbook. And do what Vincent Van Gogh did in 1887... only I chose a different drink that's quite addicting...

Why I was doing this? I'm doing the ecourse Making Your Mark, and this is one of the assignments. These are just sketches still. I intend to do one in colour too, using the same colour palette as Van Gogh did. (although I won't do it in oil on canvas, but probably coloured pencils...)

After doing two sketches of my drink, I made a quick sketch of the people who just arrived and set down outside, on the other side of the window.

breakfast

Blogaversary #1!

Today is my first blogaversary! Exactly one year ago I started this blog. Thank you, followers for taking the time to visit my blog, I love it that you're here and I appreciate every single comment I get on my posts. Hip hip hurray!

Subway sketches

My small moleskine sketchbook and 4 color pen still travel with me every day. See more about the moleskin +pen here.

Illustration Friday - Hitched

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is 'Hitched'

morning coffee

Here is number 7 in Red Parka Diaries' drawing challenge

(by Jen, who is now celebrating her first blogaversary - congratulations, Jen!)

I challenged myself by using watercolour and no pencil sketching first. Also, I really like pictures where the perspective isn't quite right. So I tried it out:

 After that, I couldn't resist and make another quick one on a notepaper that I made coffee stains on a few days ago for another project (you'll see, eventually). As you can see, in the meantime I took a few sips between the two drawings. The coffee's finished and it was good!

My other drawings so far for the challenge are to be found here and here

Paris

I am very much enjoying drawing a series with The City as a theme. And after some online research, I can now conclude that I really want to go to Paris again soon!

Which city would you like to visit, and why?

Illustration Friday - Jump

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is'Jump'.

Who would've thought this morning's depressing rain that poured out of the sky (and didn't seem to stop) could be so inspiring?

I made a tiny little drawing, using a felt pen and copic markers. I hadn't used those for a long time!

ps. according to my mum this is me when I was a little girl. Only my rain boots were red... Anyway, that makes this drawing fit question 11 for Yvonne, when she tagged me!

people sketches

Last week I had an 'art date' with a friend and we went out to sketch. I love art dates!

Of course we chatted a lot too, but I did fill two sketchbook pages. I like this one above very much, except for the left corner sketch. i don't know what happened there :)

Yesterday it was Queen's Day, our Dutch national holiday. We celebrate Queen Beatrix's birthday although her official birthday is januari 31. Long story, if you're interested - see text below.

Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands, and many people will wear anything orange they own. The weather was absolutely beautiful yesterday - it was a true summer day. This morning it was raining cats and dogs. We sure were lucky to be celebrating outside in the sun!

Curious about Queen's Day?

Koninginnedag ( pronunciation (help·info)) or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April, Koninginnedag is Queen Beatrix's official celebration day. Though Queen Beatrix was born on 31 January, the holiday is observed on 30 April as it was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. Many of the traditional activities are held outside, and observing the holiday in April makes suitable weather more likely.
The holiday was first observed on 31 August 1885 as Prinsessedag or Princess's Day, the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, heiress to the Dutch throne. On her accession, the holiday acquired its present name, Koninginnedag. When held on 31 August the holiday was the final day of school summer vacation, leading to its popularity among children. Following the accession of Wilhelmina's daughter Queen Juliana in 1948, the holiday was moved to her birthday. Her daughter, Beatrix retained the celebration on 30 April after she took the throne in 1980.
Koninginnedag is known for its nationwide vrijmarkt ("free market" or flea market), at which many Dutch sell their secondhand items. It is also an opportunity for "orange madness" or oranjegekte, for the national colour, when the normally straight-laced Dutch let down their hair,^[1] often dyed orange for the occasion.