zondag 26 juni 2016

One week in Greece

Yesterday I came home after a lovely week in Greece. My sister and I rented a villa in Gialova, at the westcoast of the Peloponnesos.

This is the week in sketches.

A blue door with a lovely iron balcony. I got a bit lost in the design...


View from next to the villa on the village of Gialova and the Navarino bay in the distance. Sitting on our terrace we would enjoy and stare at this view for hours ;-)

Villa Thea at Eleonas Holiday Houses in Gialova, the villa came with a private pool

Sitting on the Golden Beach 

Looking at the remains of an old castle at Golden Beach

Sketching at Pylos Castle

The view from our terrace early in the morning. The island in Navarino Bay with great reflections in the water. And a bit to the right, the view of Golden Beach and the Gialova lagoon. Lots of birdlife to be seen in the early months of the year.

zondag 12 juni 2016

Sketchcrawl in Den Haag and more

Yesterday I joined the Urban Sketchers in The Hague / Den Haag for a lovely afternoon of sketching. The weather was a bit unpredictable, luckily just a few little drops when we started, and later on cloudy, but dry. We started in the area of the Mauritshuis, home of the famous Vermeer paintings (girl with the pearl earring and View on Delft) and some Rembrandts etc. The Mauritshuis is housed in a beautiful building btw.

Just around the corner of the Mauritshuis is the Binnenhof, the place were the Dutch government is housed.




My first sketch is made there, looking at the Ridderzaal from the side, the main entrance is behind the tower.

The Binnenhof
(in ink (watersoluble with my new Lamy fountain pen) and a bit of watercolor)

After one hour I moved to the other side of the Binnenhof, to the Hofvijver. You have a great view of all the buildings over a little lake. I sat there for another 2 hours, enjoying, looking at the buildings, sketching and enjoying the people that strolled along the Hofvijver. Did not have enough time to use my watercolors, maybe I will add them later.

Hofvijver view
(PITT pens)

After the 3 hours the whole group went for a drink on one of the terraces of the Plein and showed our sketchbooks. Lovely sketches and great group!

And today, Sunday, I made 2 sketches in my Moleskine watercolor journal for the Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas. One river otter and one quick sketch of a botanical garden.



The weekend is almost over and I have a busy week ahead. And then.... on Saturday.... I will go on holiday for one week, to Greece. I hope to do some painting/sketching there... tbc :-)





dinsdag 7 juni 2016

Tulips, a lobster and some sketches

Last months WetCanvas Floral challenge was all about tulips. I picked one of the reference photos and painted it twice. Once with watercolors only and the other one with pen and watercolors. Both in my Moleskine watercolor journal.




And I participated in a few WDE's (Weekend Drawing Event) on WetCanvas.

WDE 20 May 2016 - An old door in Greece, with brown  PITT pen, a brown Tombow pen and water

WDE 20 May 2016 - I was fascinated by the clearness of the water on the reference image. And I am really happy with my attempt. In watercolors only.

WDE 29 May 2016 - A juicy yummie looking lobster with pen and watercolors.

WDE 2 June 2016 - Two sketches in a square Handbook journal. The left one with my new Lamy pen and the right one with a Pilot Sign Pens. Both new pens, and both with ink that is not waterproof. But I do like the effect with the watercolors.