At the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf: Part 3

This sketch is the view from the upper west side window of the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf. It shows part of the Hofgarten and in the fainting back the top of the Dreischeibenhaus.

Upper West Side View from Goethe Museum Düsseldorf - Ink & Wash

At the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf: Part 2

Trying to get more drawings done for the Urban Sketching exhibition end of august.

Ilioneus statue at the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf

At the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf

For an exhibition at the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf end of august this year, our Urban Sketchers Group met last Sunday to get some more work done. I concentrated on a couple of busts, drawing with brown ink & wash on old sheets of paper, found in an old cupboard.

Schiller Bust - at Goethe Museum Düsseldorf

Goethe Bust - at Goethe Museum Düsseldorf

At the Rhein - Ruder Gesellschaft Benrath (Duesseldorf)

The sun today had sunburn quality, which I enjoyed very much! We were at a baptismal service with family and afterwards went to the 'Ruder Gesellschaft Benrath' to feast together. The break between dessert and coffee and cake we spent at the Rhein on a bench.

One Grande Latte, please... for here

There were way more participants than there are on my cup! Actually, our Urban Sketchers regional group Duesseldorf/Cologne broke its' record last Sunday at the Starbucks Café Leverkusen, Germany. More than 15 people got together to sketch in this cozy store and spend the afternoon with a welcoming host, yummy lattes and tastes of juicy cake.

There was some commotion going on, I was told, since it was an unregular open Sunday at the mall. People streamed into the place the whole 6 opening hours. Despite overly human concentration on my part and so, not being aware of much around me, I ultimately failed my set goal to draw every single member of our happy group of sketchers. Tells you something about my work speed. Also, I took some time off, giving a radio interview for a local station (which sucked on my part, by the way... hope they cut out, like, everything!).

So much creativity and felt interest of the people watching us sketch... I dearly love our monthly get-togethers. Starbucks, the embodiment of urban and lifestyle, and the team (or shall I say partners) in Leverkusen did their part to make this memory last.

What else... here are some close-ups of the penciled Starbucks cup, I took home with me:

A little... ok, way over my head: The Extra-Special-Making-Of, which you get only in this blog:

Thanks for reading... and leave a comment, if you like!

Painting at the Museum

Last Sunday, our local urban sketchers group went to the Neanderthal Museum Mettmann. It is the site, where the human fossil of the same was found in 1856. Several of us were able to show off an unbelievable amount of creative output, whereas I only worked on this watercolor painting.

Lately, I am concentrating on nailing overall forms and proportions first. I still catch myself diving straight into interesting details. But what is the use of a well-drawn nose when it sits too high and so does not resemble the model. For more than two hours I studied the tent and the Neanderthalian preparing his prey. Having ten minutes left on the clock, working on last details of the hide above the entrance, it struck me! I already did feel, that the structured forms and placed shadows were somehow strange for what I thought it was. And only because of an unintentional visual zoom-out, I realized: Man, this is the head of a bison!

See, even if it is your deliberate intention to follow a thought-through plan, sometimes habits are hard to break. It is practice that will help you leaving those old, wrong-proved paths.

Project Duesseldorf Thumbnails - Harbor #2

On our second trip to the Duesseldorf Media-Harbor I sketched some more buildings which, I believe, define the uniqueness of this area. Either they are newly build, like 1) 'Colorium', finished in 2011 and the highest building around or are repaired: Nr. 3, now called 'Small Villa', used to also be one. It is the smallest of them all and appears really tiny and cramped. But in my eyes it is the most beautiful. It now houses offices and an Italian restaurant. 2) used to be a silo, and now is referred to as a building of historic importance. A sign was placed hanging from the front wall with people on it carrying sacks of something, probably flour. I will have to find out.

In reality, not all of the buildings stand side by side. I placed them together to capture the difference of height. This are pretty small sketches, too. 13x9 cm, starting with watercolor and wrapping it up with a 0.05 black pen.

Because it was getting late, I did not want to start the Roggendorf-House, also a silo, from scratch. An idea, how this building looks from farther away is shown in the lower right corner of the second drawing. All in all, 24 'Flossis' figures found their home climbing up the front wall. Five more even try to conquer the building right next to it. It is just a crazy sight!

Project Duesseldorf Thumbnails - Harbor

This is the first thumbnail of a series of interesting places in Duesseldorf. Goal is to collect remarkable views, getting familiar with shapes and ideas for composition. They will be pretty rough and quickly done, but always on sight, which so will continue until the final painting. So, no photo reference.