Grocery store

An abandoned grocery store in the Cevennes, in France. This drawing is not made "on the spot'', but made from a photo I took back in 1993. It was in a little village of which I don't know the name anymore, but I do remember the old guy sitting in the shades of a big tree next to a War Memorial. When I sat behind him to drink and to rest a bit from the long drive in the boiling heat that day, he told me he survived the two big wars, WWI and WWII. By the looks of his face that couldn't be a lie. In my best French I tried to tell him that I've found that a big achievement, but he was more impressed when he heared where I came from. All the way from the Netherlands. On a bicycle! I can still hear him say: "Incroyable!" (unbelievable).
Of course my French wasn't that good that I could explain that I transported my bike by bus to the south of France. But that would have killed the wonderful story he could tell that day at home or at the local bar about the lonesome cyclist who came all the way from the north to their small village.
Ink and watercolor on 300 grs Canson, 30 x 40 cm.

Wise

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein

Drawing exercise

It's a long time ago since I posted a drawing exercise I made using the great book 'Capturing texture' by Michael Warr. It's become my standard studybook the last few years. It's very inspirational and challenging. Not every result of an exercise is suitable to post on this blog, but this one I couldn't resist. It's a stippling exercise in pencil. The subject, bread, is very suitable for this technique because of the structure of bread. Apart from that, I'm the son of a baker, so this subject is something I grew up with.
2B pencil on white drawing paper, 24 x 16 cm.