Illustration Friday Theater

This week's topic on Illustration Friday, Theater, swept me back into memory lane. I remembered the drawing I made for a local sundaypaper, back in the nineties.
Every week, for about two years, I made a drawing of a building or site in the city of Leiden. An editor gave me the subjects, because he had to write a short and interesting story about the history of the building or the site.
For instance the restauration of the 300 year old theater in Leiden: the Leidse Schouwburg. A beautifull restorated building and it's a pity that you can't see the inside of the theater on this drawing. When you ever have the opportunity to visit Holland, try to stop by at this theater. Most artists do also like this theater and its atmosphere very much. And that's the greatest recommendation, I think.

Hard work

Last week I was very busy with maintaining jobs in and around our house and garden. Spring is coming, I guess you know what I mean by that. So there wasn't very much time left to make my usual amount of drawings.
In the very rare spare moments I had during the nights, I've been busy sketching a new piece for my homepage. I had that "splendid" idea to make a drawing that linked on the drawing which can be seen for the past two years on my homepage. I actually didn't believe it was already two years ago I opened my website. Time flies when you'r having fun, so to say.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the sketch became a bit of a pain in the ass, because somehow halfway the first sketch something about the perspective angle didn't feel right. So I made another sketch, and another sketch, and another one, only to end up at the first sketch again. Then I realised that the small mistake I made just gives this drawing its character. Now I only have to make a few typographical adjustments and ink and color it. I'll keep you informed about the progress on this one.

Swiss Knife

The Chinese are known and respected for many things. One of their activities is to make products which look very similar to the originals which are their inspiration for making, but due to very low labourcosts the Chinese are able to produce a product at a much lower (or consumerfriendly) price. For instance: they even have artists making pictures which look like the famous Dutch landscape painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, but at a fraction of the original price!
So why not make a copy of the worldfamous Swiss Knife? Ceci nést pas un Victorinox.

Multitool

I think that stainless steel is one of the most difficult surfaces to draw. For this drawing it took me a while (and several colorsketches) to make it look like stainless steel. It would have been easier to draw my Swiss knife. Perhaps a nice subject for another drawing.
Nevertheless multitools are very handy. When you're camping, hiking, cycling are even at home, sometimes you can make great use of them. I think the governement should give them for free!
Ink and watercolor, 4" x 6".

Illustration Friday Talisman

It took me a while to find "the model" for this week's topic on Illustration Friday. A few years ago a fellow paraglider gave me an Italian talisman for paragliders: the "Madonna del buon volo". That's Italian for: "The Holy Mother Of The Good Flights". It says nothing about safe landings...
Because I'm not at all superstituous I've put it away and never thought of it again (and still made some pretty good flights, by the way). Until I read the topic of this week on the site of Illustration Friday and remembered that talisman. I've searched everywhere, until I discovered it hung right before my eyes: on the statue of the Madonna and holy child in our toilet. You probably wonder why that statue is placed in our toilet, but that's quite a long story and far off this week's topic on the Illustration Friday challenge.