Vakantieplannen

Vandaag gaan de Europese binnengrenzen grotendeels weer open. Naast de rust in de omgeving en drie maanden quality-time met het gezin door de lockdown, haalt het opheffen van reisbeperkingen de beklemming van de opgelegde maatregelen voor een groot gedeelte weg.

De dreiging van corona/covid-19 zal nog een tijd onder ons zijn, maar het is fijn wat meer bewegingsvrijheid te hebben om te gaan en te staan waar je wilt. Op gepaste afstand, vanzelfsprekend.

Volgens de kenners wordt het een lange, hete en droge zomer.

De zonnebrillen liggen klaar. Ik heb er drie: een sportuitvoering voor op de fiets, eentje voor huis-tuin-en keukengebruik en eentje voor in de auto.

Citroen GS Rallye 1975

Pen and Watercolour

260 x 360 mm

Terschelling Classic 300 grs

Citroën DS Rally 1973

Pen and watercolour

260 x 360 mm

Terschelling Classic 300 grs

Best Campsite Ever

Pen & Watercolour

260 x 360 mm

Terschelling Classic 300 grs

NewYork Cab in Florida

Pen & Watercolour

290 x 400 mm

Canson 300 grs

Citroën BX 4TC

Pen and Watercolour

260 x 360 mm

Terschelling Classic 300 grs

Volvo 850 Racing Car

Pen and Watercolour

260 x 360 mm

Terschelling Classic 300 grs

The Mustang

Ink & Watercolour

210 x 150 mm

300 grs Terschelling Rough

Illustration Friday - Vintage

Pen Drawing

150 x 220 mm
300 grs Canson

Happy Newyear

USB Stick

Not so long ago you could determine someones personality by looking at his or hers collection of books. Nowadays by opening his or hers usb-stick.
A few weeks ago I found a usb stick. It was lying on the street, just as I drew it above. What happened? Was it lost while someone using it? Who lost it? A student bicycling to college, a diplomat going to the airport, a detective maybe or a priest? What kind of data will it capture? Visions of Wikileaks appeared in my mind.
I rushed home to open the usb stick just to find out it was completely empty. That was a bit of a disappointment, I must say. Why does adventure never knocks on my door?
Pen, ink and watercolor.

Jools Holland

Jools Holland is best known as bandleader of his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. This band played with famous artists like Solomon Burke, Tom Jones, Sting, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, BB King and many others. I made this drawing with Jools sitting behind the wheel of a replica of a famous Rover, the so-called jet car. The replica was made by the boys of the Chop Shop in London. How the car was made can be seen here . You can see the whole episode of this Discovery Channel series on Youtube, search for: Chop Shop, season two, episode five. I'm sure you'd be amazed how this replica actually was build and surprisingly enough looks very good at the end.

Nelson Mandela

Next month Nelson Mandela will be celebrating his 94th birthday. A honourable age for a very respectful person. I've tried to draw his joy of life and his natural charisma. He suffered a lot in his life, but stood ferm for his principles. Trying to make the world a better place for all of us. Regardless color, religion or political engagement.
Pen and watercolor, 10x15 cm.

Another Big Drawing

 Last year I made a sort of still life drawing of the brushes I mostly use, in pen and watercolor on postcardformat. It looked very recognizable to me (being my own brushes, of course) and had a certain 'tension' in itself which somehow appealed to me. After some time I wondered how it would look like if I made a big drawing of the same subject. Basically I only had to enlarge the pot in which the brushes are placed in, I thought. So last week I picked up my pencils and pens and started drawing. Below you can see the result, in pen and ink on A4-format.

Now I only have to have the courage to put some colour on it and not spoil the character of the drawing. That's what I'm always afraid of: the moment I pick up the brush to colour a inked drawing. It's some sort of point of no return.

Samba Flute

The samba flute, or: Apito, is the whistle used in samba music and other Brazilian music styles. It is important in organizing and conducting the band. The band leader makes various signals to mark the beginning or end of a specific part of the music and/or movement. Using the two toneholes on each side of the flute the whistler can produce different tones in combination with duration and intensity.
I used to have a samba flute myself when I was once playing keyboard in a band. Only mine was a plastic flute and didn't look as good as the one I've drawn here. I found a picture of this wooden one on the internet and it looked good right away. I don't known if it sounds as good as the plastic one I once had, which sounded loud enough to be heared above the PA, but sometimes you choose for the looks instead of the sound.

Windmills

A windmill is a nice subject to draw. It has an outstanding form which is very recognizable and gives it a presence of it's own. There are several styles to draw a windmill. It can be done in color, as you can see above, or in black and white with pen and ink. This last technique is my favourite, because it pays more respect to the subject in my opinion. Usually forms follow function, but in this case drawing style follows subject.

Both mills are situated in Leiden, a Dutch town. Molen De Put is a re-build mill in the center of the town near the house where Rembrandt was born. The mill is a replica of the one in which Rembrandt´s father worked.

The other mill, drawn in black-and-white, was build in the 18th century and once situated far outside the old towngates to keep the farmland dry. It is still operational, but only for touristic purposes.

Fast Food: Chicken Nuggets

Spareribs

Sometimes you make associations with the most unlikely combination of subjects. For example, I always associate spareribs with "the date that never took place".
In my dating years there were girls I was dying to date with, but they never wanted to date me, and there were girls dying to date me, but I didn't really want to date them. And there was the category of girls which you could date without ever having to fear your friends or parents opinion about your choice. In that last category I was almost ready to cancel a date when suddenly that girl introduced me to a friend of her to participate in a nice friendly night out with some sparerib-eating and later on hanging out in a new club with a somewhat obscure name. That could be interesting!
Sadly enough I developed a terrible cold a few days before the date, so I had to cancel it. Guess what: the girl met the love of her life that night! Poor, lonesome me. So, every time we have spareribs on the menu now it's always a bite with a funny taste.

Joe Cocker

The first time I noticed Joe Cocker was when I heared him sing the openingsentence: "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" from the 1970 Lennon/McCarthy song with that same title.
I found it a very intruiging sentence, mainly because in our elderly home, where I heard that song the first time on my little transistorradio, it would be quite an achievement to come in through our bathroom window. Not much later, reaching my puberty years, I couldn't help imaging what kind of beautiful girls I wished to climb through that same bathroom window. But, of course, that never happened.
Coming of age, Joe Cocker (born in 1944!) still rocks on, although I doubt he will be able to climb through windows nowadays.

Boz Scaggs

When I first heared the sound and music of Boz Scaggs, back in 1976, I was sold immediately. His then published album 'Silk Degrees' is a very well balanced piece of work. No song doesn't feel or sound out of place. Nowadays this album is still a joy to hear.
After this album, which I bought on cassettetape (!), I started to gain more albums and one that also appeals to me is the one he published in 1971, simply called: 'Boz Scaggs & Band'. An album, which I bought on vinyl, I discovered in the late eighties in a little record store. There are some bluesballads on that album that still gives my goosepimples listening to them, especially "Runnin'Blue" and ''Why Why". Luckily all his work is now available on cd, so I can still enjoy his music. Even at this moment, with his cd 'Moments' playing on my desktop.