Black and white with pen and ink

After I'd made several drawings for the local newspaper, the editor-in-chief told me that the readers were very pleased with my drawings. As a result the publisher used them for greeting cards. People could buy them in a set of six different drawings. The editor-in-chief also told me that his brother knew a gallery where they might wanted to have an exhibition with my drawings. Wow, that sounded great!
I was a bit naive and forgot to ask "who, where, when, why?" and started to make several drawings in pen and ink instead. Below you can see what kind of detail I'd put in it. I soon found out it was hard labor to make these kind of drawings. But it was worth it, I thought. And they sure looked better then the drawings I made for the newspaper!

The location is Istria, where I've been in the summer of 1988. It was part of The Republic of Yugoslavia. With very angry-looking soldiers at the border, checking your passport for a very long time without saying a word. It happened to be a nice holiday, though. I've met friendly people, the weather was splendid and the drinks and food were very low priced. At the end I've treated the whole group of about 25 people on the greatest icecream they've ever had. And still had money left!

I've brought my sketchbook with me and with the help of several photographs I could make this drawing back at home.

Of course the exhibition never took place. Due to several problems with local legislations and other very important management and business terms, the gallery never opened and so my drawings ended somewhere in my archive. Until now, because I now can use my blog to share these drawings with you.