Day hike out of central Copenhagen 2. Marts 2010
Break and Watercolors in the snow
Nice and sunny day today, managed to walk a few hours (around 18 km. ) Solo walking in a very nice winter scenery, even though spring is getting closer and temperatures crawling up above freezing.
Here is a boot and my watercolors as I sat down to take a break
A few new cartoon illustrations and some waves here – I am getting ready for some major changes here at this website – in next week
Getting used to the new times
Yesterday (3 February 2010) I was out in the snow, sketching with my Moleskine book. Even though it was freezing cold I still managed to get a few sketches down before the water froze on the paper.
I was out there for around 5 hours, doing a few sketches and this little video of my walk:
My Moleskine book in the snow
Sketching snow tracks in the snow
Here are some of the sketches from the walk (approx. 5 hours )
Sketch of a tree
sled riding kids
As I was working I started getting the small ice crystals in the paint, as it can be seen here (vague)
I did a few more:
Woman with her dog
Finally I did this experiment, sketching a guy that passed by me, fast in watercolors to work with the way they froze: (Click on the image to see it large size)
Guy that passed by me, watercolors
Good day out sketching, even though the temperature was around 1-5 degrees Celsius
I especially like the change when the water is not drying up, but freezing – even though it gives a bit of trouble when the papers are put on top of each other (as can be seen in the last one)
The silent majority
When the majority manage to stay quiet and drink their coffee
Download the free print version here
Today (22 January 2010) I decided to try out sketching in the zoo, haven’t done that for ages… or at least weeks
First few sketches I did standing in the cold wind, had a bit problems as the water froze on the paper, without drying, and mixing colors were hard as it all became ice faster than I could put the layers on the paper.
But good part was that the structure, made by the freezing water on the paper – did ad a bit of texture:
Copenhagen Zoo, Moleskine sketchbook, Frozen watercolors and ink
Did a few more sketches outside, that was total disasters, before I went inside and visited the Chimpanzees :
Sketches of Chimps
And a Kameleon – very strange creature…
Kameleon, Moleskine sketch, Watercolor and Ink - Copenhagen zoo
Last I went on to the new Foster Elephant House and sketched the elephants there:
Fast ink sketch - Moleskine
And the last sketch today:
Elephant sketch, Moleskine, Copenhagen Zoo
That was my sketches today, I am still working on the techniques, and combining and practicing the balance between walking and sketching
Today (21 January 2010) I did a walk with my Moleskine sketchbook and watercolors, to the old Hippie world of Christiania, where the Hippies still try to live according to the dreams they agreed on, almost 40 years ago.
Here are my watercolor sketches from today:
Small hippie shop in Christiania - Copenhagen
By mistake I burned the sketch in the edge, when I tried to dry it on one of the open fires they have on the street
Two guys talking between a couple of large wood sculptures
It was freezing cold, lots of snow on the ground and my hands getting numb, so decided to go inside on a small cafe called “the moon-fisher” for a glas of tea.
The Hippie cafe "moon fisher" at Christiania (Moleskine sketch)
Back outside, I was heading down to the water, starting to sketch the amazing houses at Christiania
Christiania house between the old Copenhagen defense earth walls
Getting all the way down to the water, it was frozen and brave parents where trying to clear the snow from the lake to make a small ice skating area for the kids, while the low winter sun where disapearing behind the city (last watercolor sketch)
Kids ice skating in front of the Christiania houses down to the lake
It have been a cold day, today, but great to be outside and start to experimenting with combining walking with watercolor sketching in my Moleskine sketchbook… again
An idea about business people in the wilderness
wilderness office
Black and White Sketches of stuffed birds
Did a few more sketches today in the Zoological museum in Copenhagen.
The Zoological Museum is very quiet in the afternoon, after all the school kids have left. And I almost had the whole place to myself, with whales, snakes, turtles, dinosaurs and ice bears all around. Great place for sketching animals when it is snowing and freezing cold outside, like today.
I used most of the afternoon studying the birds, surrounded by stuffed birds from all over the world, and with a few monitors playing short David Attenborough films for the birds.
I did around 10 sketches with ink, water and brushes.
Here are a couple of them:
a few sketches of birds
I really like owls and when I was young we actually had one of them living in our barn, and I can still remember how fascinating it was that the owl in there could fly right over my head, without making any sound and also when it turned its head all around and stir at me in the twilight with those big eyes.
Sketches of owls
Wonder where I will be sketching tomorrow…
Did a few animal sketches in ink today on a local museum, with stuffed animals. I was almost alone in there with dinosaurs, sperm whales, owls, mammoths and bears.
Great day.
Work there to practice – great to study the shapes and forms of creatures from the last 500 million years of history
Study of a standing bear
study of parrots - ink and brushes
ink and brushes - owl study
I went to the cafe’ and did a fast sketch – of this creature – I am not quite sure if it ever existed outside my head:
sketch coming out of my head over a cup of coffee in the cafe'
That is all for today – will try to put up new drawings here every day here – lets see if I can do that…
Frits
Getting ready and warming up
sketch of a rhino - watercolor
Starting up my watercolors 2010, and did the first sketches today to warm up… just a few animal studies of elephants, rhinos and Giraffes, from books, sitting inside , here are a few of them:
Condor - detail-head
giraffe studies
group of elephants
hope to get out tomorrow with my watercolors – even though it is freezing cold and snowing.