Venice and portraits

Actually most of my drawings are to be found on my Flickr account.
http://www.flickr.com/people/99453404@N04/

We just came back from some days in Venice: very sunny and lovely days, with a lot of art, through our visit of the Biennale and with some moments to draw:

this beautiful city asks for more time, it is just a perfect place for drawing in the street. Hope to be back there soon.

As you can also see on my Flickr page, for the rest I've been doing some portraits for the Julia Kay Portrait Party. Just some for example, a fun way to do some exercise in drawing.

Julia Kay Portrait Party

So this portrait party is very inspiring, with all the different faces of people from all over the world drawing each other, doing loads of portraits each day. I did some as well, just as I did some drawing in Rome this week. Here's the work...

Drawing other subjects

Incredible but I keep on drawing... Of course there is more to do in life than only drawing but it has taken a prominent place in my everyday life anyway. In between guiding in Rome and working on two new titles I manage to do rather a lot of sketching. As if I were in school and those are my homework.

So I did some landscapes;

some drawings in Rome, this one on the riverside near St Peters;

I drew Saverio reading in the vineyard: next week we'll have to pick grapes! 

I did some intuitive drawing. Dots and stripes to be interpreted freely by the onlooker. 

And I became part of the Julia Kay Portrait Party, a great way to exercise portrait drawing from photographs of other members.

For more look at 

[http://www.flickr.com/people/99453404@N04/]

and at 

[http://www.flickr.com/groups/portraitparty/discuss/72157635583001916/]

A week in France and Belgium

Last week we took a rental car in Paris Beauvais and drove around a bit to see some cities and a lot of landscape. Always interesting to see how people are living somewhere else and compare. Of course I did some drawings here and there always a bit quick, except the ones I did from the hotel windows, especially in Amiens we had a good view from the sixth floor.

In Charlesville there is a nice square with a comfortable bench to sit on. 

 This was part of the view from our hotel in the touristic and beautifully positioned town of Bouillon.

A look through at Liege

Rochefort in Belgium

The view from our sixth floor room in Amiens

Saverio reading in a lovely inner court in Fécamp

A high white rock wall behind the houses along the Seine at Duclair

Some more drawings

The problem with everything I do (and I am sure not to be the only one) is to keep on going once I start. After some time things seem repetitive and also with drawing more or less in the same places it is a challenge to make progress. Anyway, this morning I went to Ficulle again, to draw with my friend Marijke. It was nice to do and we sat down in the little town on some different spots. A big advantage of these small towns is that you can sit down almost everywhere. There is a very friendly atmosphere.
After every drawing I think I need to do an other one to do it better...

This first drawing was done a week ago, on a hot sunday morning near Allerona. 

That is the little town you see on the hill.

APEcar in Ficulle

Hot summer days

I did some drawing with friends in Ficulle and on the hot hours of the day, sitting in the shadow behind our house, with a view that is not so very interesting (mainly green) but that I found good for exercise anyway.

Ficulle and Rome

I went to Ficulle to draw with my friends. It was a very hot day but we sat in the shade and with a view on the little town. These Umbrian towns are very nice to draw, rather picturesque and without lots of un-aestetics, that's at the end perhaps what bothers, its all so friendly. I'll try to find some places there that have more tension...
In Rome I had only a short time to draw, waiting for some tourists. I left with the feeling I have been hurrying too much again. Work there will be continued...

Ficulle, seen from the countryside. We were sitting on the side of the sandy road. 

Fortunately there are only few cars passing by and the view is nice.

In Rome I made some drawings at the beginning of Via Cavour, next to the ancient firewall that used to protect the Roman Forum from the frequent fires in the Suburra, where the Roman plebs lived. 

People waiting in Termini train station.

A landscape near Orvieto, with a beautiful rhythm given by the cypresses.