My Weekend two Weeks ago

Two weeks ago, we had a long weekend at Germany thanks to the Day of German Unity being a monday. I did so much I didn’t get to write postings about it.

Saturday, I was to a metal concert. Still without a camera, I can’t offer pretty pics. The headliner were Suicidal Angels, a thrash metal band from Greece. Loved them.

The real heros of the night were Red to Gray, a Bavarian thrash band that’s ten years old but never made it to financial greatness. Which is totally undeserved. They played powerfull and agressive yet unbelievably tight. I especially loved the complex rhythms and frequent rhythm changes.

The second band on the stage were Running Death, a local metal band. I’m not sure if they want to be death or thrash, they are young, but they sure have potential.

The opener were Decomposed Existence, a death metal band from greece. I like death either really, really evil or with a dash of melody and they were neither, but they know how to make music, so there, too, is potential for improvement. Also, I had a nice chat with the singer later that evening.

By the way, I have a new digital cam by now, and another concert ticket for mid november, so watch this space….

Saturday I was completely floored, I was in bed most of the day. In the afternoon, I dragged myself out of the door to do this; it is a little woodland pond in the woods near us.

Monday, I took my mum on a little hiking trip near Reutte/Tirol. It was a wonderful warm day, the last real summer day this year. The lake Urisee looked really romantic this day as you can see.

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29th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

So there was a sketchcrawl again. We met at Nymphenburg Palace, but it was raining and very cold, and on my way there i stept onto something that made a hole in my shoe. So we went indoors in a little museum that has carriages and porcelain.

The first one is a pencil sketch of some metal ornament on a carriage.

That was another ornament on another carriage. It is unfinished, because they didn’t allow us to return to that part of the museum after leaving it for lunch.

We had a nice lunch with lots of chat in a little french restaurant. After that we went to the porcelain department of the museum. There I painted three bird statuettes made from porcellain.

The first one is a peacock. the pentel waterbrush I own really has changed sketching for me. Now I can do watercolour sketches almost as easiely as pencil ones.

A guinea fowl made of porcelain. I love their sleightly stylised forms and lovely colours. I figured out that I find it annoying to work without black in my paintbox. As you see here, I can mix grey without it, but it takes too much time and produces a mess on the little palette.

The last one was another peacock. I was in a hurry because everybody else wanted to leave. The form is not that good but I like its colours.

Sketching, Stitching, Crocheting

So sorry I neclected my blog. My cold was still lingering, and heaps of stuff to do at work. I always was so exhausted after work. I don’t like staring at a computer or doing too detailed embroidery with sore eyes. Now I’m really better and regular blogging and crafting will hopefully resume.

First I show a little sketch done outdoors, It shows, well, corn, and a little pointless doodling with colour. I call it “the colours of corn”.

Second is a little sneak peak at some crochet I did on the commute. I’ll show more of it after hiding the loose ends, washing and blocking.

Last, another sneak peak at some embroidery I currently work on.

From my Sketchbook: Playing with Browns

A bad cold kept me from doing much at all this week. I don’t want to neclect you completely, so I’m offering a peek into one of my sketchbooks. It is a sketchbook made from Himalaya paper, that is similar to other east-Asian papers, takes up liquid like tissue paper. I like it for quick sketching because it doesn’t really allow slowness. I was sketching an onion, playing with different colourways.

onion, done in sepia

onion in sepia and light ochre

onion, done in sepia and burnt terra di Sienna

realistic onion; done in Sepia, light ochre and burnt terra di Sienna

Watercolour sketch

OK, again no great progress with the tast challenge. I’m somewhat uninspired at the moment, and quite busy with outdoor activities. But here is another little watercolour sketch. I’ve done more of them over the last weeks, but this is the one I like best. This is a sprig of a little azalea. Unfortunately I have forgotten what type that beauty is, I had it for years now.

Little sketches I did today

Spring flower sketches
The left one is an English primrose, the right one a Mahonia. Watercolours on chinese Whenzou paper.

So I haven’t been painting much for months, but do want to get back into it. I wanted to bring some of the playfulness I’m learning with embroidery into it, so I started small. I did those fast sketches of spring flowers on chinese sketching paper. This handles liquid almost like tissue paper and is very thin, so it asks for fast brush action and doesn’t really allow for error correction. The results are sure no masterpieces but it was fun to do them and I guess that’s the way to go for me.