Another ink sketch from West Friesland. This time on Hoarnestreek, which is near Sint Jacobiparochie.
Somewhere on Hoarnestreek today
Friesland panoramic
Arno Brok
Portrait of Arno Brok—full page in last Saturday’s Leeuwarder Courant.
(Big thanks to Alie Veenhuizen).
Somewhere in Groningen
Somewhere in Groningen from yesterday’s sketchcrawl with the Urban Sketchers Netherlands. It was pretty cold, so I didn’t sketch or crawl too much. But me and Gail found a sweet spot in a cafe, and I drew this from the window.
Just as it seems
The Frisian landscape as it doesn’t officially look.
Amsterdam rain
Cycling through the Amsterdam rain is no fun.
Nearly Hembrug
If you’re cycling from Zaandam to Amsterdam (which takes about 45 minutes and includes a ferry) you’ll go through a small underpass just before you reach the Hembrug ferry point. As you emerge from the underpass, these sweeping diagonal lines leap out at you. This is what you see here. This is actually the 4th attempt at this picture, each time whittling it down more and more. Eventually drawn in Kyle brushes.
Bonnetje me?
‘Bonnetje me?’ sort of means ‘do you want a receipt?’ in Dutch. This picture celebrates that frozen supermarket moment (probably in a branch of Dirk van den Broek judging by the livery). I’m also slightly fascinated/horrified by people who do that funny thing of closing their eyes briefly when they talk. It’s an unconscious thing, and the people that do it don’t believe you when you tell them they do it.
This was painted directly into Photoshop using the various digital brush tools. Click it to look closer.
On the way to Haarlem
This is drawn from the roundabout at Zaandammerweg, in Assendelft, which is on the way to Haarlem, if you’re cycling from Wormerveer, which I was that day.
Made mostly in that fantastic Cobalt Blue fountain pen ink by Graf von Faber-Castell, with some lines and smudges added in purple pencil. The ink is supposed to be a dark rich cobalt blue, but when you dilute it right down, or dab it off when it’s still wet on the page, it seems to go much more purple, even pink. It’s the loveliest ink I’ve ever handled.
Lifting bridge at Wormerveer
This ink and wash sketch, with red pencil and black ink pen, was drawn really quickly in the near-dark outside Café Batavia in Wormerveer. At the time I felt it was a bit unfinished but it turned out to be one of my favourites. It has a sort of Japanese calligraphy look to it, which I like.