Faerye Tales

Yup, I do that too: marathon watching series is great! And of course I have to draw some of the characters as I do, because at some point, because I have watched the series for quite a moment, it's almost as if I knew them: I know how they look, but also how they move, the kind of emotions they convey. So at some point i can freeze the screen and draw, and I find it so much easier to do so, than from a photo, because : 1. I choose the image I freeze, so it becomes "mine", somehow 2. I don't have to be accurate, I got them by the series, so I know my portrait will be "right" nevertheless. I liked "Wanted" a lot, because : It's set in Australia and in Thailand and also in New Zealand. The characters are "quite ordinary" people to whom extraordinary things happen, by chance. It's a wonderful friendship tale. The music is great, and the filming is lovely. I didn't draw all characters, just a few who I had to draw, playing ...

Adieu Monsieur Rochefort I have had the joy and privilege to know this wonderful man in real life, and when I had him on the phone, each time, his voice was a pure delight to me "Bonjour, jeune femme" he always greeted me. He had a wonderful sense of humor and I am still smiling, years after, remembering his voice and his jokes. He was always so classy, and such a gentleman. I will miss him much, and miss his wonderful deep and warm voice. Of course I had to draw him as Don Quixote, in that cursed Terry Gilliam movie, that was never released. I think he was perfect for that role. Adieu, Monsieur Rochefort. I will miss you.

Yes, I have to confess, I saw Roz Stendahl's post about drawing in front of TV, and I thought "whaaa?" But she's right. drawing in front of TV, or a computer, is a great exercise! you can freeze the image, and draw! Of course freezing the image for long is frustrating because we all want to know what is happening next, so I tend not to freeze for too long, and that makes me choose to draw much less lines, which I believe to be good for my art! (I tend to draw too much details and overwork it!) So here comes a character from Miss Fischer, drawn with mu new Pentel Brush Pen "FP6L" I have to say I am in LOVE with that tool, it takes a bit of practice but it is so pliant, and offers so many line possibilities!! Plus, last but not least, the ink dries quickly and is waterproof! I might decide to add color at some point, but, so far, i like it all in black and white! The grey shadows were added with Pitt Artist Pens.

Time flies, and I am not posting as much as I would like? I recently saw a blog post of a friend of mine, who I connected with through the excellent SketchBook Skool (really, you should check them out, they're awesome) and i suddenly realised that my last post was in July. Shame, shame, shame on me. So here are a few drawings to try and make it up to my audience (if I have one, if I don't, then it doesn't really matter, does it?) Here goes : A lovely place next to where I live. I got a moment of gouache madness. A day in Mainz... I had fun with that grey toned paper! Having fun with ink... Thanks for your attention, and MAYBE I will post more often...

I am back in France after a fantabulous week in London with my family, we all loved it, it was so very lovely and lively! I guess I could have stayed a week more! London is lovely, noisy, friendly, touristy... and more! During the week, I did manage to snatch a few sketching moments, but i have to say it wasn't easy as I didn't wish to be rude to the people I was traveling with. I managed to sketch on the bus (awkward, but kinda interesting) and my best shot was in the morning having a coffee at a terrace before everybody else was up... so I managed to sketch the corner of the street in front of me, and here it goes : Of course, now I need to readapt to my daily life and prepare to work next week (heavy sigh). But London was really lovely, and I am glad I met my friend Annie there!!

So yes, I took my folding chair, my wonderful Japanese fountain pens and my watercolors, and i went for it. Of course a few people looked at me funny, sitting there on the sidewalk and obviously doing something, but soon enough, they just ignored me (which suited me perfectly, in that case). Never underestimate the ability of Frenchies to ignore the others! I got the pen sketch first, the owner of the pressoir went next to me, but he was only getting his car that was parked on the "champs de foire" behind me and went in, ignoring me totally), then i took a reference picture, because it was getting late in the afternoon and i was afraid I couldn't get a good color reference if i waited too long. And here we go: Of course the lettering was a bummer, but I breathed evenly, trying to focus on drawing those letters, and forgetting they were letters... and it worked! "Le vieux pressoir means "the old press" and it was used to press apples to make cider ...

So yesterday I decided to try out my brand new Sailor fude 40° fountain pen, and go sketch, as the weather was nice and sunny... I packed a few things (including watercolors) and hit the road to end up in Dampierre en Yvelines and try to sketch its lovely Mansard castle (there is a hill in front of the castle, that allows to get a nice view). The tourists were swarming the place, but the rather steep hill gave me just muffled sound and a nice feeling of activity without getting all the inconvenience of a crowd, so i had a really nice moment. I began sketching and suddenly heard a buzzing noise, as if a hundred bees were swarming at me: it was a swarm of vespas! They aligned their vespas in front of the castle, got a flag out and took a zillion souvenir photos! I HAD to take a picture as I suspected they wouldn't stay long enough for me to include them into my sketch (and i was so right, as they hit the road again just afterI took my photo, as one of them mentioned beer would b...

So, I am fortunate enough to live in a lovely area, and here is another sketch i did early in May, kids were sort of hovering around me, wondering what on earth i was doing, until they find the nerve to ask. Then they lost interest and disappeared.

So I have been trying this, lately: Take drawing stuff, a foldable chair, and hit the road, find a spot, sit, sketch. It's fun!