Restaurant l’Epicerie in Tarbes, France. I had to dine alone, nothing else to do than to sketch the restaurant. Fineliner and waterbrush. By the way: the food was excellent.

Carnaval Maastricht, last weekend. A lot of “zaate herremeniekes” (small brassbands) play in the streets. They mostly consist of a few trumpets, a tuba and a lot of drums. Never in tune, always loud. And always dressed up. http://renefijten.blogspot.com/

Carnaval in Maastricht ended last thursday night, but here is another impression of one of the Sambabands called “Segura!” Not only their rhythems are fantastic, but also their suits. Anything between Mad Max and Darth Vader, and always in black.

Carnaval in Maastricht: 3 days of streetparades, dancing, singing and drinking beer in the cafe’s, streets and squares of Maastricht, Netherlands. There are thousands of dressed up carnavalists in the citycenter, enjoying the sounds of the numurous bands. This is a drawing of Passatempo, a sambaband. A little Brazil in Maastricht. http://www.urbansketchers.com/

Kowrenne, or Cowrunning, a local game organized in my town Hoensbroek. It’s part of the local Carnaval traditions. 8 groups each build and dress up a wood&paper cow, and on Thursday evening several races are organized on the local marketplace. And yes, my group (the Föhners) won the first prize; we are proud to be the fastest cow around. http://renefijten.blogspot.com/

The smell of fresh bread in the early morning. The flood light lit the facade of this patisserie. At 7am the Place Verdun in Tarbes was still very dark.

Tarbes, South of France, foodmarket.
To show how I mostly do my on-site sketches: I mostly use the large watercolour moleskine. At first a few lines 0.5 H-pencil to define the scene. Then I make the drawing with permanent ink: I use an edding profipen 0.3. On the adjacent page of the moly I make a quick sketch with my fountainpen: colours, shades and notes like what products or from which side the sun falls. I do all this all on location.
Later at home (but always within a few days) I use the notes to add watercolour to the inkdrawing, not necessarily 100% correct. I use Talens, van Gogh quality. Sometimes I take a picture for reference as well, but I rarely use it.
I thought maybe it is interesting to see how I work.

La viande de cheval. Sketched in a foodmarket in Tarbes, south of France.

http://renefijten.blogspot.com/

The imaginairy city of Peleosso revisited.
I sketched this city before in an earlier post: http://www.skineart.com/art/4453/the-imaginairy-city-peleosso/

Anticipation… drawn just before the concert. Tina Turner gave a fantastic show in Cologne (Köln-Germany) last week.