Quick fountain pen portrait sketch of a member of a virtual portrait party. It one of a series that I’m doing to practice drawing with a fountain pen.

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Trying to get a grip on drawing with a fountain pen that I got for my birthday, I decided to start doing quick portrait sketches with it on a regular basis (preferably every day). This is one I did of Kate, a member of a virtual portrait party. Her picture in which she’s wearing a striking striped sweater and her description in which she says to be an avid surfer inspired me to give it this twist. Concerning the waves, I tried to add a touch of Hiroshige.

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Waiting for the maestro. Another sketch inspired by aspects of Bonnards work as seen in a recent exhibition, particularly an interior scene, perspective, a faithful little (dachshund) dog and a cat demanding attention. It started out as a quick preliminary sketch of this idea I had for a watercolour, but I got a bit carried away drawing with my new fountain pen and eventually decided to just leave it as it is and do a separate watercolour version later on.

A Toast to Bonnard. After visiting the “Bonnard” exhibition in Wuppertal, I set out to do a playful sketch with some aspects of his work in mind, particularly colour, perspective, an interior (table) scene and a cat making an appearance. I used my mother’s dining room as a base for a rough and distorted sketch of an interior and then added the rest from imagination. Ink pen and watercolour.

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Vineyard tasting. With the wine harvest season coming up in this part of the world, grape picking and wine tasting holidays are being promoted in the media accompanied by “tasty” pictures. One of them in particular caught my eye and I used it for a watercolour sketch.

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Some sunflowers in the garden broke off during a storm and thus wound up in a rather small vase on the dining room table, still looking great. I tried to catch this in a watercolour. Not particularly satisfied with the result, but still, here it is.

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Sun King. In 1986, in the wake of their successful album “Love”, British rock band The Cult performed at the Pinkpop festival in Geleen in the south of The Netherlands, near to where I live. As a young rock music and guitar enthusiast I enjoyed this performance very much, especially guitarist Billy Duffy’s powerful guitar riffs and his use of mouthwatering Gretsch hollowbody electric guitars. In 1992 the band was back at Pinkpop (now in Landgraaf, the town where the festival is organized since 1988 and also the town where I now live) but this time delivered an ill-famed performance leading to the band being banned from future perfomances at the festival. Yesterday, 18 years later and after the ban was lifted, The Cult played the Pinkpop stage once again, now during the festivals Classic edition. This time I didn’t go, but a picture in last weeks paper announcing the band’s return to the festival and showing Billy Duffy in a heroic rock guitarist pose with one of his Gretsches triggered me to do a sketch instead. “Sun King”, the title of the opening track from The Cult’s 1989 “Sonic Temple” album again showcasing Billy’s guitar work, seemed to be an appropriate title for this sketch. Ink pen and watercolour.

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Dark clouds over Étretat. Another sketch of Étretat, this time based on a photo in a photography exhibition in Giverny, Normandy. Ink pen and watercolour.

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Playing with water (… can get a bit messy!)

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A huge agapanthus on the backyard terrace came into bloom this week and provided a nice subject for a quick watercolour sketch.

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