Don't Mind the Arrow

Sunday Image - Swans

Germany, Jersey, and G+

The next page of my Germany sketch journal is here:

For a week of our time in Germany, Morgan and I were at a math conference in Irsee. Well, he was at a math conference. I hung out with the mathematicians at meals, snack times, and in the pubs. Anyhow, the conference was hosted at a converted cloister. In the evenings, dinner was in the cellar and that's where this suit of armor was. I drew it while Morgan mingled with the other mathematicians and then colored it while we were at the pub later that night.

Currently, I've been working on my drawing for this month's Virtual Paintout. The location this month is the island of Jersey. I just took a quick photograph of my drawing instead of scanning it, so the paper is less bright-white than it should be.

I'm hoping to finish it over the course of the next day or so. I'm working on it a little at a time, not rushing it.

Finally, I've joined Google+ and I'm excited about its possibilities for finding and sharing with different communities of people, including artists. If I add you to my circles, that's why - just a way to facilitate sharing things to an appropriate audience.

Marienplatz and Hofbraeuhaus

One morning, Morgan and I sat in Marienplatz having breakfast, and I started a sketch of the square. Trying to decide how and where to simplify, along with trying to eat breakfast, meant that I didn't get much done before we decided to leave and get on with our day. (We went to the Deutsches Museum that morning.) I intended to finish the sketch another day, and we did indeed eat at Marienplatz again, but it was rainy that morning and I didn't get out the sketchbook. Ah well, as it turns out I sort of like the unfinished look of it.

The same night, we headed to the famous Hofbräuhaus for beer. At first, we sat out in the courtyard area. Eventually though, it started raining, so we went into the beer hall and found a spot at a table with some other people (young German guys who, when we asked if we could share their table, looked us up and down for a long moment then sighed and said, "Ja ... okay."). It was a great scene inside there - a band playing, people singing and clanking their giant beer glasses together. I got out the sketchbook and made a quick drawing of it.

More of the Germany Sketchbook

Isartor is one of the four main gates into Munich from medieval times, and the only one that still has its main tower. It was apparently originally constructed in 1337 and restored in 1835. For the sketch, I didn't want to really focus entirely on the tower, but instead on it looming over ordinary buildings.

And this was the view out our hotel window in the Lehel part of Munich, very close to the city center. The city had so much amazing, complicated architecture that it was a task to capture the concept and yet simplify it in drawings.

Also, you should stop over at Vicki's blog if you'd like to see the postcard I drew and sent her from my trip!

I Have Returned

Morgan and I got back from Germany late Tuesday night. I've been sick pretty much ever since - sore throat, cough, congestion. It's kept me from doing much but laying around and staring at the computer or tv screen. 

Yesterday I managed to scan some of my sketch journal from Germany, though, so I figured I'd start posting it. 

This was the first drawing I did. In spite of the caption on it, it's actually a drawing from the Denver airport. There was no time to draw in the other airports on the way out (Minneapolis and Amsterdam). I think I must have finished coloring it on the Minneapolis-Amsterdam flight and mislabeled it then, but it's all sort of a blur.

After we missed our flight in Amsterdam, we had a couple of hours to hang out in Schiphol airport, but I was too tired at the time to draw. So the next drawing is from dinner in Munich that evening.

I stood on the corner across the street from our restaurant and sketched it a little. I only did a little of it because the area was very crowded and it wasn't that easy to stand and sketch without getting bumped by passersby. The logo was drawn off our beer glasses inside the restaurant.

Day 7, Under the Wire

My project today is to-be-continued. Now that I've made a few books (and now that it's a week away from our trip), I felt ready to tackle my sketch journal for Germany. I had already cut, folded and pressed the signatures for it, so the first order of business today was punching the holes:

After that, I stitched it together using a different method than I've used for my previous books (the tutorial I was following can be found by following this link). I somehow forgot to take a picture of it after I'd stitched it up, but got one of the next stage of the process - gluing fabric to the spine.

Once that had dried, I added the endpapers (the design of which will remain a mystery till the next round of pictures) and glued the fabric to the cover.

And that's where it stands as of now. Tomorrow I'll glue the endpapers down (hopefully without any wrinkling, for once) and it'll be done. I'm so looking forward to using this!

Sunday Image - Bodie

Sunday Image - Griffith Observatory