Random Scribbles

This week I've been cleaning up my workplace. Earlier this year I moved in to a studio I share with some other guys. I have got my workplace all set up but it is covered in stacks of drawings and sketches, that I still had to find the right place for.

The other day I was watching a documentary about some Dutch architect who kept stacks of sketchs neatly organized in folders. I decided to do the same. More than 700 filed sketches later (!) I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The only stack that stil remains is made up of sketches on folded up paper. I usually work on regular A4 print paper. But every now and then I'll fold the paper in half. These sketches are too small to fit in to the folders, but, because they're small, for now they can lay on the corner of my drawingboard.

I figured you might like to take a look at these so I've scanned these on for your viewing pleasure. As you can see some are real messy while others are actully quite organized. It's funny to look at back at these things, They were not made to be seen by others but there's a spontaneity to 'em I sort of like. 

Checkers Character Design

In between freelance assignments I'm usually working on one or two personal projects. Most of those never get finished, they more like exercises and when something more serious comes along I abandon them. Right now I'm working on a little story exercise, who knows I might even finish it...

These are some designs of one of the two characters, a NYC-based, 30-something head-hunter named Checkers.

Digital sketches with Photoshop.

Beh.

Some sketches of sheep. The image above is a really small doodle with brown bistre ink (brush and dip pen). The image below is done with pencil and the last image was done with a Tombo.

I'd never really drawn sheep before, it always is a lot fun to draw something new. You think you know what a sheep looks like but when I started to look at pictures and did some initial sketching I discovered that, as always, you never really see something until you draw it.

These are sketches for a bigger illustration that I will show you here soon.   

Do You Need Some Time On Your Own?

Can you remember when MTV actually used to play music all day? I grew up during the golden age of the music video, and I feel a little sad for kids today because they have to miss all these awesome videos. Of course a music video was never much more than a commercial for a band or artist, and I guess they helped the evil music industry to stay in power, but there really were some sweet videos back then!
 
The other day I was hanging out with a friend when I began to doodle Slash rocking his guitar outside that little church, in the video of November Rain. It amazed me how many details of the video I could remember. (This is not that doodle by the way, I watched the video before I drew this one.) It made me think how music videos used to be everywhere when I was in high school and how they have quickly disappeared in this digital age. Maybe I'll do some more drawings based on music videos, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Pencil, ink and (paint)markers on grey skectch paper.

Oh, and by the way... Happy new year!

The Driver

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the movie Drive. I had read quite a lot about it on a number of blogs.   Unfortunately it took a while before Dutch cinemas picked it up, but I guess we are lucky that they showed it at all.

Anyway, even though I had high expectations, Drive did not disappoint me. This is especially surprising since the plot of the film is in no way spectacular, it's the atmosphere of this film that makes it awesome. Ryan Gosling is also great as the silent Driver who makes a living as stuntman and getaway driver for thieves and robbers.

Ever since I saw Drive I have been doodling the Driver. My first attempt were pretty far off, but I believe I'm getting closer. This is a compilation of different driver doodles I did the last few weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if there will be more of this...

Ink on paper, digital colors.

Skateboard Dude

A sketch I did in my sketchbook. I threw some quick colors on it with photoshop. It was based on a pic from the satorialist. 

When in Rome... - Conclusivo

Today it already a week ago that I returned from my trip to Rome. Although the weather in Amsterdam is pretty good for this time of year I'm afraid that Rome has it beaten. I sure miss walking in the sunshine. Not that I did much walking this week, I had to sit inside because of this stupid cold/flu/coughing combination that I mentioned in my previous post.

Good news is that I seem to be getting over it, although I'm still coughing like a 67 year old, chain smoking miner. If you want to find out how this sounds exactly don't miss tomorrow's workshop! 

People have been asking me if they need to reserve tickets, since it's in the smaller room of the Kriterion  theater I think it might be advisable but I'm not really sure if it's actually possible to book single tickets online. (check the klik site for more information) I hope to see all of you tomorrow, I'm anxious to present my storyboard to you. And of course I am very anxious to hear what Daan Jippes has to say about it! 

When in Rome...

More than a week without posts, I better have a good reason! Well I do, or at least I like to think so: I was in Rome for a week for my honeymoon. Me and Daphne got married back in May, but because I was so busy with graduating we planned our honeymoon in October. We had a great time in Rome. It is a beautiful city with great people and the best food!

I also brought my sketchbook and I did a few sketches, I focussed mostly on the surroundings; buidlings, statues, trees etc. Here are some of my sketches, I'll post some more later this week.  

Skater Boy

Character sketches from school project from last year. This was part of the original approach of my graduation project; a story of a young hipster girl who falls in love with the non-hip, fat skater pictured above. Although that story didn't work out at the time I might revisit it some other time. I've got the feeling that there might be more there, than I originally thought.

Faun

These are some studies of fauns for this small side project I'm working on. There is not much more that I can say about it right now, but there will be more on this soon.

I'm still working on my blog, as you might have seen. There have been a few changes, and there will be some more. I hope that it won't cause too much inconvenience.

Dr. Sketchy's

After seeing awesome Dr. Sketchy drawings pop up on blogs from all over the world I finally had the chance to experience this fantastic drawing event first handed. Because there is now

an Amsterdam branch of Dr. Sketchy's!

I had a great night drawing beautful girls, listening to the amazing singing MC: Shai Sahar, and drinking beer together with my friend, and super artist, Mensah.

My favourite moment of the evening was a small contest: we were challenged to draw a pose using our 'wrong' hand. I'm a rigthy myself, so I had to do it left handed. In the end everybody handed in his or her drawing and a winner was picked by the Dr. Sketchy jury. There were some extremely talented people there so I wasn't expecting to win at all, but I did!

The winning drawing can be found beneath, the model was the lovely Spaanse Ans (Spanish Ans) with 74 years, the oldest burlesque model in Holland.