Waterlilies 3

 

Here is another pond of a park in Dortmund, where the waterlilies were yellow. The blue water is a great contrasting colour. Thank you to my friend Natalia for another great reference.

Waterlilies 2

 

As a contrast to the winter weather hereabouts, are some colourful waterlilies from a pond in Dortmund. Love the highly granulating watercolours and the play of contrasting colours.

USk Germany Meeting Dortmund, part 6, finishing last sketches

 

Sunday breakfast was in our favourite café place after the group photo of all Sketchers who came to Dortmund. Finally I had the time to finish my large panoramic. I had started sketching the day Justyna came to Dortmund. It was super because many more sketchers came to this cafe and sketched with us. 

 

My panoramic is my personal favourite of all my Dortmund sketches, because I liked the place and the stories that go with it...and this one was the most time-consuming...

 

Again the photo doesn't really show the real look of it. It looks much better in the sketchbook, as the blues my computer shows are not the exact colours of my sketchbook. Never mind...

Then we went to further explore and finish some sketches we started during the last few days like this one, which I sketched after visiting our exhibition in the Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte:

 

It was a very colourful day, or was it just my mood?

Anyway I had to hurry back to the museum to get my exhibition sketches back and to finish my eagle drawing...which is at the entrance of the museum:

and here the finished colouring and not to forget the stamp:

That evening I had enough time to say goodbye to my dear friends who already left earlier and I did not need to hurry before going out to eat. A relaxed finish with good friends. The next morning my train was early and after a 8 hour train odyssey I finally arrived back home. It was worth it! 

THANK YOU USk DORTMUND

 

USk Germany Meeting in Dortmund, part 5, Steampunks and Oma Doris

 

 

We entered Reinoldi Church for the evening sketch party. They served Currywurst in the back of the church and in the front lots of Steampunks were ready to pose for us Sketchers. The priest of the church welcomed us and was happy that there was so much life in the church which is also used as a room for concerts and events. 

There was some music playing and we could sketch 10 min. poses of the Men and Women dressed in their fancy timetraveller costumes. 

 

This was great fun. Too bad we did not have enough time to sketch also the background.

 Thank you to the wonderful models.

 Justyna painted in black & white while I was doing watercolours again.

Sketching people in 10 min. poses was the greatest fun for me during the whole event.

 

When it was over, we were still six very hungry Sketchers and we went to a nice restaurant and had the funniest evening ever with... "Oma Doris".

 

not over yet...more to come...

USk Germany Meeting in Dortmund, Part 4, Bike & Sketch

 

One fast bite in our Sandwich later we got our bikes and after some instructions and a plan as well as a yellow vest for each participant we started our wonderful bike & sketch tour at "Schlanke Mathilde" which is a slim clocktower in Hörde

 

Then the bike ride continued to Phoenixsee where I sketched a "Thomasbirne" alongside Pascal. We only had 20 minutes to finish...

 

I was in such a hurry that I could not sketch the surroundings...

 

Then we made a just a photo stop at the Aquaedukt and continued to Phoenix West. We received some workers helmets and speakers for doing the Skywalk together (it was difficult to sketch that fast in such a height, so I skipped my rough sketch and just enjoyed the landscape and the industrial remains).

 

It was already real late when we arrived back in the city centre. Thank you to the organizers. It was great to see such a variety of Dortmund places in such a short time (4 hours). 

We had to be back at 19:00 and it turned out that I just had ten minutes left for grabbing a bite and shower...

 

...USk Dortmund have prepared a surprise for us that evening...

so stay tuned for more to come...

USk Germany Meeting Dortmund, Part 3 The Harbour

 

The Saturday was a workshop-day and I stood up early to take the tram to Dortmund harbour. I wanted to be earlier to be able to sketch the harbour building I had seen on photos. The sketch was never finished as the others also came early and we chitchatted until the Workshop began. Till first sent us out to do some thumbnails and I thought that the stopper (for trains), the cross (of train crossings) and the crane would be great for my three thumbnail sketches

 After a throwdown our task was to do a larger interesting view of the harbour.

 I sketched what was opposite and my focus was definitely on the water in front.

Sorry for the poor photo quality (the original looks much better ;)

As soon as the workshop ended, we had to hurry to the next location which was in the opposite direction of the city. At Hörder Bahnhof we left the tram and just grabbed something to eat in a bakery before our next sketchwalk began.

...stay tuned for more...

USk Germany Meeting Dortmund, Part 2, Sketchwalk Modern Dortmund

 

After having had a great time at a dining place with Hamburg and Berlin Sketcher friends I stood up early the next day to be able to sketch before my friend Justyna from USk Poland arrived. She was supposed to come by bus at about 9 o'clock, but turned out that the bus was delayed and so I picked her up at the train station a good one hour later.

First breakfast of course and then we went sketching together.

 

We had to check in (for getting our badges) around noon and went to the art market straight away.

In the afternoon there were two sketchwalks prepared by the Dortmund Sketchers which were:

- Modern Dortmund

- Soccer in Dortmund

We chose the first one and while we were waiting for the gathering we tried to sketch the enormous building of our "hub" which was the Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte.

 

Justyna and I were interviewed and we had a great time as she spoke in Polish and I tried to translate into German. This was so much fun.

Then the sketchwalk began and we searched a comfortable place to sit and sketched one of the Stadtbahn stations of Dortmund.

 Justyna worked in grey tones on grey paper whereas I worked in watercolour:

Afterwards we went back for the throwdown of sketches. There was not a lot of time to eat before we had to hurry back to the "hub" and the event began. There was a nice portrait party and actually later I won a great book. Lucky me.

Satisfied and tired we "crawled" back to our hotels. The only thing which was still left that evening was to have a look into the goodie bag before I fell asleep as a stone.

...stay tuned for more...

USk Germany Meeting in Dortmund, Part 1, Get the feeling for DORTMUND

 

After a nice train ride of 6,5 hours I reached Dortmund and was astonished about the modern look. After checkin into my hotel I strolled through the city in search of my first painting spot and found a nice narrow street close to Reinoldi church.

While I was doing my pencil sketch my friend Johanna contacted me that she has arrived and would like to join me. Very nice to meet her again after one month as she had been in Swidnica as well. 

Here is my finished sketch. I like the little rider on the horse in the lower left section. I sketched into an SMLT Sketchbook for trying the paper and seeing if it can take watercolour. It works quite nicely although it is not a real watercolour paper (It was a gift from the Swidnica Sketchers goodiebag).

 

I was about to finish when my friend Smadar from Hamburg contacted me to join for a coffee sketch. There are many good cafés in Dortmund and we met at one of them for refreshment and sketching.

 

Made a fast sketch of the surroundings as we went to explore the city further before the official opening of USk DEUTSCHLANDTREFFEN the next day.

This first day was a real good one to get a feeling for the city of DORTMUND and to meet old and new sketchfriends.

...stay tuned for more...