2 sketches from the last few months. First a bar I like and second a rest place durig a recent cano trip.

It's been a long time

I have been very busy with other things in my life but last weekend USK Luxembourg organised a sketching weekend. So I could catch up on some sketching.
And although I was a bit sick from friday evening until Saterday noon (Bad cramps) I had some fun.
Here are the sketchers!!

Sketching close to History

Last weekend I finally had the chance to sketch with our group again (Urban Sketchers Belgium).

In the south-east of Belgium lays the medium sized Walloon city of Seraing. It was build around the river "De Maas". The acces to the river made it perfect for industry. More specifically (in this case) the steel industry. On the 16th blast furnace no. 6 is to be demolished this friday. We got the chance to sketch it.
I sadly forgot my pen roll so I had to improvise. Luckily I had a bottle of ink and a dip pen in my bag packed already. So all sketches are in ink only.

(The last sketch is of a pumping station we got access to)

Some sketches

Been very busy.
Made some sketches.
The first 3 are from a sketchcrawl we organised in Antwerp. (It was a cooperation between USK BE, NL & Den Haag) About 20-30 people came. It was fun!

 

Inside the garden of the Rubenshuis

 

A flower and an Icecream shop

 

Some houses on the Groenplaats

This last one is from a crawl in Brussel. I was only there at 1 pm. (The others met up aroun 8 Am but I had a late night)

So this is the only sketch I managed. 

View on the centre of brussels from Museumberg

Sketchcrawl in Doel

On 14/8/2016 we were invited by Jeroen Janssen to come along to Doel and sketch during it's village feast and the 'Scheldewijding'.
 It was a very early morning: 7.45 am. On a Saturday!! Not my regular weekend.

Now this isn't just a "normal" village. Almost all houses are empty. Almost all people left. There are just 20 left. A long time ago the city wanted to expand their harbor and Doel was chosen to be burried beneath a few meters of sand. But the villagers started to protest. One by one the house got bought and more and more people left. Untill now. There are still lawsuits going on between the villagers and the city. No one really know what is going to happen.
For most of the year this village is pretty empty. Sometimes some tourists visit. During the night it was a good place for criminals to exchange drugs but the police is trying stop that.

But during this weekend the village was lively again. Streets where filled, bars where open and life music was everywhere. A lot of people were interested in us Urban Sketchers. Great day, great weather, great sketches!! I hope to go again next time!

I do need to draw more though. Only did 4 sketches in a whole day.

Sketchcrawl: Deurne, Sterckshof

Last Saturday we had a Sketchrawl inside the Sterckshof.  This a a castle build for fun. No one ever really lived in it but many women where courted in there.
As of writing this it's for sale, but until it's sold it's rented out to artists as studio spaces. A very good idea in my opinion.
But enough jaki-di-jak here are the sketches.

July sketches

Sooooo july has almost passed. I made 2 sketches, Weather was very unreliable and time just flies by.

But enough excuses, here we go!

This first one is a nice view of the Carolus Boromeus church peeking out above the treetops. Made this one during breakfast while waiting for a haircut.

 

Sketch number 2 was made while I visited KSA Tarcidall (my local youth organisation, where I was leader for 8 years) during their summer camp. I left the people out since it's still difficult for me.