Qin - The eternal emperor and his terracotta warriors

I went to the Historical Museum of Bern today to see the Qin exhibition.
Somehow, it felt like a bigger (and much more foreign) version of the Celtic Glauberg exhibition I went to in May.

The exhibition lasts until November 17th of this year. If you want to go and see it, buy the tickets online and show it at the SBB counter when buying your train ticket. You will get 10% off.

Also, download the official audio guide app from either iTunes or the Android app store.
The app runs in German, English, French and Italian.
You may save only 1 CHF, but if you go there to sketch, you will be thankful you only need to put in your earplugs and not have one hand occupied with the museum's audio guide device.

With each audio segment a related picture of one of the exhibits is shown on the screen. I can revisit what I have seen and heard today, which I think is really nice.

✎

When I got on the train in Zurich, an elderly couple with visitors from Sweden sat on the remaining free seats around me. There was one very blonde little girl with them as well.
I was already sketching at that point, just finishing up a few brush strokes before moving on to a light pencil sketch of the items on the little table in front of me.
I am not good at guessing the age of little kids, I only know that girl was past the three word sentence stage (yes, this is the linguist talking here) and she wanted something from the lady opposite her.
She was at first misunderstood, in the end it turned out she wanted to swap seats with that lady so she could watch me sketch.
After a couple minutes that girl got out her own sketchpad and coloured pencils.
I loved it.
The two of us sitting there sketching away, no words needed!

 Qin Dynasty (Wikipedia)

At the Qin exhibition there were a lot of items with very intricate and detailed patterns carved on them, which I quite enjoyed drawing.

I did give the armor made out of small stone plates a try, but soon gave up.

This armor was made to be a burial object, not an actual defense against swords or arrows. It weights over 18 kilos and would have broken apart quickly if someone did actually wanted to have a stab at it.

One of the museum employees walked over and asked if I was comfortable and had all I need. He was looking at my sketches and seemed happy. I saw him again later on and we nodded at each other, smiling. I'd like to think that my sketching made at least two people happy today.

After two hours of wandering around I felt quite hungry and thirsty, and got something Asian to eat at the museum restaurant. They had these nice little cups as decoration on the tables:

My museum ticket was also valid for the other permanent exhibitions. I did go to have a peek, but decided I could not take in any other cultures for today and left. I would love to come back though and sketch my way through the American Indian and Ancient Egypt sections.

I also tried to do a couple of thumbnail sketches from the train window as a memory exercise on the way back. Not satisfied with it though.

And then, that was it! I filled my A5 Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook, and it took me much longer than I want to admit.

Testing my tools

Where to start?
I am one of the lucky ones to have registered at the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium before it sold out after only two hours. It will all happen in Barcelona in the middle of July.
Not only will I hopefully meet a lot of the artists whose blogs I have been following for months and years, I will also learn a lot and draw even more.

I did not have all of the art supplies for some of the workshops, so I ordered some of what I was still missing:

Mijello : Folding Plastic Palette 18 BLUE

Daniel Smith Watercolour 15ml : Aureolin (Cobalt Yellow) S3

Daniel Smith Watercolour 15ml : Alizarin Crimson S1

Daniel Smith Watercolour 15ml : Ultramarine Blue S1

When I updated my watercolor pan palette last year, I spent enough money for the shop assistant to entrust me with the last tube paints of what she said to be a discontinued line of Lukas paints.

So, I decided to try out the new palette and those older paints, just because they were not going to get any fresher anymore.
The permanent green paint was still creamy, the others were already quite sticky.

I really could get used to tube colors ☺.

Still need loooots of practise though.

Goodbye cookies

It's my last day at work tomorrow. It's been a crazy year this year. In some ways I am sad to leave my fantastic team and colleages from the other departments. The relationship between work mates was one of a kind, and I will not be saying goodbye, because I made friends there and we will keep meeting up and hanging out.

On the other hand, it is time. 

Stress has worked its way right up to my gums which are painfully inflamed now.

I cannot even eat the yummy goodbye cookies I made tonight!

Surprise visit

I traveled to visit my sister for her birthday this weekend. It was a surprise visit. Next day we were joined by our brother and his wife, which was the second surprise. I love a good and pleasant surprise like that!

Getting there proved to be a bit tricky as there was severe weather the night before, and parts of the train tracks were still flooded and full with fallen trees and torn off branches. The fast trains were cancelled, the loudspeaker information was not always as informative as it could have been but in the end we got there. 

When I say we, I mean a group of four lovely ladies (sisters + their daughters) from the States and myself. I was glad to have a bit of company as we made our way towards the big city with the regional trains and the rain replacement bus service. 

I'd like to think I was able to take out some of the stress that comes with public transport hiccups in a foreign country for them. Thanks for the company!

So, traveling did not go too smooth this time as on the way back I had quite an upset stomach, but I did  manage to do a sketch or two of my fellow passengers.

First day of summer

We skipped spring and went straight to summer last weekend.

I enjoyed the sunshine around my neighbourhood but got instantly sunburnt. I will need a big summer hat for the Barcelona Urban Sketchers Symposium!

Letztes Wochenende wurde der Frühling übergangen, hier machen wir nach dem grauen dunklen Winter gleich mit dem Sommer weiter. Ich genoß die Sonne in der Nachbarschaft, bekam aber sofort einen Sonnenbrand. Ich werde einen großen Sommerhut für das Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona brauchen!

IF: children

Winding down with a watercolor sketch after a long day that started at 6 with running, then work, then 5 hours of laundry and late spring cleaning. 

Spring cleaning is not done yet, but getting a head start makes a huge difference.

Why do I spring clean only now? 

Because after the longest and darkest winter and spring, the sun finally has decided to show itself.

What do I learn from this sketch? Use a bigger brush first and fill larger areas with much more paint.

I still can't get myself to load a lot of pigment on my brush in the first stages.

Lord of Glauberg

From Wikipedia:

The Glauberg is a Celtic oppidum in Hesse, Germany, consisting of a fortified settlement and several burial mounds, "a princely seat of the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods."Archaeological discoveries in the 1990s place the site among the most important early Celtic centres in Europe. It provides unprecedented evidence on Celtic burial, sculpture and monumental architecture.

Much international attention was attracted especially by the discovery of an extremely rare find, a life-sized sandstone statue or stele, dating from the 5th century BC, which was found just outside the larger tumulus. The stele, fully preserved except for its feet, depicts an armed male warrior. It is made from a type of sandstone available within a few kilometres of Glauberg. Much detail is clearly visible: his trousers, composite armour tunic, wooden shield and a typical La Tène sword hanging from his right side. The moustachioed man wears a torc with three pendants, remarkably similar to the one from the chamber in mound 1, several rings on both arms and one on the right hand. On his head, he wears a hood-like headdress crowned by two protrusions, resembling the shape of a mistletoe leaf. Such headdresses are also known from a handful of contemporary sculptures. As mistletoe is believed to have held a magical or religious significance to the Celts, it could indicate that the warrior depicted also played the role of a priest.

During an exploratory overflight in 1988, local antiquarians recognised the traces of a large tumulus in a field 300 m south of the oppidum. Between 1994 and 1997, the State Archaeological Service of Hesse excavated it. The mound originally had a diameter of nearly 50 m and a height of 6 m. It was surrounded by a circular ditch 10 m wide. At the time, it must have been a visually extremely striking monument.

Museum "Keltenwelt am Glauberg" (German)