Piano concert

I was lucky to be invited to Gregory Sokolov's piano concert last night - someone else was sick and my friends asked me if I would like to come along.

Doing something completely different every once in a while really enriches one's life. 

The concert was impressive, and the music took us to a different place. 

A kid was sitting next to me, poor thing was falling asleep.

http://www.meisterkonzerte.ch/grigory-sokolov.html

IF: Wings

I have long wanted to try out Angela Rizza's way of creating her beautiful glowing illustrations, and this week's Illustration Friday challenge gave me the perfect excuse.

I am still quite new to Photoshop and tablets but I find most learning in art comes by doing.

Thanks Angela for sharing your WIPs and step-by-step work process!

original sketch

38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

On January 19th, I went to Berne for a lot of sketching with a lot of other Swiss sketchers. Boy, there were much more than I expected, we must have been about 25!

It was a lovely but very cold and wintry day with so much creativity flowing between us all, it was quite mind-boggling. 

I caught the train home earlier than the others because I was looking at a 2.5 h trip back, so I did not get to be in the group photo shot at the end of the day (I am pretty sure there was one). It was fantastic to be part of it though and I am looking forward to the next time when it will be warmer as well.

Here we met at the Bundeshaus, astonished at the size of our group:

From there we went on to the Markthalle.

The Markthalle will soon be closed down for renovation. All the little restaurants and shops will have to relocate. The Indian restaurant had very nice food by the way.

I ordered the tea for the intricate tea pot design, not for the tea itself.

I just can't get warmed up towards green tea.

❦

To find shelter from the winter outside, we went to the Museum of Natural History in Bern.

I will need to visit again, there's lots of great stuff and I only was on the ground floor.

One day I would really like to draw or paint this bird in color - it's like a glowing rainbow!

Before you ask - the rhino was exhibited with wooden plates instead of horns. 

Final sketch, the only one of a fellow Urban Sketcher.

Next time I will be more ruthless with sketching the people I am with ;-)

Train people

Probably more to come.

Black Cat

My family has a cat, and her name is Kitty but we call her "cat" (= Katze) most of the time.
Sometimes even "black cat" (= schwarze Katz).
However, she will also listen and come to you if you call her "Salami", "Spaghetti" or any other popular Italian food.

SH Sketchcrawl

The Sketchcrawl today was very cold and the actual time in town was spent on a quick sight-seeing, Chlausmärkt and eating pizza on the way. We sketched in the Museum zu Allerheiligen, which houses an archeology, nature and paleo-geology (?) department, local Schaffhausen history and a department of contemporary and older art. There was something for everyone, and if you were there to draw, you could spend a whole day. The building was formerly a convent which is very picturesque in the summer months. So, I highly recommend it for a bright summer day sketchcrawl.

Der Sketchcrawl heute war sehr kalt und wir waren im Städtchen eigentlich nur zum schnellen Sight-seeing, Chlausmärkt und Pizza essen unterwegs. Skizziert wurde im Museum zu Allerheiligen, welches eine Archäologie-, Natur- und Paläo-Geologie-Abteilung, Schaffhauser Stadtgeschichte und eine Abteilung für zeitgenössische sowie ältere Kunst beherbergt. Für jeden war etwas dabei, und man kann eigentlich den ganzen Tag dort verbringen, wenn man zum Zeichnen da ist. Das Gebäude war vormals ein Kloster, welches in den Sommermonaten sehr malerisch ist. Für einen Sketchcrawl im Sommer also sehr zu empfehlen.

Monopoly Junior