Illustration Friday - Cars

Illustration Friday theme for this week was set to "Cars". There are probably thousands of various possible ideas, but for me thinking about cars this week always ends on island Malta, at memories on yellow buses I met and used .
Public bus transport on island Malta is an experience itself ! There are about 250 buses working on route transport throughout the island every day. And each one seems to be older than other ones, you can see it here. They are old several decades and delightful, now are painted all in white-orange-yellow. The main bus terminal is in Valletta , on place with huge "Triton" water fountain. Bus fare is cheap, you can buy tickets right from bus driver. But be prepare for hot bumpy and usually very crowded ride. The doors are always opened ( natural aircondition ? ) and very often jump in men from outside to check your ticket and again jump out.When you want to stop , you simply pull the cord across whole bus, thus ring the bell on the ceiling above driver. Buses are frequent and you can travel easily all around the island. Newer buses are ,of course, gradually being introduced but these pieces of history somewhat belongs to old Malta , they are a symbol for Malta and nobody really wants to do without them. I like it !
Old FORD EBY 537 done in smal Moleskine with watercolor , watercolor pencil , later with ink.

Nice guys packs their bones

This is one from the last dinosaur skeletons in shopping mall Aupark in Bratislava. Exhibition (I report about it 2nd of May) ends 20 of May and now is everything in process packing to boxes and moving to new place for exhibition.
This quick sketch is done in ink-liner and watercolors.

Queen in Bratislava

	Queen Beatrix, the first Dutch monarch to visit present-day Slovakia, arrived in Bratislava on Monday when starts a three-day state visit of our country. She met briefly on Monday with President of Slovakia Mr.Gašparovič and with Prime minister. But, as you see (on official photos SITA press agency) she cannot miss another important person - Čumil :-)

You can met Her Majesty Queen Beatrix on streets of Old City of Bratislava in Tuesday. I think the biggest joy was between japanese tourists - it seems like competition of who make the best and most photoshoots per second :-) . By the way , she is absolutely cute old lady in hat, with broad smile on her face. I think a lot of time if I could post this picture from my daily sketchbook. OK, my apologies to peoples of Netherland , but here it is . You donˇt meet Queen everyday, don´t you ?
Done with ink-liner 0.3 Kooh-I-Nor and watercolor.

Čumil

Done in small moleskine with Faber-Castel watercolor pencils and waterbrush.

There are several goofy statues here in Bratislava , each of them has their unique story. On the corner of streets Rybárska brána , Panská and Laurinská streets you can see man sticking his head out of a manhole. Meet Čumil . Author of this bronze statue is Viktor Hulík and here is from 26th Jul 1997 . From this time is one of the most photographed "citizen " of Bratislava because Bratislavians and tourists love him. Children love to abuse him by sitting on his head, adults love make photo with him or simply touch him for luck.

Great discussion have taken place as to what actually the man is up to..was he a sewer worker during the Second World War and had hid below ground to escape the bombs. With the war over, he’d climbed back out, thus explaining the satisfied grin on his face ? Or that Čumil was a guerrilla leader fighting against the Soviets ?

NO !

A close look at the statue reveals that instead of a helmet, a cap with a strap covers the head. It means Čumil is a normal boy observing beautiful girls (maybe up their skirts , who knows ) passing by, as Bratislava is also famous for an unusually high rate of beautiful girls per square kilometre.

Btw. Čumil is word from noun "čumieť" in Slovak language , in English it means man who is gazing, man who stare at something .

14th World Wide Sketchcrawl / Noc muzei a galerii

Today was a 14th Sketchcrawl Day and Night of Museums and Galeries , when you have all day free admit entry to all museums and galeries up to midnight. There was a plenty of exhibition, so no mater how, you can´t visit every thing. But I am sure now I will visit more frequently because there is plenty of ideas for drawings ( look for example excellent blog of Elizabeth Perry ) and there will be less people than today .
So, some exhibitions about nature of Slovakia...
...some about history of Slovakia......some about art (actually about baroque art in the Middle Europe ) ...
..some sketchbooks too :-) And evening Artsy Saturday - visit a new muzical , in this case
"The Three Musketeers "

Lotos

This lotos seed pod is sitting on my shelf for awhile that I don´t know from which place I bring it, probably from Thailand. It is really so grey and old and dry , like on the picture. That´s it why is so interesting .
Done in sepia ink and watercolor .

Hommage á Teri C

This is my small tiny Haworthia, placed on sunny kitchen window, preparing itself for blooming, I think. I got this small flower 2 months ago and only now I found courage to draw it . This small white "hairs" on "leaves" , they make me crazy ! The drawing is equally small like plant. And is dedicated to TeriC , which drawings of Cacti are so beautiful !
Done on Canson Esquise 90g paper with watercolor pencils.

Daily doodles

Daily sketches in my small sketchbook. Salmon bagel is done with inkliner and color markers on salmon bagel´s bag , now I am not sure it was a good idea. Memory stick is done with watercolors, inkliner is applicated afterward.

It´s a season now

Asparagus, ‘the queen of vegetables’, is highly prized for its delicate taste. The asparagus season usually runs from 1 May to 21 June, so now it is the right time for enjoy it.

Asparagus, a member of the lily family, originated in the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor , wild and cultivated varieties were popular with Greeks and Romans in the first century AD . Due delicate flavour and diuretic properties asparagus has been used as a culinary vegetable. The shoots are usually boiled or steamed and served with sauce hollandaise, melted butter or olive oil and Parmesan cheese . I like it grilled over charcoal grill , wrapped in slice of bacon.

Asparagus contains more folic acid than any other vegetable. Asparagus is also low in calories, no fat, no cholesterol, very low on sodium, but rich in fibre, potassium, thiamine, vitamins A, C, and B6, and glutathione, which is a powerful antioxidant. One of the richest sources of rutin, a drug which strengthens capillary walls. If you have never tried asparagus before, you should try it , you know : It´s a season now !

Drawing done in watercolor and ink-liner inside daily sketchbook.

435 years old

There are more than 100 water fountains here in Bratislava. The oldest is Roland Fountain (sometimes referred to as Maximilian Fountain ; in Slovak language Rolandova or Maximiliánova fontána) , located on Main Square. It belongs to the most famous fountain of Bratislava as well is known as a popular meeting point.


Its construction was ordered by Maximilian II Habsburg , the first Hungarian King crowned in Bratislava in 1563, to provide a public water supply in case of future fires because after his coronation was a big fire which ravaged the town. The fountain was built in 1572 in Austrian workshop of stonecutter Andreas Luttringer from Deutsch Altenburg. Diameter of the fountain basin is 9 m, pillar has 10.5 m and on the top is standing statue of knight in armor . It could be Roland, knight known as the protector of the city, yet the man atop the fountain is actually Maximillian II. Fountain´s current appearance is probably far from the original look, since it was modified and rebuilt several times. However its popularity remains unaltered and around this fountain are centred many legends.


Roland stands on his place, with his face turned towards the town hall. Once a year, precisely at the midnight at New Year Eve, he turns and bows in the direction of the former town hall, honoring the twelve councillors who in the past gave their lives in order to save the town.
He is also rumoured to come to life on Good Friday. On this occasion, in broad daylight he moves from his pedestal and woves his sword, Durandal, in all four directions, so that the town can feel that it still enjoys his protection. However, he can be seen only by a born and bred citizen of Bratislava, with a pure heart, who has never harmed anyone.
The Roland is done in watercolors and watercolor pencils in small watercolour moleskine

Illustration Friday - Citrus (again)

Today I want to try something new , something I didn´t try until now. My inspiration came from Belinda Del Pesco Fine Art Blog (from November 2006 ) and has name collograph print.
Collographs are made by assembling a collage on a substrate, inking the surface, and printing from the inked & wiped face of the collage. This was my idea , of course it was the first time I try something like that so maybe results are not so satisfied like it could be . I have not printing ink , so I made print with use of black acrylic color. I "print" it with small tea spoon :-) . The picture itself is tiny 43 mm x 12o mm , is "printed" on aquarell paper and is colored with watercolours. I must say that probably no one recognize what is on the picture (that´s why I add a photo what it could be ) but it was definitely a fun ! I will repeat this more time ! Try it , too !

Illustration Friday - Citrus

Done with inkliner and watercolors in daily sketchbook

Long weekend in Prague

There was a several free days here in Slovakia which I spent in my favourite town , Prague , capitol of Czech republic. This city has always full hand of things to see , to hear , to visit , to taste. This time my visit was so "artsy" , I visit performance of several musicals ( dark Excalibur , monstrous Golem , crazy Láska je láska ) . I try make some sketch there , but actors was so quick and dynamic , that I finally had only pictures of several pieces on the stage :-) So , in my sketchbook is picture of official banner of muzical Excalibur , done in pen and watercolor.
One of the place, I always don´t forget to visit, is lovely little tearoom "U zeleného čaje" . Great variety of tea from all over the world, good for snacks too. When you seat here over the cup of smelling tea , you can see exactly the same picture of shop´s windows like past several hundred years. The nearest is in my sketchbook now, done in color pencil.
Greatest joy waits for me.. I find the shop where sells Moleskine notebooks . Now, I am proud owner of small watercolor Moleskine, too . I have to test it, of course, so first sketch is done in pen and watercolor on place Kampa , under the Charles bridge.
And they sell not only Moleskines, actually it is a bookshop, probably the biggest in Central Europe , Palác knih . And right there I met one of my favourite writer , Mr. Robert Fulghum . Mr.Fulghum wrote new book What On Earth Have I Done ? and here was book signing (I am not sure this is right meaning - simply he signed new books )

I must mention visiting old Prague castle , famous Cathedral of St.Vit,...and so on. You must visit Prague , you feel history on each square meter there. And because , human body need food not only for soul , there was some pub visits during these days ,too :-) . Do you know famous Czech beers ?