19th World Wide Sketchcrawl Bratislava, Slovakia

Yesterday was the 19th International Sketchcrawl . Wheather was fine, quite hot (there was 31 degrees of Celsius at 18:00 evening! ) , but perfect for all day walk around Bratislava . I start several kilometers long walk by Donau river (unfortunately the times when it was called "blue" are definitely gone ). You can see New Bridge , which steel constuction,hanging on steel cables, is 432 m long...I think it will be soon part of EDMS drawing here (174 Draw a bridge) in this blog.
Through bank of river you come to town..to the Slovak National Museum with Memorial Of Czechoslovak Statehood with bronze lion on 14,85 m tall column. Lion holds shield with state emblem of (former) Czechoslovak state.
The next street from Slovak Muzeum you can find bronze Duck Fountain made 1914 by the sculptor Kuhmayer. It is nice fountain with interesting story...soon here in this blog :-)
Going to the Old Town is the opportunity watch ( and sketch) people resting, walking, listen to street performancers ,..
The sketches are done in plain paper notebook ( Donau river in aquarell Moleskine) with Lamy fountain pen and VanGogh watercolors )

Go to the nature

Long ago
I forgot how can be pleasant
simply go to the nature
sit and look at the river
listen to song of birds....






Done in plainpaper sketchbook with pen and wc pencils

Illustration Friday - Tales and Legends 2 - Man In Black

On the building of Old Town Hall complex, right next to a Gothic bay window, you can see a picture of the man in black who is mentioned in one of the oldest stories - about a widow and a false oath.

Every Wednesday , people used to come to the town hall court with their complaints to seek justice. Once a widow stated that her husband´s field had been robbed by one of the municipal lords who was sitting in the room. He replied that the woman is mad and pulled out a document with a seal which confirmed that the field was his. "The document can´t be right! " screamed the desperate widow. "Let the Municipal Lord swear that he is telling the truth ! " He did so, and added, " If it is a false oath, let me be punished justly." Then the whole house shook and became smoky, from the smoke appeared a devil, he threw the liar over his shoulder, and before he disappeared with his booty touched the Town Hall wall with his black hand, and left for ever pressed into it picture of the lying Municipal Lord. Or his own , who knows it exactly today?
And here it is Devil/man in black , done in watercolor and Lamy ink pen on WN CotmanNOT/cold pressed 300 gsm watercolor paper

Illustration Friday - Tales and Legends 1 - Joker Posmievačik

There is only a few cities in the world which has so many tales and legends still living among people, like Bratislava. Many of these found their artistic realisation in fountains, pictures or statues.
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In the niche of Neoclassical house (on Panská street 29) is a small mid-nineteenth century statue of a crouching boy laughing malevolently to which has stuck the nickname Posmievačik (Joker)
The Joker is linked with a story about a beautiful girl living in Pressburg (former name of Bratislava) who could not decide between two admirers. As a result of her quandary, she said that she would marry the suitor who could build a house more rapidly. (Clever girl , isn´t true ?) Both masters started to build houses on sites standing opposite each other. The winner got the bride. In a niche on the front of his house the Joker sat to mock his neighbour for his loss. However,some city inhabitants say that the statue is only boy who wanted to see a coronation procession, so much, that he peered over from his potty where he was sitting. Others say that the boy is looking at flood waters to see if they have started to fall. Finallu, according to some, he is showing sailors the way to the previous location of the red-light district - the Vydrica.
Who knows it today ? It´s a tales and legends all about.

The Joker is done with watercolors (Yarka White Nights) and Lamy pen at WN Water Colour 300 gsm Cotman NOT/cold pressed paper

Happy New Year

To each of you, each member of EDM group and each visitor of my blog , thank you for your supportive comments and permanent inspiration.

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Let your year 2008 be CREATIVE & HAPPY !

Autumn haiku - Congrats to Elizabeth

Today's is Elizabeth Perry's 1000th consequtive posting of sketches and drawings over at her blog Woolgathering and as part of her online celebration, I am posting my autumn haiku. Congratulations Elizabeth and we are looking for the next 1000 !

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autumn wind
colourfull leaves gently
sweeping through garden

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Coming down with flu

Schoener Náci

You already know there are several goofy statues here in Bratislava , each of them has their unique story. Not far (maybe 40 steps) from Čumil you can pass by the another statue . It is well known Schoener Naci (here is the photo with my daughter).The Schoener Naci was a man who lived in Bratislava in the early 20th century, when Bratislava was called Pressburg. He was a poor, polite and always smartly dressed ( in worn out tail-coat, polished shoes , a top hat and noble white glows ) man who wandered around the Old Town during the day.They said to have become mad as a result of an unhappy love and therefore he daily for almost four decades walked the city with stick in one hand and a donated packet from some coffee and cake room in the other hand (It was rather effective advertisement!) He was ready to help everyone who asked and he was gallant to women he met on his route..."Kiss your hands" was his greatings to nice woman ! His real name was Ignac Lamar. "Naci" is the nickname for Ignac and "Schoene(r)" is the German word for "handsome".
It is not coincidence I mention it , because his remnants coming back after 40 years to Bratislava on last Sunday, where there was several hundreds people saying good bye to him !

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The statue itself is work of sculptor Juraj Meliš and was several times badly damaged by English "stag" parties. Drawings is done with Lamy pen and watercolor pencils

Coronation ceremony

Bratislava became a coronation city of Hungarian kings in times when Hungary lost its Coronation status due war with Turks. Old Bratislava became a meeting point of kingdoms, seats of kings and archbishops. In the St. Martin Cathedral in the years 1563 – 1830 10 kings, one ruling queen, and eight kings’ wives were crowned. The only ruling queen crowned was Maria Teresa from house of Habsburgs, she was crowned on the 25^th September 1563. The last coronation which took place in the city was on the September 1830 and it was Ferdinand V.

Nowadays traditions of coronations in Bratislava comes to life every year in the first weekend of September. Celebration processions through the streets but also night tournaments, puppet theatre shows, belly dancers and fire eaters offer an opportunity for fun in the streets of the old town. It is one of the biggest cultural events in Slovakia and helps to understand the historical coronation ceremony of Hungarian kings. According to historical documents in the Cathedral of St. Martin the ceremony of coronation itself is displayed written, during which the king is baptized and receives a coronation insignias: St Stephens Crown, sword, robe an apple and the staff. Then in the streets of the town the next parts of the ceremony take place: the knights of the golden spurs are knighted, an oath is given to the country, and the king rides up the coronation hill where he blesses all major compass points. In the framework of the coronation ceremony the representative of other king towns come to greet the king, workshops present their crafts, instead of water there is wine in the fountain, knights tournaments take place and a folk banquet takes place where there is offered roasted bull.

Today started 5th Coronation Ceremony of the Hungarian Queen Anna Tirol, wife of King Matthew II., crowned on the 25th of March 1613 in Bratislava. Despite of bad wheather it was spectacular performance. Ceremony was for the first time on main square , for the first time in Latin language and it last more than 1 hour !

King´s route from St.Martin Cathedral through the old town is marked .

Drawings done in daily sketchbook with Lamy pen and portable WN Cotman watercolor

EDM #131: Draw a spray bottle

Done in Lamy Safari pen with Caran d´Ache Blue Night ink and sepia watercolor in daily sketchbook (not watercolor paper )

Two castles

I am taking wonderful watercolor class (of wonderful Cathy Johnson , why not you ? ) and for this ocassion here is coming time for better watercolors for me. On eBay I was succesful bidder for Winsor Newton watercolor Sketcher´s Pocket Box ( inside with 12 halfpanes of Cotman WC and neat retractable brush). It is so small I can take it really everywhere with me. So this sketch I made in my daily sketchbook from city beach on bank of river Dunaj. It was really quick and with this small pocket you are not a center of view for people all around.Of course, first I need to know these colors, but I am very satisfied with it.
Bratislava´s castle is done in Lamy pen and WN watercolors in my (no branding) sketchbook Here is another castle, this is castle hill in Alanya (Turkey) taken from Cleopatra beach, sketch from last holiday . Besides some scanner troubles ( no blue sea or sky) you can see that for example green is quite different from WinsonNewton . This sketch was done in Koh-I-Noor watercolor and Lamy pen.

Happy months

It is a long ago I last updated my blog. Even not updating, I still create, draw, paint or make a photo each day.Only this posting.... :-( Let´s say I take a blog holiday.
But these months was so exciting that some of the events must be mentioned.

For example gigantic monstrousus concert of the rock legend, music band GENESIS. This group started 40 years ago and now, after 15 still years, they are on stage again. Present new world tour „Turn It On Again“ are going through twelve European countries (starts from Helsinki to Rome) and I think from September people from USA and Canada can enjoy their music.
The concert in Prague was performed on Sazka ARENA 20th June 2007. Tony Banks, Phil Collins , Mike Rutherford, Chester Thompson and Daryl Steurmer was perfect on gigantic stage in front of 25 000 people standing here . The drawings I did are drawings as seen from two megascreens , I was standing maybe 70 meters far from stage.The colors are finished later at home.








During these two months I became happy winner !!! Normally I have no luck but this is so special I named it "East meets West" right here , in Bratislava. On the photo you can see two small parcels, one from free Moleskinerie giveaway (contains lovely ruled notebook Moleskine ), second one right from fabulous printmaker David Bull (contains small print "Fuji from Edo Castle" ). Both of these sites are definitelly worth of seeing and bookmarking !!



And holiday, of course. This year in Alanya,Turkey again. I made small travel sketchbook , for this moment I will publish only two pages , the rest next time.