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 )

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.

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.

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 .

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

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 ?