Thursday 29 November 2012

Mummy

British museum: mummy

British Museum, the Egyptian department. Above a real mummy on display. It's awkward to realise that this was a person real and alive about 3000 years ago. And now thousands of people, coming from countries he never knew existed, come to look at his remains.
I also sketched a nice model of the gifts the ancient Egypts buried in their graves, two beautiful and intricately detailed models of riverboats. The realistic pose and detailing of the boatsmen is stunning.
British museum: egypt

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Thursday 22 November 2012

Oil Sketching at night in London

This year I tried out something really weird, I tried oil sketching at night, I had done this in Bath and done a sketch of Tower Bridge at night with watercolours but I hadn't done them in oils. All these were done on  location with oils on board. The size of the board is 10" x 8". I use a head lamp and I always make sure there is a Street lamp or artificial light from somewhere around before I can make a set up at a particular Scene. It's really great painting at night as the light doesn't change. One has to be a great risk taker with the colours as they sometimes appear different when taken indoors under a different light source.



Royal Court Theatre At Night, Oil on Board, 10" x 8", 2012

Royal Court Theatre At Night-Adebanji at work

Royal Court Theatre At Night-The Scene and the set-up




Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics, 20" x 8", Oil on Board, 2012



Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics-Adebanji at work



Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics-The Scene and the set-up







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Tuesday 20 November 2012

Tower bridge

Tower Bridge, London
I just returned home to the Netherlands from a lovely weekend in London. Our daughter presently studies for her Master at the Imperial College London, and we took the opportunity to visit her and the city as well.
I drew this sitting in front of the large windows of the 1st floor lobby of our hotel (hotel the Tower). I could rest my sore feet and have a nice Guinness while drawing this scene. Sometimes you have to make your luck.

Unfortunately the perfect weekend had a nasty ending: on our journey back in Brussels our backpack with all my travel sketching gear and one of my sketchbooks was stolen. This one is the only drawing left of the trip, it was packed in our suitcase.
Infuriating, it took years to assemble a comfortable sketching set, and now it's all gone.

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Thursday 8 November 2012

Urban Sketchers London - Sketchcrawl 3


Come and sketch with us! We'll be taking in the sights of the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and, weather permitting, the surrounding area. The Natural History Museum has an ice rink in the winter months, so should provide something different to draw, while the exterior of the museums themselves have fascinating architecture, not to mention the endless stream of tourists that even the cold can't keep away.
The nearest tube is South Kensington, and we're starting at 11am, inside the main entrance of the Natural History Museum - the big, grand Central Hall (the one with the big dinosaur skeleton). Don't forget your pencils!
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Saturday 3 November 2012

Blues dancing in Hackney

I was booked recently to play music for a group of blues dancers at the Hackney Picturehouse. Before the set, the dancers strutted their stuff to a selection of great tracks played by a DJ. Their was just time for me to draw on a double page of my sketchbook. A glass of Sngiovese provided refreshment and a handy way to get the Inktense pencil to give up some strong black tone

Blues dancers - Inktense pencil and  wine A3                         
 


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