Life drawing

This week the session was held in a small room or I would have done a few drawings in different positions just for a change. I decided instead to concentrate on the two areas that I find most difficult, the knees and the face. I don't like the face when it's on it's side and the skin is being pulled in strange ways so I didn't spend so much time on that but I was happy with the way the knees, and the thighs, turned out. I worked a little bit on the skin around the tummy to show how it dimpled and folded - hoping in three hours to come close to what Anthony Ryder does in three days! I can feel the difference at these life sessions between when I have been drawing during the week and when I haven't. It's much easier and quicker to get into it especially if I've been drawing the day before.

B pencil.

Passion with a new Flame

Still itching to sketch, I drew this Forest Flame. It's one of our new plants now growing on the balcony. There is a long trough filled with soil built into it and it was empty except for weeds when we moved in. Now I can keep my eye on these from my little 'drawing' room. It was warm and sunny all day yesterday, not too hot, and perfect weather for sketching. The shape of the leaves really appealed to me.
















On the way home from the disaster at the hairdressers, I bought this Passiflora, or Passion Flower. Again, this relates to a neighbour, as it used to grow over a neighbours fence and into ours, although not as much as I would have liked! I've wanted one for years. I tried to draw it quickly before it goes in the garden - hopefully outside the kitchen door by the patio where I can see it often. The leaves are a wonderful shape and the tendrils are just like perfect little springs. The flowers are even more amazing, difficult to draw probably but I can't wait to see them open.

Indoor plant, outdoor sketches

It's the Mermaid Vine again.





















I'm sure it will look very odd to anyone who doesn't draw but for me this sketch represents something of a goal! I'm still struggling with fear of drawing in public even though I carry my book with me every day. I left it behind one day last week as I knew I wouldn't use it. I missed my bus and got in the next one and had to wait ten minutes before it went off. There was no-one else in the bus except the driver who seemed to be staring into space - and I had nothing to draw with! After that I decided I'd leave the little Moleskine I was carrying, and take my little leather bound Winsor & Newton with the nicer paper. I don't like the Moleskine and I've felt like putting a drawing in there was a bit of a waste and perhaps that has also been a barrier.

I saw an EDMer had drawn herself getting her hair coloured and I always thought that would be fun. So yesterday, when it looked like no-one was looking, I did this very quick sketch! I'm trying hard to resist ranting about hairdressers in Geneva again, but even if anyone had noticed it wouldn't have mattered because I won't be going back there again!




















Waiting at the bus stop and feeling a little braver after the first sketch, I got the book out and drew a pollarded tree across the road. This time people did notice but I focused very hard on the tree and tried to block everything else out. It was a miracle it looked anything like a tree because my hand was shaking so much! I did find out something useful though. The leather flap on the book is not the hindrance I thought it would be, it provides a useful barrier to passers by trying to sneak a look!

Mermaid vine

The Mermaid Vine has been one of my favourite plants since I first saw it in a neighbour's house in Norway way back in 1989. We had one in England, got rid of it to go to Dubai, bought one in Scotland, got rid of it to go to Kuwait and now I have one again! It just feels right to have one in the house.

Yesterday was one of those relaxed Sundays with the sun shining and nothing urgent to do so I don't know why I didn't start drawing until late afternoon. Time just flew by and I got such a buzz out of drawing this that I couldn't sleep last night. I could have just carried on and on but life, as they say, got in the way!

I thought I might have drawn this vine before and went looking in my old sketchbooks but I realised it was actually a bougainvillea. I drew it while sitting in the garden in Dubai so it must have been done around 1997 or thereabouts. Strange for me as I hardly ever sketched, and outdoors too.




















I thought I would post it though to see the difference in my drawing style. I'm so glad I made the effort to do this drawing, and a couple of others at the same time, as they bring back memories of lazy days sitting in the sun! Warmer weather is due this week so it seems appropriate.

Yesterday's drawing was done without any plan in mind except to allow it to grow at random although I felt it needed some shading otherwise it would be a jumble of lines. So it became a little more organised by the time I had finished it. I tried an 8B pencil to start with, just for a change, but I ended up rubbing out those heavy lines as I felt I got more variation with a 2B.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Paul, the Formula One and James Bond fan, shares his birthday with Ayrton Senna and Timothy Dalton. It hit me a couple of days ago that Paul was going to be sixteen! Sixteen! I can't believe it! That's probably my mental age! He doesn't go for big chocolate cakes the way Alex does but he does love custard tarts so I spent the afternoon making one for him. (Why do new recipes take so long?) He also loves chocolate macaroons so I had the gruelling and difficult task of hunting them down this morning!




















Actually, I know exactly where to go to find the best ones - Auer on the main shopping street. It doesn't look much from the outside especially next to a shabby looking cinema.















Inside it has glass cabinets with elegant displays of hand made chocolates. Since I had my camera with me I took some photos of their window display.














That gold plate of chocolate macaroons is there every day and we check it every time we pass to see how many are left! They look so unassuming don't they? But what a taste and texture sensation! We only discovered them by accident last year as we popped in to buy what we thought were meringues. The lady had put them in the bag as I realised my mistake but as I couldn't speak French I said nothing rather than get into a complicated conversation. We buy them every now and again when we want a real treat!














I thought it was about time for another update on the chocolatier's displays now it's almost Easter. This is my favourite window although I've forgotten the name of the shop now. There were huge chocolate fish in it last week to celebrate April 1st or Poisson d'Avril.




















Can you see the marbled hare on the top shelf?





















I like the eyes of those bunnies below!





















A new find, Du Rhone at the other end of the road. I happened to be passing it as the door opened and the smell of chocolate hit me! I think I put on three pounds just breathing in!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex, unlike Paul, likes to be made a fuss of on his birthday and a home made cake just doesn't do it for him! I think he needs to know I went out and took the trouble to look for a cake even though homemade would taste better! Although there is no way I could have made such lovely sheets of chocolate like this.

March has always been the month for birthdays in my family. I didn't mention on my Mum's birthday that she shared it with my dad, her brother and Dad's neice! It will be Paul's birthday on Wednesday. Paul and Alex were born two years, three days and half an hour apart but they are as similar as chalk and cheese!

Alex makes me look like an amateur chocoholic so I hope this cake is chocolatey enough for him!

The Motor Show

We finally made it to the Geneva Motor Show but by Friday I really wasn't in the right frame of mind! Mark and I had booked a car on Friday and stocked up on plants for the garden and bought the rest of the paint to finish off the painting in the house. Two words put the nail in the coffin - veal sausages. Mark reminded me of the terrible food area at the show and how we had to find a space just to stand and eat.

Paul had got up in the small hours of the morning to watch the first F1 qualifying session in Australia but we finally got ourselves out the door and squashed onto a packed bus for an uncomfortable ride to Palaxpo, situated near the airport, north of the lake.

Here's what I went to see - the Mini Coopers! And that's the colour I'll have too, thankyouverymuch!















I sat inside and it felt like it fitted like a glove. It's small and chunky - just like me says Mark!













First thing I noticed was that the layout of the cars was the same as last year. The Bugatti Veyron, above, was exactly the same car as last year too.












One of the cars Paul made a beeline for. He called it a glass car but I'm sure it must be perspex!
















These candles tickled my fancy - who on earth is going to buy a Lancia candle?! I found it strange that these car manufactures didn't sell any merchandise at the show, they could have made a killing. Though maybe not with these candles...













That teenager is in bed again after getting up early to watch the F1 race, otherwise I'd tell you the name of this. Cars look very strange with the doors and bonnets/hoods open, don't they?













I know this one is a Spyker. A bit Mustang-like but it looked very good in the flesh.

















This has got to be illegal on the road! You'd need some pretty extensive reconstructive knee surgery if you got hit with this big, ugly car.














I found the show more interesting to look back on than I did while I was there. There were a few very gimmicky things like this silver car to add some interest.













A view from the upper floor looking down at a small section of the lower floor. Even the wide angle lens couldn't show how huge the exhibition space was.

















A beautiful Zonda but it was that scale model that I really wanted. When I was young I used to long for those model airplanes in the windows of the airline offices! Something about them being small and perfectly formed perhaps. I'd say this model was about two feet wide - gorgeous!

I was delighted to see this lovely Fiat! They don't make cars like this anymore do they?! No wonder it had to be cordoned off.
















The other car I wanted to see - the new Aston Martin Roadster. I wouldn't be disappointed to have it in that colour either.


















Just to remind me I could be at home admiring our new plants instead!














The most hideous monstrosity in the show - the Rolls Royce. It was bigger than most people's houses and that stainless steel bonnet/hood took me back to my nasty kitchen in Kuwait - made of steel and impossible to keep clean. But I guess that is the chauffeur's problem not the owner, who, no doubt, would have more money than taste.




















And guess what, the Geneva Motor Show is not a drawing free zone! He was there last year too, by the same Peugeot stand, where we stood watching him. His caricatures were excellent.

It's nice to look at the photos - Paul took about 250! - but I think I'll give it a miss next year. Although, it wasn't so crowded as last year because we went on the last weekend, it was very smoky, crowded but most of all extremely hot. Because the layout was exactly the same but there were no amazing new attractions, I felt like I'd seen most of it before. But at least we got a seat on the bus on the way home...!

Black bag, brown shoe

It shouldn't bother me but it does, black bag and brown shoe. They don't go together but for the purposes of the drawing and since there is no colour, there they are. It's a bit of a rushed drawing, things haven't quite settled down yet. I had a very unhappy teenager last month - Paul - as the computer that he had bought in separate components and put together had no less than three faulty parts. Each had to be painstakingly tested by taking them to a friend who has a similarly built computer to find out where the problems were. Finally, after sending them back one by one, the computer is up and running. This month it seems to be Alex's turn. On Monday, someone followed him off the tram and tried to take his iPod as he was waiting for a bus to come home. (Seems a bit of a silly thing for this boy to do as Alex saw him on the tram the following day and knows what school he goes to.) Now his new Xbox has broken and needs repairing or replacing but to him it's like the end of the world. He's shown me loads of videos of people smashing up their Xbox 360's on YouTube. Seems like this product should never have been released, it's so bad.

I feel for him but at the same time Mark and I are just bemused at how kids (and adults) rely so much on these things. I'd certainly miss the computer if it broke down but then it is my primary means of communication. But I can pick up a pencil and paper or read a book or do some cooking and I'm happy. Now happiness seems to come from a screen and by the sounds of it, millions of people can't live happily without them.

Speaking of cooking, did I mention that I love, love, love Jamie Oliver? Well, his books anyway! I've seen his pots and pans and other things for sale here but I was delighted to see yesterday that he has a range of foods available too. I mentioned before that we only have two major supermarkets here and the range is not very extensive so it's great to see something new and particularly Jamie's. Marks & Spencer opened a store here last year and that's nearly ten years after they opened in Dubai. We used to have to cut the labels off when we brought there clothes back from the UK as it is originally a Jewish company. Seems the Swiss were even more resistant so seeing Jamie Oliver breaking into the food market, a brash young man from Essex, is brilliant! Well, got to go, I'm making some pastry for his 'baked ricotta and mascarpone tart with chocolate and orange' now! Toodle pip!

When the going gets tough, the tough go...

shopping, of course! OK, I own up, I've been doing rather a lot of it recently!

I had such a lovely surprise this morning reading Ana Banana's comment and following it to Tommy Kane's blog and then seeing Mattias's comment that I just had to draw something! Shoes and bags are a real weakness of mine which I do control but every now and again I have a full blown attack so a few lovely things found their way home with me last week. This bag isn't one of them (so last year, dahlink!) but it's got loads of zippers and shiny bits and I've been meaning to draw it for a while now. The shoes have lots of stitching detail too so this quick sketch will look quite different when it's finished.

Hopefully this week I will have finished all the odd jobs I needed to do - they seem to have mushroomed in numbers instead of dwindling but finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. My drawing desk was taken over with my sewing machine and all manner of junk but now that, and the whole room, has been cleared and is tidy and welcoming again. In fact, a lot of things went back into our bomb shelter thanks to a report that bomb shelters may no longer be compulsory in new Swiss homes - which also means bomb shelter inspections will no longer require us to keep it empty! Believe it or not, we were concerned as we still have some boxes in there and within days of our arrival last year we had the knock on the door from an inspector to see our TV and radio licence!

Although I don't have photos of the car show to post - we're going next weekend instead to avoid the crowds - I think things may well pick up on my blog. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, really sunny and warm (out of the cool breeze!) and I can feel my batteries charging up! Shopping is on the agenda for Friday too, when Mark and I will be looking for new plants for the garden.

And finally, a very Happy Birthday to Mum who is 77 today - although she still claims to be 29!

That tree again

Remember how next door's tree looked like this?















And then this?




















Well, now it looks like this! I thought it looked pretty severe but I noticed after their tree was pollarded that it's actually quite common to do this to willows. It will be interesting to see how it grows again. (And, btw, this has nothing to do with yesterday's post!)

EDM # 30 and other challenges

This is the green chair. That's what we call it because it's the only single armchair we have. I could probably count on one hand the number of time I've sat in it. I prefer to sprawl on the sofa!The living room/sitting room/lounge - I never know what to call it - underwent a complete transformation after I started drawing this. The mustard yellow walls are gone, the furniture re-arranged and new plants bought so now our house is beginning to look like the house I had imagined when we first bought it. The mustard yellow walls were surprisingly dark and made this downstairs room feel like a cave. Now everything is so much lighter and somehow feels bigger.


That's the reason I haven't been blogging. We've been tackling the painting and putting flooring down in the basement room. One thing leads to another and we had a bit of a clear out of some old stuff we've been moving, unused, from house to house.

This time last week I took Alex to get his back X-rayed after he had a fall at school. Fortunately nothing was broken but he came away with a pair of crutches to take the pressure off of it. That was embarrassing for a teenager but this is Geneva, the city where every second person is on crutches having fallen off their skis, so we saw three people on crutches within minutes of leaving the clinic! Personally, I think having crutches means he's integrated perfectly into Genevois society!

Later in the afternoon I was taking Paul to the bank and the bus station to cancel and renew the things that were stolen from his wallet - at school. Some of the wealthiest people in Geneva have their children there but I guess too much is never enough for some...

After that, I thought things would go back to normal but something one of the neighbours did brought back some bad memories for me. I've had the most awful, bizarre neighbours in the past so perhaps I'm more sensitive to it but I'm hoping it's a temporary thing. It did make me wonder about human behaviour in general and why some people are negative without you giving them a reason. Before, it bothered me a lot, but now I can better accept that it's their choice and nothing to do with me.

I keep saying I will draw more but hopefully this time I can say it and mean it! The life class won't be on again for a few weeks so I can't rely on that to keep my blog going! I will look around at home and see what I can come up with. Sadly, the crutches have now been returned - I missed an opportunity there!