architecture

Matera


Matera is a city in southern Italy, in the province Basilicata. It is known as the subterranean city because of its structure of ancient cave dwellings which were inhabited since 7000 BC- and some of them were left only in the 1950s. The so-called  "Sassi" make up the old city center and are famous as film sets.






Biebrich


These are drawings from the last sketch outing with our local group, it was nice to see many new faces. Although we met up at Schloß Biebrich, we decided we weren´t up for that baroque monstrosity yet. We went to the industrial area instead where we sat down in a parking lot to draw. The entrance to the Kalle building drew my attention, apparently a producer of sausage casings (!) Who knew?



Later on, a more picturesque motif. Mosburg, an artificial ruin in the Schloßpark



And more industrial loveliness on the way home, a concrete factory in Amöneburg.

Warszawa

Some days spent in Warsaw, drawing socialist monuments, restaurant interiors and people.




Apparently, a true Warsaw experience includes the visit to a milkbar,  an eastern european version of a self service restaurant. You pay for your meal at one counter and pick it up at a second one, but only after the cashier has screamed "Frytki! Nalesniki!" or whatever else you ordered. Everything´s greasy, good and cheap.


The Pałac Kultury i Nauki, the Palace of Culture and Science, still Polands tallest building, a a strange soviet landmark.





Dining on chinese food on Hoza Street. Zuzanna is a waitress who works in the restaurant and when she noticed i was drawing she asked me to draw in the restaurants guestbook. While drawing some more, we kept on talking.The other guests left, the kitchen closed, and i made a drawing of Zuzanna looking like a vampire. After many cups of green tea, we left and thought that this was the best way for the holiday to end. dziękuję Dżonka!


Schnee immerzu

I´m reposting my first post to Urban sketchers, from last month, with two additional winter sketches.

It´s winter, which means it´s not exactly sketching season in Germany and I haven´t been drawing much. I leave for work when it´s still dark, and when I come home, it´s dark again, and of course, it´s terribly cold outside. So I drew these views from various windows of my appartment.




These are drawn in square sketchbook with grey paper that i hadn´t used before. It´s nice to use a darker paper to play around with negative space- but it seems the only thing i can draw in it are desaturated winter scenes!



It´s March now and you´d think spring might be coming along, but it´s been snowing again.