A Merry Christmas

It's funny how Christmas is one of the most awaited periods of the year and when it comes you barely have time to register it.

This year I spent a few days with my parents and brother. Nothing fancy, just lots of delicious food, good mood and a few presents to make it all even better.

I also found some time to scribble a few things here and there.

The Advent wreath was lit one last time until the cadles burned out.

The Advent wreath has done its time

The delicious turkey was very much appreciated.

Turkey delight

And Christmas decorations added warm light to the jolly mood.

Took hours to complete, but it was a fun little companion

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time, whether you celebrate it or not, and wish you a very happy New Year!

A few JKPP portraits again

It's been a while since I did some portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party.

I have so many photos stored that I don't know where to start or just don't always have the motivation.

It was time to practice again, though, so here are some I did lately.

What attracted me to this photo was the pronounced shadows on the face. I really wanted to show that the sun was shining on it. 

I was less inspired with the background, but I like it this way

I loved the moustache on this one. I challenged myself with the hair, trying to put the right highlights were needed. I think the moustache got good. I'm less happy with the hair, though. Practice makes perfect!

Again, the background...

I knew I wanted to use different paper and medium for this next picture. I think it looks a bit like an old children's illustration book. This paper is very tricky to handle, so there are always surprises, but I like it.

"Martine au salon de thé"

Sketch crawl at Krëschtmaart

For the latest outing of Luxembourg's sketch crawl group we went on a tour of a few Christmas markets, or how we call them in Luxembourgish: Krëschtmaart.

Every year the city gets illuminated with Christmas lights and several markets appear on strategic locations.

We (this time only Leen and I) started out at Place d'Armes, where you can find a lot of food stalls, music and even a carousel and blacksmiths.

There were pumpkin carriages, elephants, ducks, bears, even a Mickey Mouse

They were crafting angels out of metal

Before heading out to another one we made a stop at a coffee shop called Kaale Kaffi (litt. cold coffee). Luckily they also had hot beverages and we were able to warm ourselves up.

It was my first time there and I have to say I loved the place. It's full of second-hand clothes and old items that you can buy. One of the waiters told me that the interior decoration was constantly changing.

In short: a sketcher's paradise.

Very elegant mannequins

Apparently this Thierry Mugler piece is very popular

Leen and I finished our tour at the Christmas market on Place de la Constitution, where the Gëlle Fra (litt. golden lady) is.

What I love about this particular market is that every year they dedicate one part of the location to one specific country or region. This year it's Alsace, so you can get tasty tarte flambée (or Flammekueche, as they call it there) and other specialties from that region.

There is also a ferris wheel and even a Santa Claus waiting for people to take photos with him inside a giant bubble. It almost looks like a giant snow globe.

Santa seemed a tiny bit lonely in there

I have to admit that I had to push myself to go out and sketch, with the cold and all, but I'm really glad I did. It was fun to be among the Christmas crowd and to experience the Krëschtmaart in a different way.

Draw Tommy Kane

I love Tommy Kane's work. I don't know if it's his style or his humour I like most, or even his clever self-promotion.

He just seems like a nice guy. Someone I would love to hang out with.

He has this Tumblr account called Draw Tommy Kane, where he showcases portraits of him made by anyone who would like to draw him.

Check it out, it's quite fun to browse through this big diversity of drawings.

Here is the one I made.

The squirrel is a last-minute addition. He seems to like them and he has this very cool drawing of a squirrel with a gun.

There happened to be some tape with a squirrel on it among the presents I got from my friend Sari for my birthday, so I added it.