tgv

people are staring at their laptops while the french countryside passes at 300 km/h.

Rheinsteig

There is a beautiful hiking trail along the Rhine, called Rheinsteig, that runs 320 km from Wiesbaden to Bonn (or the other way round). I only hiked the first 80 km, walking through vineyards and villages, and getting no sketching done except these two- Schloß Vollrads in Johannisberg and a glimpse of half timbered houses in Rüdesheim.

RDH

hemera

hemera is my colleague´s dachshund.

kaiserslautern

one month till christmas: festive lighting and christmas tree are already up. It´s still warm enough to sit outside for a while.

indoor sketching at Pfalzgalerie. Might be my drawing skills, but even the original looked like she was slightly stoned.

7 am

Sleeping on the train

New toy

Drawn with Autodesk Sketchbook + Samsung Galaxy Note.

herbst

sunset

bad münster am stein

 

A missed train led to 40 minutes of sketching in this picturesque town.

marni

Marni Alves- Text und Redaktion

the audience

vehikel

simson schwalbe

fiat 500

mainzer

weinhaus "rote kopf"

café "annabatterie"

teenage mutant ninja turtles

I made an illustration about childhood heroes for Bird magazine, an Illustration fanzine. Finally picked up a copy of the first issue- the two-toned Risograph printing is especially sweet.

nudes

städel

frankfurt skyline, seen through the window of Städel museum cafeteria.

korean food

with forks though.

lace & paper boats

grüne decke

alexander mcqueen

Alexander McQueen exhibition. Distorted animal prints, extreme silhouettes, neon coloured styrofoam catwalks and this very nice coat that was made out of some kind of bubblewrap.

harry rowohlt

blind drawing

Minusgrade

When it´s -10 °C outside that feel more like -20 °C, reasons for going out are few. We stay in and prefer to connect with the outside world through blogging. Here´s Eva, and here´s what she drew on my Wacom: Außer Rand & Band.

Marokko

Winter escape to Morocco with the main goal of avoiding everything cold, dreary and european. The part about skipping the cold didn´t quite work out though. 

Route: Ryanair flight to Fès, bus to Essaouira via Casablanca, then passing Agadir, on to Tafraoute, joining an organised tour to see the Anti-Atlas and Sahara, then going back to Fès via Ouarzazate.

Bluest skies over the Mellah of Fès. This used to be the jewish quarter, but the majority of moroccan jews either emigrated to Israel or moved to the newer parts of town. 

Nowadays the population in the Mellah is muslim.

 

Leather tannery in the Medina. Only natural ingredients are used, as another overeager salesman assures us, like pidgeon excrement and chalk. It smells like rotting flesh.

 

Much tastier: Thé a la mente. Green tea, fresh mint leaves, and sugar chunks the size of oranges.

Essaouira back alley, trying to find some food that isn´t tajine or couscous. I´m not sure what we had, but it might have been bowel soup. At least we went somewhere that wasn´t listed in the Lonely Planet!

 

Oasis near Tafraoute, spectacular mountain backdrop, turquoise water, date palms, there were even frogs. Conclusion: Some things are too pretty to draw.

I didn´t see much of Zagora, except this view from the hotel terrace. It´s also a very dusty place.

Ouarzazate´s Medina.

Franken

  

Former means of transport in the Verkehrsmuseum in Nürnberg: Goggomobil Coupé, 1960s & E 19 locomotive, 1940

Modern means of transport: Anonymous, crowded regional train from Nürnberg to München. No seats available = 2 hours for one drawing + stiff legs