Books and balusters

My last reads. First I read the one on the right, a story by Cathy Kelly, and I hated it. It was boring, and it was aggravating, and I wonder why I read it to the end. I thought something interesting was going to happen. But no, never. Also, I was busy with no time to go to the library...

 

On the left is a story by Ed McBain, and it was good. I've enjoyed all the books I've read by this author, great plots, great dialogues and characters, always.

And this is a trompe l'oeil I did in May for my parents, to replace the broken balusters temporarily. I drew them in chalk on a large wooden board and a friend sprayed some waterproof varnish on the whole thing.

I've not been drawing lately and I miss it, but I had absolutely no motivation for it. Now, seeing all the cool posts of everyone via the EDM group, I feel the motivation creeping back... Crossing my fingers.

Books and something completely different

I've been not drawing a lot, lately. Last week I had some time to myself and this came out. It was fun to do and took a long time with all the little details to color... (I think you can see it bigger if you click on it).

Then I had to do something with the cluster in my appartment and basement, and I received the Chuck season 2 dvds, and I had to go to the beach not to lose my suntan, and the rest of the week disapeared very fast.
But I also managed to finish that - not reading much lately, so it's easier to keep update with drawing my books ^^!

On the left is a strange book by Kelly Kaplan about a village famous for its frog cooking restaurants. There's violence, jealousy, sects, sex, crimes,  lies... it's very weird. I liked it mostly because it was told in a way that made me see the pictures really well (and no, I'm not talking about the sex part, that was not graphic at all), I could picture the story like in a child book. Otherwise it was a little too weird for my liking.
The one on the right was great fun. It's a thriller by Andy Mc Dermott with a lot of action and explosions, the characters are fun, I enjoyed it a lot!! Will read anything by this author now!

Bouquins, portraits, comme d'hab...

 The book on the left tells life as seen by a six year old little girl. It was rather sad.  I wanted to beat the mother during all the book. The ending was great, though : the little girl leanrs how to read, and her world changes!

 

On the right is a book by Rose Tremaine, called "Trespass" in English, "les silences" in french. It was excellent, great characters, great story, beautiful writing. The story takes place in the Cevennes, that's in the south of France, it's very rural, and rough, and not very touristic. I could feel the place, reading, it was so well written (and it's a place I know well).

And a few portraits, again... Third one is my daughter, quickly sketched as she was reading. She said, "it's okay, but do I really have that many freckles?" I said no, you have more, but I'm bad at drawing freckles...
 She wasn't all that pleased.

2 bouquins 8 portrait et 1 carte

Time really flies! I've been busy drinking and eating a lot, and dancing and getting into swimming pools and the sea - that was nice! June is worse (better?) than december in terms of social gathering, I think.

Still had time to read, since this is a vital activity!

 

The book on the right was okay. In french, I'd say that "it doesn't breack bricks" (ça ne casse pas des briques") meaning it's okay but not that fabulous. It didn't help that the french translation was horrible.

On the left is Kundera's "the unbearable lightness of being", which I hadn't read yet. I should have read it sooner. I'm lacking words to talk about it, because if I had the words, I'd be Kundera and write 464 pages to explain... He has open eyes about humanity, what makes us love, what makes us follow.
He's not politically correct, he doesn't have pink glasses, but he's not cynical either. It's about love and totalitarism, and what in us make them happen.
I was intimidated with drawing the cover, as the picture is a reproduction of a Picasso painting! (not that you'd guess it now, seeing my version ^^).

Faces! All ofund on the internet. The last one is Katie Melua as seen on the cover of her CD (and for once I'm not too far from the original).

And faces again. The laughing boy was very difficult to draw. He looked very smug on the photo and I wanted to get that on paper. I'm not sure I managed.

And this is a card I made for Father's day. The lady is my father's wife and someone I love too. For the first time I did the drawing without looking at the photo, trying to get the feeling of her face. Copying was too difficult, it came out better with this method. It's not exactly her, but it's in the spirit!
Well, that's all!
I have more time on my hands now, so I'm going to go and enjoy all your blogs!

Books and faces, as usual...

For a change, this week... Books!

On the right is a book by Jean Hatzfeld who has written several books about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. In this book are the stories told by the survivors of the massacres and by the killers. They're now all forced to live together by the "reconciliation" political program.

 

I couldn't put this book down and was frustrated when I finished it. It's not a nice read, of course, but it adresses essential questions about being human, living, forgiving, believing (or not)... What's frustrating is that there is no answer, only more stories, more ways of coping, more questions.
On another level, the French spoken by Rwandese people is particularly beautiful, and precise, and I enjoyed that a lot. (not sure how it comes across with the translation). All his books are available at Amazon.com in english. This one is called "the antelope strategy". There are two others about Rwanda, and I intend to read them very soon too.
On the left is a book I read a few years ago (but I didn't want a "fun" book beside the Hatzfeld one). It's a young German officer (Ernst Jünger himself) telling his life during the 14-18 war. No answers here either, but it's a powerful, essential book. There's no judgement and no propaganda there, just noise, fear, and people trying to stay human.

To keep this post very original... portraits!
A young girl from Togo, a boy from Republic Tcheque, and the last one is a girl from Liberia, all copied from photos in the book "Si tous les enfants du monde".  The third girl I saw on "Photo of the year.com" and she was called "Cambodian Princess".

I'll be at my sister's wedding this weekend (providing the airport is open since it was flooded and closed yesterday...). Will I have the courage to draw out my sketchbook and draw in public?
I'll tell you in a few days!

2 books, 12 portraits

 New books, for a change... Actually I have read another one since but haven't had the time to draw it yet.

Those two were fantastic. I'm not sure the first one has been translated in English yet. French title is Battements d'ailes, Ali di Babbo in Italian, from Milena Agus (author from Sardaigne). It's a small book, magical, poetical, funny, strange, with wonderful characters and a very original voice.

 The other one, I couldn't let go, and "ate" very fast : ) ! The third angel, by Alice Hoffman.

 I really want to read all their other books now.

I've been asked how many books I read a month, I don't know, it depends. Four, five, six, not counting those I read very slowly because they make me work, (personnal development books, for example), or the illustrated books... I read fast, and I need to read as much as I need to breath. I read a lot more when I was young - I had four library cards ^^ !

These portraits, I copied from a wonderful book called "Si tous les enfants du monde" (If all the children in the world). The girls are from Espana and Guinée Equatoriale and the boys from Haïti and Malta.

Two more children from the book, little girl from Cambodge, looking up, little boy from Ivory Coast (he's much cuter in reality, I didn't manage to get the cuteness on paper, he's very small, my version looks older...)
Men from Parker Fitzgerald and Arte te tra flickr streams.

A young woman from David Urbanke flickr stream - my version is not as beautiful as she is in the photo... For some reason, my version looks a bit like my grandmother (must be the sad expression and thin neck - my grandmother was from Flanders and not beautiful at all...)
A young girl from Kazakhtan (and I made her look older, once more...)
A woman from Tibet seen on Falsalama flickr stream, and a woman seen on Internet, random search, no name.

I find it very hard to draw the small children, and the women. The more cute and/or beautiful they are, the more difficult.
And, also, people showing their teeth! Much harder!

I haven't had the time to admire anyone's blog but I'm going to get to it now!
 This weekend I had the first year final exam for the course of Sophrology I'm following. I had a little problem with the time, almost didn't manage to finish... But I think it went well.
It's a fantastic course, I'm very glad I'm doing it. Hopefully I'll graduate next year and be able to begin practicing!

Street scene and portraits

So this is the street concert in Collobrières, in color this time! And the reference photo below.

 

 

 Collobrières is a small and lovely village, very isolated, and well known for its production of chestnuts (and chestnut cream, icecream and so on). This was during the chestnut festival in october 2008.

 

This is my dad. I took an old photo and tried to make him look older to match better with him now. The hair is not right  but the rest is him, I think. I offered it to his wife for Mother's day (because she's important to me too) and she loved it.

Those little ones are Maxime and Pauline, my friend's children. This was for her birthday.

 I loved drawing them, I felt the cuteness, it was like being with them. They're all far away and I miss them.

 

And my last series of portraits found on the net!

Man and woman from Milano, seen on The Sartorialist's blog (I think they look like brother and sister), Nat King Cole, and a Japanese young woman with red hair seen also on the Sartorialist's blog (she's my personal favorite!).

I'm off to draw the last book I read!