September quickly moved from the last bits of summer feelings to full on autumn mood. Days are still filled with sunshine, but shrinking short while we would like to hang on just a bit longer, not so much the heat, but rather the bright evenings.

In the village, there was a field full of sunflowers that people could pick, and in return swish a contribution to a good cause.

When I saw the pictures of DJ Maaike (from Antwerp), I immediately found a use of my most disliked green Ecoline ink that I only still have since high school because I don’t like throwing things away 🙂
It was the perfect colour to try and capture the vibrant scene, the light, and the energy of the beats. It’s the first time drawing a DJ and I’d definitely like to try again.

Duck, duck, goose, a quick drawing session with Emma Carlisle (from August but I only photographed the pages in September)

Drawing (sea)gulls and cats with Frances Ives:

Drawing snails with Emma, and I just kept going after the zoom session 🙂

We celebrated Oona’s 10th birthday!
I love how she’s looking so wise with her beautiful white hairs. She hasn’t been acting that wise though… this month, she managed to get 2 extra spa days after rolling in nasty stuff 😀 (and she doesn’t like bath-time!)

This month’s new art material was Pantone markers. I got one in the sale, liked it a lot, and quickly decided to order a few more colours to try. The webshop where I order most of my art supplies only had about half of the existing colours in inks, and even less in markers. A few of the ones I had in mind, will have to be searched another time, probably when I’m traveling to Belgium.
While I’m very pleased with the colours that I got, I miss a few softer, more delicate tones as most of the markers seem to be very intense. I’m hoping that there will be some testing markers in the shop, that would make it a lot easier to pick the right ones.

For now I’m mixing them with Tombows and coloured pencils mostly, but I also made a piece for an exhibition that is Pantone markers + liquid graphitel. I liked the mix of the very textured graphite combined with the flatness of the markers.

I sadly found a huge moose in the woods. He was so beautiful and so impressive.

During one of our walks, the forest suddenly changed from tall vibrant trees, moss, and rocks, to these scruffy looking ones with a different vegetation. The scent was also remarkable. According to my phone, the source of the scent was ‘Labrador tea’. The internet tells me it’s a plant of the subarctic and boreal wetlands. I could be wrong, but I think that’s normally more up north.
It might not look spectacular, but I wish I could share the scent.

Changing colours and last swims:

A sunset walk in the village, and rocks taking off.

This month, Emma wanted to focus on working slow, and decided on the theme still life for a Friday evening session. Oh this was so perfect! Even when we all slow down, I find it very challenging to chat much (or at all), but it was a perfect Friday evening mood. Cozy and relaxed. I decided on taking my own pictures of something I’ve been wanting to draw for a while: my grandmother’s old cabinet that’s now in my studio and filled with all kinds of ‘treasures’. It had my grandmother’s camera, pictures, cards from friends, gifts, special books, forest finds, beach combing finds, souvenirs, … and a silly amount of rocks 🙂

At first, I didn’t think I would have much personal work to share about this month, but there has been a lot going on in the sketchbooks. Last week I also joined a year long course on visual storytelling, and the group had started early September, I’ve been catching up on homework and experiments. I might keep those exercises and results to myself, at least for a while. That gives me a playground to explore, get messy, and see what rises from the dust.

I might have forgotten things… I wasn’t ready yet for October 🙂
But this is it, for now.