Sunday, June 14, 2009

Piata Foisorul de Foc, Bucharest, Romania

























Piata Foisorul de Foc, Bucuresti
(Fire water-tower Square)

the way it used to be:




















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foi%C5%9Forul_de_Foc

Now the building for the tower is the Fire Museum.

Romanian band "Foisorul de Foc" with a pretty nice tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XluaDgJiY0

4 comments:

Claudia said...

I love your sketch of the fire tower in Bucharest. What do you use to make you sketches? Pencil or some program?

John said...

Thanks very much Claudia. My sketches are drawn by hand on-site. For the tower, I stood there next to a building on an intersection, and drew it. I think I went out in the morning, so there wasnt much traffic, except the buses. A few people out on the sidewalk. After I finished the sketch, I went and sat on a bench in a little corner park next to the tower and admired the miniature roses which were planted there, and watch the shops open. I use a Parker cartridge pen with natural black ink, Pelican or other. I used to use a Cross ball point pen with Cross natural black ink, which produced good grey tones and was useful for shading and creating many tiny lines (see the sketches of Cismigiu), but over time I found that the drawings tended to be sort of grey and not as bold, and that it encouraged me to do alot of scratching at the paper hesitantly. So, I switched to a fountain/cartridge pen, which laid the ink down faster, and led to bolder blacks and whites, and crisper drawings,and forced me to be more definite with my sketches (see the sketches of Craiova or the tower). I still like the Cross pen because it's slim with the hip styling from the '60s (like men's ties), and reminds me of my grandfather, but I like the cartridge pen because it's bigger and has the classic fountain pen tip. Yours is the second comment I've had in a week, and I've been sort of absent from the sketching lately (it's super cold where I am), so I guess I'll get back into it remotely. Bucharest has some great urban spaces for sketching... makes me miss it. Also miss the good chocolate and cheese, and Ciuc. :-)

Claudia said...

hey, thanks for the elaborate answer.
I actually zoomed in the sketch and saw it was made by hand. The image of you drawing the tower on site was very nice, i'd like to do that sometimes. Gave me this look of a cleaner and crisper Bucharest, quieter, older.
I never thought about an ink pen doing so much for the drawing, but now after you said it, i think you're right. The contrast if very nice. Also the lack of useless details makes it ..well sketchy :)) good job

John said...

Go for it, Claudia! If you want to send it to me, then I can post it. I'll make you my first guest sketcher. :-)