The magic of cherry blossom

All my exams are over. It's now time to draw again.

I made the sketch for this watercolor several days ago while learning for the last exam of this semester. What a relief hearing the sound of pencils scratching on paper! I always wonder, why some people disklike this wonderful scratching sound so much. It sounds so beautiful and promising, much nicer than the scratching sound of chalk on a blackboard or a knife on a plate. I assume, that is the sound of an idea.

I'm very sure, spring has arrived safe and sound. The sun shines again. Birds are tweeting merrily. Eagerly numerous flower buds are longing for blooming. And I feel the fragrance of love in the air. 

One of my favorite moments of spring is the blooming of cherry blossoms. The moment is just like magic.

Language of flowers: Love-in-a-mist

Language of flowers:

Nigella (or Love-in-a-mist) - "You puzzle me."

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is one of my favorites.

Love-in-a-mist gets its evocative name from the way a tangle of ferny, fennel like foliage form a mist around the flowers. However, obviously not everyone felt about it in the same way, as it was also known as devil-in-a-bush and Jack-in-prison (???). Because of its misty foliage like a veil of secrecy, the flower is a symbol of perplexity. In some regions in Europe, women used to give Nigella as a refusal to their undesirable suitors, since the flower is also a symbol of unrequited love.

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A. A. Milne

Sketches from Hallstatt in Austria

I went camping with two close friends of mine in Hallstatt in Austria.
Hallstatt is a lovely, small village located in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. My friends told me, that Hallstatt is so beautiful, that the replica of the village was built in Guangdong province in China last year. I don't like the idea, that Hallstatt was copied. The replica is just a waste. What makes Hallstatt a fairytale-like village is not only just its charming wooden houses, but also its wonderful location, i.e. the stunning beauty of the Alpine lake landscape surrounding the village, which is uniquess and unimitable.

I stayed in Hallstatt only two days and had just enough time to do two sketches. 

 09:40 a.m., 23.06.2013, House No. 133 Oberer Berg

 06:30 a.m., 22.06.2013, at the camping site

Hallstatt on Dwellable

Balloon Sky

The weather of April seems to be chameleonic.
This week's been grey, cold and rainy. It made me long for a perfect blue sky with thousands of colorful balloons.

A happy rainy Monday

The weather was beautiful 2 weeks ago. It has been cold again since three or four days before Easter and rained sometimes. The weather in April is always a big question to me.
I started to draw this rainy scene on Easter Monday and tried to finish it within the first week of this new summer semester, as long as I still have enough spare time. This semester is supposed to be a busy one. 
I remember listening to Carpenter's song "Rainy days and Mondays".
Actually, rainy days are fine to me. I just cannot stand boring cloudy days, when nothing happens- no sunshine, no wind, no rain or snow. Everything you have is a gloomy sky.
In summer, rainy days could be very fun. Just imagine, when it's hot and dried and the air is stuffy, suddenly a rain comes...What a delightful day!

Flora's new scarf

Although it's still cold, spring items are arranged in shopping malls. I bought a scarf with butterfly print yesterday. It inspired me to create this drawing.
Flora is a lovely name for girls. It always reminds me of the goddess of Spring in Botticelli's painting "Primavera". Although Venus stands at the center of  painting, Flora attracts me more. The dress she wears is just gorgeous.
My Flora is covered by different flowers, such as snowdrop, cosmos, camellia, rose, pansy, checkered lily, poppy, mistletoe, coneflowers, etc. Colorful butterflies are flying around her slim, young neck, as if they were a scarf of hers.

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Winter Again- The End

I'm going to fly back home tomorrow. Before that, I finished the last pictures of my Moleskine Japanese Album- The Story of Four Seasons.

One year ago, I first saw a Japanese Album of Moleskine at a bookstore and wanted to make a picture story with it. It took me a little time, since I didn't want to finish the story of four seasons within a week, but waited for the change of seasons, enjoyed it and at last, tried to keep some memories back.
It was really fun, that I, for the first time, drew a sketchbook fully and pictures relate to each other. :)

Christmas is coming. A hand-made scarf can be a great present. I crocheted a very long scarf as a present to one friend of mine two years ago. What a hard work it was!

It's now time to exchange presents. Let's see what his present is.

Winter isn't boring anymore. Let's make hot chocolate and wait for the first snow of this year together!

Thank you! End. 

Part 1- Winter- Part 2- Spring- Part 3- Summer- Part 4- Autumn

Bottle postcards (2)

If we could put one's memories into bottles and lay them on a shelf, I wonder, how many bottles we would need? 

As child I used to live with my grandparents at the seaside. To me, memories of the sea are memories of the childhood at the same time. As teenager I was asked, if I were a thing, what I would like to be. I remember to have answered, that I'd like to be a lighthouse. :)
However, today's theme for the bottles of memories is Love. Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" and a heart carved in a tree as symbol of puppy love were my inspiration.

Actually, I didn't have either memories of  a romantic starry night or a heart carved in a tree. How about you?

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Autumn

Autumn is the time of the year for harvesting and spooking people in the neighborhood.
I've never had enough of tasty pumpkin cream soup and decided to dress me up in a witch costum on Halloween. "Meow!!!" Oop! My spoiled cat wants to join in this year. How about you?

The goddess of Autumn brought here rain, wind and made tree leaves change their colors.
It's now time to put on my favorite trench coat and admire charming falling leaves in the air.

What do you prefer doing: collect chestnuts or go mushrooming?
Ouch! Some nasty squirrels don't want to share mushrooms in "their" forest with me.

More of this series:

Summer- Spring- Winter

Momiji (Red leaves)

Tree leaves are now changing color. Winter is near.
A paper cut greeting card with warm colors as a welcome to the new season has just been done today.

Ajisai

Mum like charming paper cutting greeting cards from Japan. Since I myself made paper cutting, she asked, if I could make some greeting cards of this kind. 

Ajisai is the Japanese word for Hortensia- Mum's favorite flower. Do you see the small yellow snail on the leaf? It's me, Silent Snail. :)

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Summer

Summer is my favorite season. I've always longed for it. Since I've lived in Germany, summer didn't mean monsoon, sea and sand anymore. However, I found other new ways to enjoy this time of the year. Summer is now the time for hiking, going for walks, having a picnic, visiting garden festivals and barbecuing in the back yard with friends. 

Actually, I wanted to tell another story of summer. Unfortunately, having believed, that I couldn't forget, I didn't write it down. Now I really have no idea, what went through my brain that time. That's why I have to create another one, which somehow doesn't really go with the pictures.

"Let's go to have a cup of coffee together!", he said. That is how my summertime began. How lovely summer can be!

"Is it love or just something a lot like love?", I wonder. Putting all tiresome thoughts to one side, I took a long walk on a dreamlike meadow covered by yellow coneflowers and dandelions. Solitude has its own charm.

On the next day, my best friend called me:"It's now the best time to have a picnic in the green park." As bright as the sun, she can warm up the coldest day. See? Everyone loves her, even the shyest tiny bug. "A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have."

"Tomorrow will be a sunny day. Let's ride a bicycle to go to the countryside!", we talked simultaneously. Summertime is great, but doesn't last long. Why don't open your heart, feel the heat of the sun on your skin, have fun and enjoy the peaceful beauty of nature together?

2nd Part: Spring
http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/04/moleskine-japanese-album-story-of-four.html
1st Part: Winter
http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/02/moleskin-japanese-album-story-of-four.html

My trip to Spain- Part 2: Toledo

Toledo was the old capital of the kingdom of Spain in medieval times, before the Spanish court was moved to Madrid. Nowadays, this city is the capital of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. In the past, Toledo was well-known because of the co-existence of Jews, Christians and Muslisms. That's why, it earned the name "the city of three cultures".

 I love this city and its very, very delicious marzipans. It's fair to say that the marzipan of Toledo is considered one of its finest food products. Making marzipans has a long tradition and it has brought fame to the city. Remember the name Santo Tome! You won't be disappointed by marzipans from this confectionery shop.

 

There is a lot of narrow passages in Toledo. As a fan of old, narrow and mystic-looking passages, I found here my heaven. This is a sketch of one passage heading to the university.

The kingdom of Spain is well-known for its Spanish inquisition in the past. Maybe, people in Spain won't like to hear of this fact as well as people in Germany feel uneasy, when we discuss World War II. I was really excited to go to the exhibition of ancient instruments of torture at the Alfonso XII exhibition hall. The exhibition hall is not big. However, it's scary enough to make you very grateful not to be born as Jews or Muslims at the time of the Spanish inquisition. These three masks of shame are the most harmless.

On the way to Puente de San Martin ( the bridge of Saint Martin), I discovered this lovely inner yard covered by oleanders and rosemary. I'm really envious of the people living there. They have huge rosemary bushes. I have a pot of rosemary at home. No matter what I do, my rosemary doesn't grow bigger. It stays tiny and weak. The lack of sunlight is the main problem. I have heard, in sunny Mediterranean area, rosemary bushes can reach up to one meter in height.

If I have a chance to go to Spain again, I'll come back to Toledo for sure, stay here longer and eat so many marzipans, that I feel like I'm going to explode.

Toledo on Dwellable

From Me To You

The Earth is a fun place to live in. While I'm now in Germany looking forward to hot summer days and meadows full with red poppies, a friend of mine in New Zealand wrote to me: "It's getting colder here day by day, so send me a bit of summer sun and the sense of flowers..."

Teru Teru Bōzu

I remember first hearing of a teru-teru-bōzu from Doraemon, a famous Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio. More than 15 years have gone by, I forgot the function of most magic tools which Doraemon can put out from his fourth-dimensional pocket. However, his teru-teru-bōzu is related to rainy weather for sure.
It's said, until now children in Japan still make these little dolls and hang them outside of their windows to wish for sunny weather.

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Spring

 1. Part-Winter

Easter Sunday will be the day after tomorrow. According to the weather forecast, it will be sunny and warm. Normally, my landlord and his wife drive to Spain and celebrate Easter there with their grandchildren. This year is an exception. All of their three grandchildren are here in Germany. By day, when the sun shines brightly, they run and make noise in the garden. By night, they play and hop around indoors. I- my landlord's poor renter, who have lived in his basement flat for four years- wonder, how I (in the midst of such annoying noise) was able to learn for my important oral exam in Linguistics, which was taken place last week, and passed.
As soon as the exam was over, I drew again and tried to finish the pages of springtime in my Moleskine Japanese album before Saturday. This is the result:

 

 

 

 

Click on the picture to enlarge

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Winter

I started my story of four seasons with winter, because it's the season in which I have least interest. I'm a person who will eat and do things I don't like first and let good things for later.
I first saw a Moleskine japanese Album several weeks ago and came up with an idea of creating a sequence of pictures related to each other, telling a simple story.

Notes: I'm not an English native speaker. If you find grammatic mistakes in my sentences, please contact me, so I can correct them.

Totoro postcards

Spring is coming. Daytime is longer. February is cruel, because it's short, full of cebrating atmosphere ( Chinese Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day and Carnivals) and also hard exams at the university.
I deadly want to draw something new, but don't have time. Therefore, I've continued digging up some old stuffs. At this time, these are some Totoro postcards I drew last year.

Front and back views of the postcard Tanpopo (Dandelion)

 

 Front and back views of the postcard Tori no su (Bird's nest)

Summer Sketching in Germany

Summer went too soon. I still miss it much.