Christmas is coming...

...but you wouldn't guess it from my sketchbook. I've been busy wrapping and sending gifts and cards and haven't made time to actually draw anything Christmassy. The following sketches are all I've managed in the last couple of weeks. Elaine napping and some more anatomy sketches (copied from the library book I was meant to take back today...sigh...another errand to add to the list. Only one more week to get everything organized!

 

Snow, trees, mountains

This past weekend we had a work event - the AGM and Christmas 'do' of a hairdressing association, Intercoiffeur. Fortunately it didn't feel like a work event at all because it was at one of the loveliest hotels in Bavaria - the Schlossanger Alp. It's a family run hotel located near the top of a mountain on ground which used to be the family's cowshed and summer pasture for their herd. It's only a 10 minute drive (up a rather scary one track road) from civilisation but round about are only mountains and forest. And it snowed just in time for the first advent. Stupidly, I haven't yet progressed to putting my phone photos onto this blog but you can check the website or use your imagination while looking at these somewhat abstract sketches of the two views from our room:

What looks like a sandcastle is the tower of the ruined castle Falkenstein. King Ludwig (who built the famous fairy tale castle, Neuschwanstein) planned to build his 4th castle here but died before it could happen.

 In the afternoon I sat (ok, hid) in the gallery area of the lounge area and, looking down on fellow guests tried to sketch some. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten everything I learnt in the motion sketching workshop I took a while back. Still, practice is practice.