Woodturning: it's when you take a piece of wood and you turn it

...is what I heard J. say jokingly to a friend. Since we picked up the lathe (Dutch: draaibank) to put it in his workshop, woodturning is again in the spotlights here. I was wondering what kind of things can be made with woodturning, and how to draw wood.

I give up

Not my studies. Come on, it's just ten more weeks plus graduating.
Not my exercising regime. It's just paused, that's all.
Not keeping up with doing the dishes. Well, some days I do. Sssssht, don't tell anyone.
Not my music. Assuming I will manage to find back my instruments underneath the blanket of dust.
Not my attempts to create a beautiful, green garden. I will never give up on that. Even though winter is coming, and the leaves have fallen from the trees already. Faster than I can process them.

Not on trying to draw every day. Even though I keep failing miserably there. Where did the last counting stop? Oh yeah. At day one.
Guess I'll just give up on counting ;).

Day ehmm, let's start with 1 again

Back to school! My -hopefully last- year of university has started today, our new home has been settled in (sort of) and life is structured again, including alarm clocks and breakfast on the train. Ánd including having time for drawing during travelling back home, huzzah! Today's drawing is only slightly inspired by todays coffee-requiring lectures beginning before nine and ending around five, in a new building where the coffee machines had not yet been installed. Muhaha, I had the foresight to bring my thermos jug along.

Day 24 - recipes ring binder

To gain control over my ever expanding, scattered-everywhere recipe collection, I finally bought an A5 ring binder to '...bring them all and in the darkness bind them'. Ahem. The black cover was not of my choice, but apparently A5 binders are quite rare so this was the only one I could find. As it looked boring and I kept confusing the front and back cover, a paper cover was swiftly made and doodled upon. Yay, problem solved.

Day 23 - another notebook cover

Over the past year I've been leading a rather sedentary life with no exercise and lots of stress, which has led to my body becoming weaker and, uh, 'expanding' somewhat. Time to get back in shape, and this notebook is for keeping track of all that.

Day 22 - dummy cover

Okay, once again I'm cheating here as this was made weeks ago, but I'm very busy at the moment so surely you'll forgive me, right? Anyway, the cover of my second dummy was inspired by art nouveau lines as I've always really liked the style. Using a white gel pen on a black surface really gives a cool effect don't you think?

Day 21 - notebook covers

This holiday will probably be my last eight-weeks-long, no-obligations, I-can-do-whatever-I-want holiday as from next year onward I will be having a job (at least I hope so). Which means less vacation time and only taking weeks off if we have made holiday plans. This holiday, I want to get the most out of my time and do a loooot of things. To aid my mind in keeping track of all of this, and because it's just fun, I bought a stack of tiny notebooks, three of which have an assigned purpose now: moving plans, holiday travel plans, and overall goals for these two months.

My goals for the coming months are among other:
- travelling through the United Kingdom (which we planned to do as soon as J. would graduate, which he did just last month, whoooooooo!)
- doing some major home cleanup, following a year of household neglect ;)
- moving into our new home mid August
- learning SolidWorks and Rhino (3D modelling software)
- catch up on mechanics, manufacturing techniques, calculus and other subjects that I didn't have during my Bachelor's
- daily drawing practise
- setting up a webdesign service (I really need more income next year)
- meeting up with friends and family (finally!)
- getting fitter by having at least two ours of daily activity: walking, cycling, working out, or shopping for all I care, I really need to move after a year of leading a sedentary life with lots of stress and zero exercise
- and last but not least, going on a short hiking vacation in South-Limburg: far enough for hills, beautiful nature and the feeling of being away, but close enough to arrange a pick-up just in case ;)

So, yeah. As you can see, some planning here is justified, if not severely needed ;).

Day 20 - more garden plans

In the back of our future garden, we are planning to build a roof to place our bicycles underneath. But since I'm not too happy with a messy bicycle shed as living room view, I want to build something to close it off somewhat. I'm thinking of making a wall from cheap wooden pallets with hanging plants on it, one that can be moved away when needed, but I will first need to figure out how to attach it to the roof properly so it won't topple over with the first gust of wind.
Currently, the garden is paved completely and I'd like to make at least half of that pavement dissappear. But it would still be nice to have both a sun terrace and a shadow terrace, so the place in front of the shed might become our shadow terrace. I've always liked the classic bistro foldout table and chairs, the simple ones with a metal frame and wooden surfaces. IKEA now sells them for a rather affordable price, so who knows...

Day 19 - garden plan

It's been incredibly hectic and stressful, but I'm finally done with everything for this academic year. Holidaaay! On the train home I have been sketching a garden plan for our new home that we will move into in August. I can't wait!

Day 18

Today it's portable vacuum cleaners: I tried to apply what I've learned in computer sketching about see-through parts (the model to the right), but it's more difficult when using markers compared to a virtual airbrush. Nevertheless, I feel I'm making progress and decided to celebrate this by buying a dark blue and purple marker, which I had promised  myself long ago. These colours are very nice in combination with dark grey and black for rendering dark glass and reflections on dark polished material.

On another note, yesterday I did an English placement test, to determine my skill level. It's for an English language elective I plan to take next year, I really hope I'll be able to crank up my English to a more professional level. I'm curious as to what group I will end up in!

Day 17

Continuation of the chairs a few days ago, this time it's different chairs withour examples.

Day 16

Computer sketching lesson again today, the last one, yikes! Now only finishing the last computer sketching exercise, and then it's a homework drawing and finishing all the earlier drawings that are still incomplete. And the rest of the deadlines. And exams. In one week. Oh how I long for the holidays...

Day 15

Some sketches of chairs, while waiting at the  town hall for some documents. Tomorrow, I'm having an intake meeting for a (possible) new house, it would be so great if it turns out to be to our liking!

Day 14

Ehm, didn't make a drawing today so I'm uploading the results of the last computer sketching lesson and the one before. Binoculars, 'weird' binoculars from an intuitive drawing, and a car of which I still need to finish a second version. Just one more lesson to go until the end of the year, and I still feel I'm just getting into it a bit. I really hope I'll manage to stick to drawing often in the summer holidays, because I still need so much more practise!

Day 13

Visuals for a quick concept in our internationalisation course. Made on the computer but I tried to keep it 'sketchy'.