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Tomorrow there will be the announcement (finally) on PARISDREAMTIME, MY NEW BLOG of the winners of the Lottery for the little Paris souvenirs, and more pictures from the IRON LADY, also TODAY I have put a new "suscribe" option on Parisdreamtime blog, so that you can get news about Paris in your mailbox as soon as they are out:)

love
Andrea

PS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY AMERICAN FRIENDS, I'D LOVE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU ALL

Come to the new blog and have a look at the goodies:)

click on the image to be transported to my new house "Parisdreamtime" and look at the souvenirs you can win if you participate in my lottery.
(as I haven't yet installed a "follow" or subscribe button, I have to use this blog here to attract you:)

PARIS DREAMTIME

HELLO DEAR FRIENDS

NEW BLOG IS READY, I INVITE YOU TO COME AND JOIN ME AT PARIS DREAMTIME WHERE WE (Miss Doodle and the Metroheads, other Parisians and you and me:) HAVE SET UP A NEW VIRTUAL HOME!

The Parisians - LES PARISIENS

©estandrea 2009 click to enlarge the picture

This is how it goes here, people everywhere, always something to see.

And I have been kissed by a probably homeless man today. When I was on my way from the Metrostation to my afternoon job, I had just bought a sandwich for lunch) a homeless man, shuffling along, he seemed to be slightly disabled, and asked me if I had some coins. I gave him some money, and before I could hurry away, he hugged me and planted a kiss on each cheek. I wasn't so keen on that, but I was so flabbergasted, that I just let him and then I said OkOKOKOK (about a hundred time) awkwardly and then hurried away. After a while I turned and saw him standing there, still smiling at me, and I waved. He waved back.

While I am writing this, I have a "déjà-vu" , the impression that this has happened before, I mean me being kissed by a homeless man, and that I have written on it on my blog, but I'm not sure....

Have a great Thursday,

love

andrea

Metrohead, another beautiful woman

Click on the image to see it enlarged

Copyright ©estandrea - all rights reserved

My scanner is experiencing some trouble adjusting to the new paper I use in my selfmade notebook. Well, everything needs time, everything. I'm in need of getting away from Paris now for a while. Have to escape, to not see a lot of people for some time, to be in a garden and just look at the leaves and the sky and the birds, you know....:)

Miss Doodle (remember Miss Doodle? :) too is having a hard time with my new notebook. She simply refused for a while to show up but finally she yielded to reason and is back now. You can see her observing tourists in Paris and ranting about this and that...). Here she goes:

Miss Doodle, the jumping snails and the Tourists

A new Metrohead notebook

click on the pictures so that you can see the two beautiful glass-beads handmade by TAMMY ,their colors just being perfect for this project:)


(sorry I wrote this in Picasa, and it didn't want to let me put the text into a less upsetting visual version:)

I decided to change something in my Metrohead Routine, to make/keep
things interesting. A piece of painted cloth (acrylics and textile paints on silk) has patiently slept under my bed for more than a year, until the perfect use for it ocurred this weekend:

A NOTEBOOK.

I have thought about how I'd like to be able to frame each metrohead and let it
be a painting on it's own, and that it would be nice to draw and paint
them onto "classy" paper. I mean, I love the Moleskin paper but
I wanted to try something else, easier to put in a frame afterwards.

I cut very rigid carton into the appropriate size, then glued the painted silkcloth on it and left it to dry under heavy books. I had bought a bloc of ARCHE satin watercolour paper, folded 10 sheets in half and attached them (two by two) with blue thread, which I fixed with two handmade glassbeads (my friend Tammy Vitale makes wonderful glassbeads and beadwork, you should check it out !).

It's a bit of a rough finishing, you don't want perfect edges etc, but it suits me well cause I can pull the finished paintings out and put new paper in.. The size is ok (27 x 18.5 cm / 10.6 x 7.3) for "metroing", and a little bigger than the Moleskin books.

The ARCHE paper is something you have to get used to, it reacts very differently from the Moleskine paper. It is rougher and "drinks" the water greedily, then it makes the pigments form "dots" sometimes. But I like it.

OK, so here we are again with our Metroheads, sharing the summer ride in the (hot) belly of Paris...

click to enlarge the pictures

Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

Update, Metroheads, New York City, Holidays!

"Man with Turban", ink and watercolor

Some time ago, I think it was in December last year, Kim talked about call for submissions of a literary magazin on her Blog, the magazin called 'The Truth about The Fact". They accepted submissions of novels and artwork.

I submitted several of my "Metroheads" illustrations in black/white, and in February got a letter from the editor, informing me that "Man with Turban" had been chosen and would be published in April. Which made me very happy, of course. With it came an invitation for a launch party either in Los Angeles (in April) or in New York City (in May).

I always dreamed of visiting New York and my husband (who has visited NYC twice already, but a long time ago) said: why not taking a week of vaccation in New York in May, so that you can go to the launch party at the same time? Two days later he bought flight tickets (flight is next Sunday) and a tourist guide:).... And the visit is topped with cream: a meeting with Kim, who has had a photograph published in the same edition and who will be at the launch party too!

In the meantime, a lot of things have happened, but I don't realize this very well yet. In order to stop beating myself up about undone things, (not being able to blog as much as I did before is one of these) I should list the things which HAVE been done:

My Miss Doodle painting which I did in a creative frenzy and which I had in an exhibition in Fulda/Germany, sold very well and hangs now in the Tourist Office of the town.

-The "Miss Doodle ltd. Edition T-shirts campaign" took me a lot of time and organization skills (which I don't have:) and I'm very happy that Miss Doodle's shirts went out into the world to many of my dear blogfriends.

-Drafts of the children's book I'm working on together with a friend are being sent out to publishers to get a first opinion.

-One last thing had to be done before leaving, a book-draft with 37 images of "my" Metroheads, plus text which is copied from my blog and had to be edited to fit in the pages. So this is ready now too.

Here are three sample pages:

Copryright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

Metroheads - Selfportraits

Ink, pencil and tip-Ex in my Moleskin sketchbook.

These are the others, and me. Or not.
It's the end of the week and we are
tired.

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He makes me think of a famous cartoon character

More balding and bald men in the metro give me the opportunity to study headshapes. Mr. Homer Simpson here sat for me, quietly, giving me time to draw what remains of his hair. On top of the round bald head there is a bit of fuzz.

Here I concentrated on their profiles, exaggerating their traits in the line drawing, looking mainly at the faces and very seldom on the paper.

She was oblivious of everything surrounding her and gave me much time..THANK YOU!

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Metroheads - Thoughts do what they want

Thoughts do what they want...
watching people's back,
drowsyness,
profile.

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Metroheads - Someone must have puked in here...

Two pages of my Moleskine notebook,
Metroheads for Dianne:)



The Evil Smell...
I make it just in time to jump onto the Metrocar,
the doors automatically close behind me.
I quickly look for a seat in the crowed car, yessss, there are 4 empty seats! While lots of
people are standing. That's great.
I'm about to sit down when I see (and smell) why
these seats are empty.....I quickly try to get as far away as I can, and hear someone saying:"Someone must have puked in here"!

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Metroheads - Reading Women

Women reading - One reads a book, the other one does a crossword, or is it a Soduko, er... Sudoka? Sadoku, Sukoda? Whatever, they are all packed into warm clothes, scarfs, gloves, berets, balaclavas, hats and boots. Boots are very fashionable right now. Turtleneck sweaters keep the necks warm. Mine too! - It's very cold in Paris.

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Don't miss: Miss Doodle's simple pleasures

Metroheads: Full House

Métro Parisien: Vendredi 13, 2008


Here they are: Tired from the week. Most of them do not work on Saturday and Sunday (at least I wish them that) so the weekend begins right now. People try not to look into each others' eyes, they are in need of privacy. They want to go home, perhaps already decorate the Christmas tree with the festoons and Christmas balls, be with their family, relax.


click on the image to enlarge

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Metroheads: The Special Guest and The Musician

Métro Parisien - 11 décembre 2008

The ginger cat - When I get into the metro-car, I immediately spot the ginger cat sleeping on one of the seats on the left side of the metro-car. Vis-à-vis sits the cat's "human", a man who's face I cannot see cause he has put the hood of his jacket (protectively) over his head and looks out of the window.
I sit down on his side, so that I can draw the cat. I pull the inkpen, my glasses and the moleskine notebook out of my bag and then I smell the cat. A short look at the clothes of the man tell me that this is probably a homeless man, in his 40ies, I'd say.

I draw the kitty and have just finished it's leash when the fellow takes out a candy bar, unwrappes the paper and suddenly, while the metro comes to a stop at the station, violently flings the whole thing on the ground (candy bar exploses) grabs the cat, puts it under his arm, while furiously grumbling. Off he goes, barely making it out of the car before the door closes.

click on the images to enlarge

When I recover from the unexpectedness of this encounter, I look for another model. Another haul.

Here he is, a beautiful young man - with black curly hair, a greyblue knit cap and a musical instrument (a guitare?) in it's case. He sees me, looks over from time to time, doesn't seem to be intrigued, just a bit curious, and wondering...


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MISS DOODLE: "Who gives credit to the poor?"

Metroheads - Drawing is an Act of Love

Drawing is an act of love.

You and I ask: aren't people getting annoyed with me drawing them?

Drawing is an act of love. I'm certainly not the first one to think and feel that, you must feel it too. Because, when you draw someone, you are not neutral. You may look neutral but you aren't. If you have to draw your ennemy, or somone you think you really do not like, I'm sure your feelings for this person will be changed afterwards. There is compassion too in the act of drawing.

This hooded young man, I don't really feel threatened by his somehow dark look, it's only that people always should take care about other people's privacy and feelings. The hodded guy, when I have finished painting him, I love him. I mean, I like his dark eyes, shadowed by the hood, I like his expression which is a bit defensive, I like the way he protects himself with his clothes. I like the way he wrapped the scarf around his neck and the way he is fiddling with his cell phone all the time. I like his big comfy jacket and his ample trousers.

I like to think that all these feelings do not stay inside me but float out into the air. I'm quite sure of that. There is a relationship betweet the model and the painter. Even if the model doesn't know he/she is being painted.

Often I think that "my" metroheads just pretend that they do not notice me drawing them, like I pretend to read the schedule over the door when I draw them. There is generosity in the model and in me, we have an exchange here.

I like to think that the model lets herself/himself willingly be explored by me, and even if I cannot show him/her the drawing, - the "translation" of our relationship onto paper - I tend to think that we part with each other with sympathie and warmth wrapped around us:)

Vert anglais clair, vert emeraude, jaune transparente

Bleu cobalte, magenta rose, rouge lacque de garance, jaune transparent, bleu outremer

Vert emeraude

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Metroheads: Hooded Young Man and Young Woman's nose

Métro Parisien, 5 Décembre 2008

SNOW IS FALLING IN PARIS! Well it was, this morning. Now it's gone. There is only water left.

The young man in the hooded jacket, he is seeking protection, from cold or from other people's aura. Hooded youths here in Paris often are associated with agression. That's why I avoid looking into the eyes of this young men, but maybe he is just a calm kid needing warmth.

Anyway, better not irritate people.

But I want to draw him and now I pretend to look at the station schedule (every other second, very unsuspiciously) which is mounted above each metrocar door. I don't know if he buys it cause I can't see his eyes :)

He has a nice scarf with fringes and a trouser which looks a few sizes too big.
Perhaps he is a Jedi? Or the nephew of Darth Vader looking for revenge?






The young lady with the orange coat : not many details here, just got the general attitude and her nice little nose...

Metroheads - Bits and Pieces of People

Métro Parisien, 4 décembre 2008

It's cold and rainy, people have their umbrellas, or hooded clothes. Protection. I sit and hang my head, sketching. My back probably doesn't like at all this position, I'm hunchbacked, a sort of Metro Hunchback (Métro-Quasimodo:).

But much more than a Hunchback I am a fisherman. Fishing for people's portrait.
Yesterday I came back with my net full!

Click on the image to enlarge

The man with the knit cap, surrounded by research words for a new painting. He has a wonderful skin, dark and smooth.

Two blonde kids, big eyed, nervous and not staying still for a second:), eyeing me suspiciously;)

The beautiful young girl with her long hair spread over the collar of her mercifully fake fur coat, holding her umbrella in one hand, no time to draw the hand cause someone "interferes" and stands between us!

So, I begin to draw a man with a beret, I just draw two lines when he jumps off and leaves. Ok, off to a woman further afar, she too leaves too soon. Another one with a big blue knit cap, showing me her profile.

The man with the kid right in front of me sits down after the two girls have left, a father with his son in his arms. The kid turns and tosses, a challenge to draw. I dont mind, I just like his little sweet round asiatic head and profile. I manage to draw the father's protecting arm when they too leave...

Then people seem to leave all at once at "Havre Comartin" Metro station and I have time to draw this lady reading, and her heavy glasses (I'm sure they leave deep marks on her nose once she takes them off).

OK, now it's enough, I'm happy, I made a good haul, thank you very much, dear travellers.

Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

Miss Doodle: The Birds of Sorrow and of Grief

Metroheads - Composition

Métro Parisien, 3 décembre 2008

Observing, pondering, diving into memories...oblivious to me watching them.

click on image to enlarge



A page for you from my notebook with thoughts on metroheads and metroing...

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Metroheads - Two different men

Métro Parisien - 1er Décembre, 2008

The grey-haired man with the distinctive profile, he is staring into the void. The asiatic looking men sits right in front of me, offering me his face to draw, while dozzing or concentrating or meditating. Two very different men. Their difference makes them unique.

click on the image to enlarge

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Miss Doodle: sightseeing with friends

Metroheads - Just Beginnings and "The three pointers"

Métro Parisien, 2 décembre 2008

As you know there are those who don't stay long enough for me to draw their entire face, I just get some hair, eventually a nose or lips, a look and off they hop.

click on the images to enlarge

Latenight-drawing "The Three Pointers" (no I'm not going nuts, I just tried to be very relaxed here:)


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