Germany
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MBKM in Frankfurt
The National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) plays the role to inculcate interest in reading and be the driving force behind the development of the book industry. MBKM also promotes Malaysian books with local publishers and industry players at an international level through Malaysia’s participation in overseas book fairs especially at The Frankfurt Bookfair,Germany. MBKM has been participating consistently here over the years. The theme at Malaysian Pavilion this year was Wayang Kulit or Shadow Play.
Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage can be seen in our arts and crafts and there has been increasing attempts to document them and to preserve them for the current generation and the futue and hence, MBKM features these books during the book fair. The arts and crafts books featured at the book fair include:
- Shadow Play: Malay Traditional Theatre — Behind the scenes of the world of Malay Wayang Kulit or Shadow Play.
- The Kelantan Malay Traditional Shadow Play — An illustrated and comprehensive reference to the Malay Traditional theatre or Wayang Kulit.
- Crafted in Malaysia — Five popular crafts in Malaysia,: textile, metal craft, ceramic, forest-based crafts and ethnic crafts.
- Timeline — A wonderful collection of 50 years of Malaysian Art with the National Visual Arts Gallery, arranged chronologically.
- Batik Malaysia: Design and Innovation 1960s to 1990s — A pictorial gallery that tells the story of batik produced in this period.
Here are some illustrated pictures from the fair that I managed to draw recently.
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Heidelberg houses in watercolor
I was like ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’-ing as I walked around Heidelberg’s Old Town, one of the most beautiful places in Germany. The harmonious ensemble of castle, old town and river nestled in the hills of the Odenwald already inspired poets, artists and painters as well as stimulated scientists. Today, it still fascinates millions of visitors from all over the world.
The view was spectacular and the buildings were so beautiful that it inspired me to draw! Because I love to draw buildings, I drew one from the photo that I captured from Heidelberg.
Heidelberg houses | watercolour on watercolour paper.I actually went to Heidelberg with a tour bus and to draw on location was not possible due to time restriction. You know, the tour guy will let you explore with a be-back-here-in-30 minutes condition.
So what I did was, captured as many photos as I want, giving consideration of the angles that I see beautiful for drawing, and later choose the best ones as my drawing references.
Is drawing houses or buildings difficult? Well, it depends on you. If you have the passion, you can do it. Do you have the passion to draw houses or buildings? Then, read on.
Here are few tips that I can share with you about drawing buildings from photograph:
1. Travel to places with interesting buildings. The world has a lot to offer.
2. Capture as many photos as you want — from urban skylines to historical architectural wonders.
3. Transfer your photos onto your computer and look for the best one for a start.
4. Observe the building you want to draw. Zoom in to look at the details. You can crop out the part you don’t want to draw.
5. Print it out. You can opt to refer directly from your computer but that will restrict you to your work station only. If you print it out, you can draw wherever you like — the sofa, the garden, cafes, while waiting for bus, etc. Remember that you don’t have to finish the drawing in one go.
6. When you have the photo reference in front of you, start drawing out the building shapes and later the roof. Start from left to right or right to left. Or top to bottom, vice versa. You decide.
7. After you have the outline of the building, draw the details. Refer back to your photo. Add in as many details as you can.
8. Try not to use a ruler. Good thing about art is that lines are not meant to be straight. There’s a beauty in jagged lines. Here’s a close-up of my lines from above painting:
9. Don’t forget to color it. You can opt to trace it again with drawing pen.
Enticed enough? Go travel and take loads of building photos! Here are the original photo reference for the above painting:
If you compare this to my painting, you will notice that I left out many details. I just put in necessary details which I see fit. -
Autumn in Frankfurt
Autumn is the best season of all and probably the best time of the year to travel the world. Photographers love autumn as much as painters do and being an enthusiast in capturing nature at its best as well as paint them, I am truly thankful to have visited Frankfurt. The credit all goes to Malaysia Airlines and the people behind it who are willing to sponsor me the flight ticket to Frankfurt and back. I was flewn to Frankfurt to attend Frankfurt Book Fair and gain knowledge about book and illustrations licensing as well as to build network and promote my artworks across the globe but hey, the idiom ‘kill two birds with one stone’ really applies to my visit here. Achieving two objectives at the same time seems like a good idea; visiting book fair and explore Frankfurt! In autumn!
And so, in between book fair, I went wandering around the city of Frankfurt with two things on my mind; go find trees (and flowers) and old buildings/houses. Being born in a lush tropical forest in the heart of Pahang, I have always been in love with nature and as for the old buildings, it must’ve been the architecture; it is every bit as artistic and creative as painting or drawing. I’m drawn to anything artistic.
The city
Frankfurt is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and a city that has some of the highest, most avant-garde skyscrapers of Europe next to well maintained old buildings. The down town area, especially Römerberg draws millions of tourists every year. Frankfurt is the place where Germany’s major autobahns and railways intersect. More than 600,000 people commute to the city each day, not counting the 691,000 people who really live here. With a huge airport — the third-largest in Europe — it is the gateway to Germany and for many people also the first point of arrival in Europe as well as a prime hub for interconnections within Europe and for intercontinental flights.
Frankfurt cityline.
Autobahn.Autumn
Autumn in Germany starts around Sept. 23 – Dec. 21 as it is in the northern hemisphere. I enjoyed the colours of autumn leaves and the changing fall foliage never fails to delight me. I think I went crazy snapping photos with my two cameras. In total, I have 1494 photos captured!Below are some photos that best depicts autumn in Frankfurt (imagine me walking with one camera hung on my neck and the other clung to my right hand).
By the Main River.
Orange needles of a pine tree.
Oak trees.
Red climbing vine.
Palmengarten Botanical Garden.
Rose seeds.
Maple leaves.Autumn was also known as the harvest season as this season provides the ideal conditions for harvesting crops. Here’s a picture of pumpkins and gourds and its by-products.
Zierkürbisse.Old buildings
Frankfurt’s history can be experienced today through a large number of historical buildings. In addition to the city’s world-famous landmarks such as Römer, Frankfurt Cathedral, Hauptwache Police Station, Goethehaus and many more. I captured a lot of old buildings photos and here are some.
Römer Town Hall building. This oldest section of the town hall consists of three different structures with stepped gables, originally built between the 15th and 18th century in Gothic style.
Frankfurt Cathedral is a Gothic church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew.
The baroque Hauptwache is a former police station turned into a cafe.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born here in 1749.Inspiration
Such images around Frankfurt inspired me to paint some watercolour paintings for my personal keeps. At first I just wanted them to be in pencil or pen sketches but that will not do justice to autumn and I decided to have them coloured.
Buildings in Römerberg.
Autumn leaves.
Pumpkins and gourds.Travel to Frankfurt with MAS
If you are planning to go somewhere and experience autumn, Frankfurt is one of the best places. You can fly with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) as it offers daily non-stop flights from Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt. Saves you the hassle of stopover problems.Check out some of MASholidays most exciting travel deals online where you can choose combinations of Flight + Hotel, Flight + Transfer, Flight + Tour or Flight + Car. Tours in Frankfurt by MASHoliday includes Frankfurt Hop-on Hop-off (9 hours) and Wertheim Village Outlet Shopping (5 hours).
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Frankfurter Buchmesse 2012
Finally, I am here at the Frankfurt Book Fair, thanks to Malaysia Airlines for sponsoring my return flight tickets. I wouldn’t have made it here without the sponsorship.
I really wanted to come here because I want to:
1. get my illustrations to be licensed, if possible,
2. find inspiration,
3. get to know more about licensing,
4. do some research on what makes a children’s book a success and
5. get to know people in the book industry, specifically those behind children’s books category.For few days I went around the Book Fair with Linda and Jaen to look at books and booths and to find potential publishers to publish my illustrations as merchandise items or books. We gave out some samples to interested publishers; some show interest, some not. But I am just happy, even if they are not interested, I have the pleasure of promoting my work at international level. Linda and Jaen will help me follow up later. Deals don’t come easy, it might take years. Or it might not conclude at all. I am all prepared.
Anyway, Mr Raman, the owner of Silverfish Books is here too and he is happy to carry my brand and promote it in his shop. Yay.
Beside getting deals, I already have some projects cooking after serious discussion with Linda and Jaen. We are building up a character and will make series of books out if it. Linda suggested that I build up my ‘Diya’ character and Jaen has already outlines some topics that I can write about. Apart from this, Linda wants me to illustrate for some books that she had bought (publishing and translation rights) at the book fair.
And oh, I still have a book to color; My Mother’s Kitchen (previously known as My Father’s Kitchen). After discussing with Linda and Mr .Raman, we decided to change it to mother because children have always associated ‘kitchen’ with ‘mother’.
Here are some random pictures from the book fair:
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Emila in Heidelberg!
I love Heidelberg!
And I owe it all to Sedunia Travel. I was looking for tour sponsorship before I went to Frankfurt and Sedunia Travel was so kind to sponsor me a tour to Heidelberg (Tuesday) as well as around Frankfurt City (Saturday- tomorrow)! The arrangement has been made before I leave for Frankfurt.
Heidelberg is a city in south-west Germany. The fifth-largest city in the State of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg is part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region. In 2009, over 145,000 people lived in the city. Heidelberg lies on the River Neckar in a steep valley in the Odenwald.
A former residence of the Electorate of the Palatinate, Heidelberg is the location of Heidelberg University, well known far beyond Germany’s borders. Heidelberg is a popular tourist destination due to its romantic and picturesque cityscape, including Heidelberg Castle and the baroque style Old Town.
I have hundreds of pictures taken here, will upload onto Picasa and share with you soon!
Thank you Sedunia Travel again for the tour.
If you are travelling somewhere and need to book a tour, do contact Sedunia Travel. Travel is not just their business, it’s their way of life. They are passionate about discovering new experiences and sharing them with their customers.
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Address: Menara Genesis, 33 Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -
Römerberg, Frankfurt
Finally, Römerberg is now on my list of places that I have visited.
Römerberg is one of the city’s most important landmarks and is famous for its most legendary buildings in Germany.
Römerberg’s famous facade (west).Formerly called the Samstagsberg, Römerberg has been the site of markets and fairs, tournaments and festivals, executions and imperial elections and coronations. In the 16th century it was considered the most beautiful square in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. It is from this era that the fountain of justice in the middle of the square also originates. Adorned with a statue of Justice with unbound eyes, a scale and sword, this was the first fountain in Frankfurt. A few steps away from the fountain there is a plaque in the cobblestones that commemorates the book burning by the National Socialists in 1933.
Eastern facade where the Rathaus (The Römer) is located.The entire three-storey building complex occupies about 10,000 square metres and consists of nine houses, encircling six courtyards. The famous three-peaked façade has medieval elements of design. The left-hand corner of the Alt-Limpurg displays the so-called Frankfurtia, the female embodiment of the city. In the middle, the Haus Römer shows the four kaisers of the Holy Roman Empire, two city coats of arms, a clock face, and a placard describing the most important facts about the building. The four kaisers are Frederick Barbarossa (the first king to be elected in Frankfurt), Louis the Bavarian (who gave convention rights to the city and allowed an expansion of the city), Charles IV (who made Frankfurt the location of the Kaiser selection vote), and Maximilian II (the first kaiser to be crowned in Frankfurt cathedral).
Here are more pictures of The Römer.
Information source:
– Frankfurt.de
– Wikipedia -
A walk to Römer, Frankfurt
I arrived in Frankfurt at around 7am in the morning. I took a cab from the airport and paid 30 Euro to reach the hotel. Taking train or bus was not a good idea as I have two luggages and the one with all my merchandise sample items was the heaviest.
After taking breakfast at the hotel, I went out for a walk…Römer, in my mind. After walking about 5 minutes, I was numb all over. It was too cold and I had to turn back to the hotel to take my glove and muffler. I warmed myself up with the hair-dryer before going out again. Haha talk about an Asian in Europe. I think I will die if it’s winter.
I walked from Tourist Hotel at Baseler Street via Wisenhuttenplatz, then along Gutleutstr, to Willy-Brandt Platz, later along Weissfrauen str to Betmann-Braubachstr and to Romer. Heh, mouthful road names, I know. I took the paper road map along with me. Didn’t buy any prepaid card for 3G map hoping I would get free wi-fi along the way. But anyway, that is not happening. Wi-fi is secured and to just sit and get coffee at every café and get secured password is not my idea, I would get high on coffee. So, I just let it be. Life goes on without the Internet. Had a great time walking around Romer taking pictures and draw.
Later from the Dom, I walked via Fahrgasse along Saalgasse Weckmarkt to Pfarturm and to the main road of Untermainkai. This is where the River Main is.
I’ll cover Romer and other buildings and the river in other posts. Here are pictures from my walk.
A building at Wisenhuttenplatz
A park at Wisenhuttenplatz
Fuchsia
A fountain at Willy-Brandt Platz
Willy-Brandt Platz
Street direction
Not sure what this is about
Steigenberger hotel at Am Kaiserplatz
I’ve taken lots of windows photos, this is one.
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