As mentioned in my last article, I had two very special days teaching in the beautiful towns of Ladenburg and Heidelberg in Germany. But I also spent time in both places prior to the workshops, prepping for the lessons as well as doing a little sketching for myself.

Ladenburg

This was my first visit to Germany so to have the half-timbered town of Ladenburg as my first destination off the plane was pretty amazing. I said ‘wow’ a lot as we walked the streets.

I spent the first day (and the rest of the week too) with Vivien and Kerstin (admins for the local USK Mannheim group) and we hit it off immediately!

There were many amazing views to sketch in Ladenburg, but my first non-teaching sketch was this one. I love the pointy triangular shapes of this part of the world! We don’t get shapes like this in Australia as our roof slopes are much shallower (no snow!)

A quick 10 minute sketch of the main square in Ladenburg. My hope was that I would get to do a coloured version of this view later in the week.

Heidelberg

The next day, we (plus Ingrid) went to Heidelberg – another gorgeous town. This is the signature view and one that we sketched during my workshop there later in the week.

Heidelberg is also famous for a long shopping street with some grand buildings in pink stone.

It’s also the home of Lamy!

I already have lots of Lamy pens and all I want is a new colour of the Joy (which they don’t make) so I went in wondering if I could find anything to buy!

And so I was happy to find a pen that is only available in this store – a Safari with the Heidelberg skyline on the cap. A great souvenir for sure!

As it turned out, it was an essential purchase a few weeks later, in Poznan, my Lamy Joy (with a M nib) that I was using for all my writing got converted into a fude pen. And so this Heidelberg Safari played a very important role in the second half of my trip.

A little workshop prep and a sketch for myself, then it rained and we had some cake!

Next we went up to the castle. Lots I could sketch here from a single tree to a grand building.

But I was most interested in the view from the castle. (Aside: I filmed progress videos of this sketch for my Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon – if you are part of my Patreon you can find this demo in my Germany Update 1 video)

We also walked a little further so that we could see the view of the town and river plus the castle. The lighting wasn’t great so I did a simple graphite sketch to record the main elements.

What a fun day – and it still wasn’t over.

My friend Damien from Luxembourg was driving through Germany and so we were able to have dinner together. We talk online regularly but I haven’t seen him in person since 2017!

Damien is an incredible mac guru and ended up giving Kerstin some tips about Focus modes on her iphone (this is something I need to set up!) 

I always love sketching my food but this trip it seemed to be super hard to do! Still I tried!

Another Day in Ladenburg

On the Monday after the workshops we returned to Ladenburg. My friend Esther from Edinburgh had arrived in Germany (she travelled and sketched with me for a week) and we wanted to take her to this special town. 

I didn’t get to sketch the main square as I wanted, due to a festival!

But I did get a chance to sketch some timber-framed buildings!

I absolutely love sketching this style of building!

And another one!

Group photo just before we left Ladenburg! 

Next up: More beautiful locations that I visited in this first week in Germany!