The FACE

Nederlandse tekenaar Siegfried Woldhek in Metropolitan New York

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:09:00 +0000

Op woensdag 14 september opent in het Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York de tentoonstelling Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine. Van tekenaar Siegfried Woldhek (1951), bekend van zijn schrijversportretten in Vrij Nederland en politieke prenten in NRC Handelsblad, zijn twee tekeningen opgenomen in de tentoonstelling.

De tentoonstelling laat vele werken zien uit de collectie van het Metropolitan museum (Leonardo da Vinci, Francisco de Goya, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, David Levine, enz.). Het toont satirische tekeningen en karikaturen in al hun vormen, van de Italiaanse Renaissance tot heden.

Woldhek: “Ik ben een groot bewonderaar van de tekeningen van Da Vinci, Goya, Daumier en natuurlijk David Levine. Dat daar twee van mijn tekeningen bij mogen hangen, is een enorme eer.”
De tekeningen van Woldhek in het Metropolitan zijn een portret van George W. Bush en een portret van George W. Bush en Dick Cheney.

Siegfried Woldhek tekent sinds 1976 schrijverportretten in Vrij Nederland. Voor NRC Handelsblad maakt Woldhek sinds 1980 politieke prenten en tekent hij de zogenaamde bordes-‘foto’ van het nieuwe kabinet, nog voordat de officiële bordesfoto gemaakt is. Wim de Bie noemt Woldhek ‘de beste satirische tekenaar van Nederland’.

Het contact tussen Woldhek en het Metropolitan Museum is tot stand gekomen via museum Atlas van Stolk in Rotterdam dat twee jaar geleden 500 originele tekeningen van Woldhek heeft aangekocht.

Siegfried Woldhek heeft in 2008 op het TED congres in Monterey een lezing gehouden over Leonardo da Vinci (zie ook: DWDD). Ook heeft hij voor TED Los Angeles 2011 alle sprekers geportretteerd voor de programmagids.

AFTh van der Heijden, Gerard Reve, Oek de Jong

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:59:00 +0000

AFTh van der Heijden, Gerard Reve, Oek de Jong, originally uploaded by Siegfried Woldhek.

Digital portrait of three Dutch authors for the VN sex special. The colours reflect the way they write about sex.

Heleen van Royen

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:45:00 +0000

Heleen van Royen, originally uploaded by Siegfried Woldhek.

Shiny portrait of Dutch author Heleen van Royen, who tries hard to be the naughtiest 45 plus girl in the country. Made on my iPad while travelling back from Scotland.

iPad portraits at TED Global

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:02:00 +0000

TED Global took place in Edinburgh last week and I made 50 portraits of the participants during the breaks. It was an interesting experience. Normally I sit at home, alone and have a full day to make a portrait. I love good paper and the feel of a brush or pen. Now I was surrounded by spectators, with a nervous sitter in front of me and worked on the tiny, smooth surface of an iPad with 10 minutes to create a likeness. Getting good looking lines and making it look digital, rather than an imitation of a portrait on paper was quite a challenge.
I tried various approaches during the different days of the TED Conference and the results can be seen here,
Below are a few examples

Digital Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:30:00 +0000

I've been asked by AutoDesk to make digital portraits of the TED Global 2011 attendants (Edinburgh, July 11-15). . Should be fun, but it is not something I usually do, so I need to practice a bit and make some choices.

What tablet? Rather than going for a slate tablet, the instrument of choice will be an iPad. AutoDesk's SketchBook Pro works wonderfully on an iPad. If I use the same program on a windows tablet, I need a keyboard. So I decided to forgo the pressure sensitivity & slightly larger format and opt for the easy interface of the iPad instead.
Which stylus? The pogo stylus is to inaccurate for my taste. The Dagi stylus seemed great in the beginning but quickly became a bit rough; the lines wouldn't flow smoothly anymore and it made a scratchy sound on the iPad surface (with protective covering). Dagi apparently has made an improved version, which I hope to receive soon. But in the meantime there are many YouTube movies on how to make your own stylus, and most of them are not much better than what is available in the stores. Except one: recently I found a YouTube movie that shows how to make your own stylus, that it is fantastically smooth and easy to use. The guy who developed it goes by the name Koabusks. Check it out here.
Which style? I want to make portraits that look nice as well as digital, not as if made on paper. More about the quest for a proper digital portrait in the following blogs.

Back on blog

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:57:00 +0000

I've not posted on this blog for several months, although I've added many new portraits to my Flickr site and my regular site during that same period. Getting those portraits on the sites and then twitter about them was all that I managed to do. But now I'm back.

Beatrix & Merkel

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:48:00 +0000

Beatrix and Merkel at the occasion of the official visit that the Dutch queen pays to Germany. Published in NRC Handelsblad 12 Apr 2011 with an article of R Koopmans who argues that the countries have a distorted view of one another.
The design was determined by the fact that it was going to be printed on two pages, with a fold in the middle.

Mark Rutte, het zonnetje in huis

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is a cheerful fellow, so why not picture him that way.
I'm trying to get acquainted with ways to draw digitally, and this is a first example.

Dry Brush technique by Igor Kazarin

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:54:00 +0000

Igor Kazarin, a Russian artist, is quite a master with the dry brush. He uses oil paint, mixed with a few drops of oil. But that doesn't necessarily make for interesting portraits. WHY make them in the first place? Why not simply reproduce the photo that was used for reference? See one of his videos here.

Hans Teeuwen

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:21:00 +0000

Was asked to make a portrait of the dark Dutch comedian Hans Teeuwen for NRC Handelsblad. 90 minute deadline.... Pffooi.

Sandro Veronesi XY

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:55:00 +0000

Sandro Veronesi's new novel XY weaves two stories into one: man vs woman, faith vs science. That is why this portrait is made in two lines, of complementary colors.

Willem Alexander practices regal poses

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Soon, around April 30, speculation about Beatrix' abdication will flare up again. In the meantime her son, Willem Alexander is practising regal poses.

Four stages of tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:39:00 +0000

Four stages of tasting:
Uh
Uhmm
Mmmm
OOOHH!
Made for the annual lunch with political cartoonists

Rik van den Boog

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:36:00 +0000

These are uncertain times for Ajax manager Rik van den Boog. How many more days can he hold on to his job? With how many law suits?

Screaming Face

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:56:00 +0000

Weird video interview with a photographer who found that his picture of his screaming face was used around the world without being asked forpermission http://t.co/rld4ctb.
Weird because this should be a -very lucrative- piece of cake for an agent. Weird also that this particular picture should become iconic.

Jeroen Brouwers

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:46:00 +0000

One of the recurrent themes in Jeroen Brouwers oeuvre is the fear of being erased by death, by time. Sic transit gloria mundi. In his beautiful most recent novel Bittere Bloemen (Bitter Flowers) this theme features prominently again.
Published in Vrij Nederland 2 Apr 2011
This portrait reminded me that I've been drawing Jeroen Brouwers for over 30 years now....... See e.g http://ow.ly/4qds8of http://ow.ly/4qdsl of http://ow.ly/4qdsM

Henk Bleker at work

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Henk Bleker is the Dutch secretary of state responsible for nature conservation. But he is also a passionate farmer. Here he is shown at work.
Published NRC Handelsblad 30 Mar 2011

Not just cats, also houses can look like Hitler!

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:21:00 +0000

We humans have an uncanny ability to recognize faces. Not just in real people, but also in clouds, rocks, wall paper etc. So after cats that look like Hitler, there now is house that has his likeness hovering over it! So who says that drawing a face is difficult, if even cats and houses can create a likeness.

Dr Frank at lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:55:00 +0000

Dr Frank, the Dutch diet guru du jour savors his lunch.

Hillen at work

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:53:00 +0000

Hillen in conference

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:53:00 +0000

The world of pencil portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:28:00 +0000

Lots of people draw portraits with pencil. It's a world on it own. The more like a photo, the higher the praise. Amazing stuff. see f.e this House portrait done by Dirk Dzimirsky (Blacleria)

Aussies

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:47:00 +0000

This is what you get when you put an Aussie crowd before the camera in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra on a Friday afternoon

Bernlef

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:04:00 +0000

Bernlef's last novel did not inspire me. I concentrated therefore on his beautifully wrinkled face in this portrait of simple lines.

Justin Bieber is cool!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Siegfried Woldhek) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:23:00 +0000

63 million 12 yr old girls can't be wrong! Justin Bieber is so cool! Justin Bieber! Justin Bieber!! And he comes to Holland!
NRC Handelsblad 26 Mar 2011