The Berlin Alexanderplatz is one of my favourite locations in Berlin. Together with a lot of other creatives I had the pleasure to have my office in the „House of the Teacher“ at the Alexanderplatz. 54 metres high, 13 floors – built 1961 by the east german architect Hermann Henselmann. From 1998-2001 creatives filled the whole building, a great opportunity for networking in a special historical atmosphere. Me and some collegues residated in the 12th floor, on birds flying height. A beautiful sight to the Fernsehturm, french dome and Berlin.

Besides our room a small chamber which ventilation machinery, but more important: One window with sight to the Karl-Marx-Allee, the street for GDR parades. Used by the Stasi to observe potential GDR-public enemis at the parades. In the basement of the house still the GDR wiretapping system. Unfortunatly – as it often works out- the city Berlin sold this house and we all had to leave in the winter 2001. On the „Alex“ itself I love the mixture of social classes. From punk to banker. Its really inspiring. A melting pot for everything in Berlin.

To snoop into the scenery I arrived one hour before Sven at the Alex. First thing I did (and always do) – make photos. Ti have an aid memoire laterone, and because I planned to use parts of them in my artwork. Because of the Surface Pro I could directly change the photo of the station into my favourite 2color effect.

Sven and me made the appintment to meet at the Weltzeituhr, which was in GDR times an still is nowerdays the best place on the Alex to meet each other. After having made some photos I had very much fun testing Adobe Shape.

To get a feeling for my objects i make at first little scribbles, like warm ups. The photo shows me scribbling on the Surface Pro. Below a detail from the Photoshop file I am scribbling in, with the shape I just made. On the left a snapshot of my Photoshop library with the Weltzeituhr shape in it.

He came right in time and brought Ink & Slide. Quickly unpacked, Bluetooth connected and kick off :-)  First another scribbel, next a rough composition of the radio tower bowl. And again transorm it in my two colors on the Surface.

Its allways good to look behind the scenes. In this case, we left the Alexanderplatz and walked along behind it. Sometimes when I am really into it, if feel like a scanner – scanning everything around me. There are that much interesting signs and things – everywhere! I have a big photo collection which I use for my work.

And a slightly stressed partner because I am photographing all the time :-) On the reverse of the Alexanderplatz I found the Cocktailbar „Knutschfleck“ (lovemark) with this beautiful engraving on the entrance door. And directly made a Photoshop brush out of it using Adobe Brush.

After “”Knutschflecken we went by bus to the Brandenburger Tor – the brandmark of Berlin. Especially right now in the 25th year after the fall of the wall.

A perfect object for perspective drawing in Adobe Line, which offers tools helping you to draw in the right perspectice. You should though have a basic knowledge of perspective, of course. And again, some scetches.

What a beautiful peace of trash! Right on the floor at the Brandenburger Tor: This damaged USB stick. I love electronical trash! Put it on my sketchbookpaper, made a photo and some minutes later I had a new fancy brush. For the Millimeterpapersketch of the Brandenburger Tor I used a little trick.

Made the day before a brush out of a scan of millimeterpaper (just a square) in Adobe Brush. In Adobe Sketch I used the new brush, just like a stamp on a canvas. Made my drawing on it and afterwards „masked“ the area around my drawing just by painting white on it. Besides I created splash and structure brushes: Spread ink on paper, photograph it, increase contrast in Photohop Touch, import in Adobe Brush.

After drawing at the Brandburger Tor I went to my favourit bar – the Marietta. The pleasure of the moment of bringing all elements together! Find the best composition and add drawing details on top.

Because I had the feeling that something bizarr is missing I took some more time and drew – fascinated by the french corner tools – a kind of face in Adobe Line. By playing with the image composition it came up, that it looked best, just turned around with my lovemark-brushkiss on top.

Below you find a description of how I did the gold plating. I develloped and used this technic for the whole Kavafis Book, which was printed in black and gold.

For the simualtion of the printed gold I built myself a goldpattern. You can download the goldpattern here and use it wherever you want.