EMMA

My daughter Emma was born on June 1st at 2:02 am. Both she and Mum are doing well. It was amazing to see how she was born with her eyes open, looking around the room (although they say it takes a few weeks for them to be able to see details correctly). It's great having her in our lives. So for the moment sketching has been replaced with changing nappies!

Here's a drawing my friend back in Ireland, Martin Fagan, sent us. Thanks again Martin and everyone else for their best wishes.





My friend Silvia Ortega came to visit Emma and brought along these two wonderful drawings she made for her. The photos are from Silvia's blog but they look exactly the way they're are placed in Emma's room. Thanks Silvia!



A big thank you to my other friend Roger Simó who came to visit and brought along a copy of his book La Cinta Sense Fi, complete with a dedication to Emma. The book is filled with beautifil illustrations, please check out his blog!

Poble Nou

Since last October, I've been working in Mariscal Studios which is located in the Poble Nou district of Barcelona. In the past, this was once a very important industrial area doted with factories. Today, as the result of recent investments, the area is a mixture of modern offices and tower blocks, old houses and derelict buildings. At the time of rebuilding, the local council put a clause that when the factories were demolished the old chimneys should remain untouched. So it's always a great surprise to find the odd chimney peeping out from behind a nest of office blocks. It gives Poble Nou a great character.
Trying to get back in to the habit of sketching daily, with the idea that spending all day drawing for someone else at least one drawing per day should be for me. It's a lighter version of an idea someone I once worked with a long time ago had... he would do one drawing for the studio, then stop and do one drawing for himself!! "One for the studio, one for me!" His desk was full of drawings (great stuff too!).

So here's a few sketches done at lunchbreak, mostly views from the plaza just beside the studio(people sketches are from on the train). They're done in a little sketchbook that proved to be too small to be comfortable and the paper is horrible so I can't wait to finish the thing ( I was stupid enough to buy 2 so it's gonna take a while!!) Couldn't manage to scan them well, paper gave some funny effects so I gave up, this is the best I could do.












Here's some links to some fellow sketchers that also work at Mariscal Studio.


carlos leon
sagarfornies
Allan Rabelo

Girl

Another one from last Summer, 9- 11 August.

More Spring Cleaning

Finally got around to scanning a lot of stuff that had been lying around for ages and throwing out (recycling) all the paper. Now, I've just gotta find some time to do the same type of clean up with the computer and all the stuff I scanned!
This was from a sketch from 11 of August, last summer, from around Plaza de la Catedral.

22nd Sketchcrawl

For the 22nd Sketchcrawl, the Barcelona Group ( Eclecticbox, Lapin, Monica and I ) met at the Christopher Columbus monument which is located at the end of Las Ramblas. The statue points out towards the port, while to his back the Tibidabo mountain traces out an interesting silhouette behind the city (thanks in part to the church that's situated right on top). After we had made our introductions we started sketching. We had only being drawing around 15 mins when it started to rain!!


Lapin had the great idea of going to the nearby World Trade Centre which gives a good view of the city and the port.



( this is looking back at the Columbus monument, one towards the IMAX cinema with the Torre Agbar in the background and another of the port).
When the rain stopped we made our way back to the Christopher Columbus monument.



( I tried to do some different views looking up at the statue but my neck wasn't too happy about that idea so I started drawing some clowns on stilts instead, that were entertaining people sitting outside a bar.)
Although the sun was out it was quite chilly with a breeze coming from the port. Monica already had a cold so she decided to call it a day. After a while, the rest of us went for something to eat and had a chat about drawing.



Stomachs filled with pasta, we crawled our way through the Barrio Gothico, stopping at the Plaza del Rey. While drawing, we could hear a guitarist playing commercial pop songs in the classical Spanish guitar style!!
( Eclecticbox sitting in the only corner that had some sunshine, an old rusted iron torch holder, some various sketches of people)
It was getting a bit cold by this time so Lapin had the idea of going for a coffee on the top floor of El Corte Ingles. The view of the city is amazing from there. I had never been before, so twice in one day I got to see the city from new viewpoints (thanks Lapin!




Just after 6pm, it seemed like time to stop sketching. We decided to do portraits of each other, it was a bit like a gunfight in a western, sitting in silence with only the eyes moving. To finish off the day, Lapin had the idea to do some blind drawings of each other (drawing without looking at the paper).
(two blind drawings of Eclecticbox, two of Lapin and what was supposed to be a portrait of Lapin).

It was a great day in great company!

Spring cleaning

No sketching done recently so I'll have to cheat by posting a drawing done last summer (came across it again while doing a spot of spring cleaning). I'd like to mention that my mate Paul Farrell and his band Moebius have released their single "Black Sheep of the Family" back in Ireland (entering at no.28 in the charts).
They played a concert on Jan 31 to promote the release in which my best mate Dave Connolly lent a helping hand and played bass for the night.

21 Sketchcrawl

Late posting this one, as usual, these are from the 21st sketchcrawl which took place on the 11th of January. Started off with a visit to the Macba musuem and finished off at the Boqueria market( more details of the day can be seen at the post over at the sketchcrawl forum)

Over the next few days I plan to set up new links to some of the other Sketchcrawlers from around the globe.