Sketch Blog

Summertime Blues

2012-01-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

A few sketches from summer 2011. Done around Avinguda de Gaudi and Barcelona Zoo. Experimenting with laying down tone first then adding lines and vice versa.

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T00:07:00.001-08:00

Good luck to everyone for the New Year!

Dog's life.

2011-10-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Just some quick digital sketches for the fun of it.

I think if I was a dog, I'd look something like this (without the flies, mind you!). Starting to feel a bit old around the joints lately.

Congratulations!!!

2011-10-07T03:20:00.000-07:00

This week marks my nephew's 4th birthday! We had great fun when he came to visit this summer. Also, his amazing mammy just completed a 15 mile race. Well done sis !! This little sketch is goes out to both of you!

Improve your memory...Mejorar la memoria!!

2011-09-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

A4 Graphite+Watercolours

... by sketching!!! It's amazing in movies how suspects can remember where they where and what they did at a certain time on a certain day! I can't even remember what I did last week never mind a few weeks ago! But now that I'm organizing a bunch of sketches scanned in a few months ago, I find I can recall a lot of details about the person and the moment I was sketching.
The girl in this sketch was kept checking her watch and looking up and down the street, obviously waiting on someone. I started sketching as fast as possible, knowing she could get up any minute and leave ( I was hoping the person she was waiting on would turn up late , at least to give me enough time to finish the sketch!). I left the head til last to draw, due to her looking up and down nonstop. That made me a bit nervous, thinking I'll screw the drawing up.
Well, at least I can remember my whereabouts on the 11th of April between the hours of 16h to 18H!

Mejorar la memoria

...dibujando! Siempre me asombra la capacidad que tiene alguna gente para recordar donde estaban en tal fecha a tal hora en las películas cuando estan siendo interrogado por la policía. Yo no podría recordar ni donde estuve hace una semana. Sin embargo ahora que estoy organizando los dibujos que escaneé hace un par de meses, encuentro que puedo recordar muchos detalles de la persona y del momento en que la estaba dibujando.
La chica de este dibujo estaba mirando continuamente la hora y mirando la calle arriba y abajo, obviamente estaba esperando a alguien. Empecé a dibujarla con mucha prisa sabiendo que en cualquier momento se podría ir (yo quería que la persona llegase tarde, al menos lo suficiente para poder acabar el dibujo). Como la chica no paraba de mirar hacia todos lados, dejé la cabeza para lo último aunque me ponía nervioso pensar que iba a estropear el dibujo.
Bueno, al menos sé donde estuve el día 11 de abril!

Dog ate my drawings

2011-09-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ooops! Just when I finally got around to scanning a backlog of sketches... I ended up not having any time to organise them! At least I got to free the house of all the accumulated paper (although I did decide to keep this one).It's from the usual sketching spot, Av Gaudi.

( A4 paper, pilot pen 0.7, digital colour)

Elefantasy

2011-05-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

Just found this on a CD, dates from 2003! (didn't have a computer back then). I remember needing help to scan it in work... and open it in Photoshop to add the text. At least I've learned something since then!

Avinguda de Gaudi II

2011-05-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Another one from my favourite sketching spot. Didn't get to add watercolours so I put some colours afterwards at home.

Avinguda de Gaudi

2011-04-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to scanning some sketches. They are all from around my favourite sketching area, Avinguda de Gaudi. A great variety of characters can be found around. Tourists on the march between Hospital de San Pau and Sagrada Familia and the older locals coming out for their afternoon chat.

Barcelona Sketchbook Video

2011-01-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

I had the idea of making a simple "fade on-fade off" type slideshow using the sketches from the previous post. When I started adding text, inspiration took over and things got out of hand! Finally, when I got the video more or less finished, I needed to get some music down, giving me a great excuse to dust off the guitar and drum machine. I think the final result reflects the inspiration I recieve from the surrounding architecture and the everyday hussle and bussle of the city centre, far better than I could with a simple slideshow. The clip is dedicated to my daughter, a non-stop source of inspiration and laughter.

Barcelona Sketchbook from David Coogan on Vimeo.

29th SketchCrawl

2010-10-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

A great turn up on Saturday (60 people!). It was a nice and sunny too. A big thanks to Eclecticbox once again for coordinating the day (and to Lapin for the super map with timetable included).

These first ones are from Passeig de Gràcia, the starting point for the Crawl. The first one is of the building Cases Rocamora (it's on the corner of Carrer Casp with Passeig de Gràcia). The other is a detail of one of the many lamps (dating from 1903)
that decorate Passeig de Gracia, by Pere Falqués i Urpí.

Some people taking the weight off their feet, Passeig de Gracia.

The second sketch is of the building "La Uníon y el Fénix Español" (1927-1932) by Eusebi Bona i Puig, located on Passeig de Gracia. The first drawing is a view from Plaza de Catalunya, where I went while the main group went to the restaurant.

After a quick sketch of this girl,in Portal del Angel, it was time to meet up at La Boquería. No one else had turned up yet, and as the entrance to the market was hectic, I continued on sketching around Las Ramblas. This is the one area of the city where you'll find people drinking from enormous beer glasses!

The first sketch is of the building Casa Bruno Cuadros (also known as Casa dels Paraigües- House of the Umbrellas). Built in 1858, the present day facade was remodelled in 1883, by Josep Vilaseca Casanovas (who also designed Barcelona's Arco de Trionfo). The bottom floor of the building once housed an umbrella shop, hence all the oriental umbrella motifs outside. The second sketch is of a statue outside the 17Th century church, Igelsia de Betlém, Carrer del Carmen.

A Touch of Happiness

2010-06-01T01:48:00.000-07:00

Photo of my daughter's hand, taken on a trip to the park on her first birthday! She's brought a year of fun and happiness to our lives.

27th Sketchcrawl

2010-05-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

We had quite a large turn up for the Barcelona group this time (great to meet everyone) Luckily the day started off with sunshine (we had a lot of rain the previous days). These first two are from the rooftop of CaixaForum, looking towards Mnac, although I'm not sure what buildings they are (they pop up from among the trees).

Showreel

2010-05-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to editing an upto date version of my showreel. It's posted on my portfolio blog for those interested in taking a peek! It features a lot of scenes of this little guy, Lindbergh, from Acció's "Cher Ami". He's the zany character of the movie. He's taken a lot of bad knocks on the head as his obsession to learn how to fly constantly ends in disaster!

Goodbye April

2010-04-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

These are done looking from my window, inspired by people below. They are not blind drawings this time. I used a marker that has a brush-like tip. When I scanned them they reminded me of vectorial line work, which kinnda lead me to colour them like this. I don't know where the style of displacing the colours originates from(if anyones knows I'd love to hear) but it's something I see alot here in Barcelona (eg.). For some reason I always relate it to Jazz music.

Estos están hechos mirando desde mi ventana, inspirado en la gente que pasaba. No son Blind Drawings. Están hechos con un rotulador tipo pincel y una vez escaneados a mí me parecían líneas vectoriales (creo es porque estoy acustumbrado a hacer dibujos más sucios) así que decidí ponerles un poco de color. No sé de donde viene el estilo de colocar los colores fuera de sitio (si alguien lo sabe que me lo diga, por favor), a mi siempre me recuerda a imagenes relacionadas con la música jazz. Es un estilo que he visto mucho aquí en Barcelona(eg.).

Blind Drawing

2010-04-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

I recently had to animate using a brush-like tipped marker, which was a bit intimidating, so to break the ice I would start the morning with some blind drawings looking from my window. I love using this exercise as it usually gives some funny results- which is what drawing should be all about, having fun! Although some times it's hard to even recognise what the subject is (see if you can find the traffic light in my sketch!) the results usually have a free and broken feel to them. It also forces you to really look. The van was on the corner just below my window but the building is at the end of the next block, so it's a good exercise for the eyes to focus on something in the distance when you spend so much time pinned to the desk drawing. Also, as I never get to use colours while sketching outdoors, I thought I'd give these a lick of paint once scanned in.
I was first introduced to Blind Drawing by the Life Drawing Instructor at Don Bluths. His name was Lorcan and was an Art Teacher from the National College of Art and Design. When he first explained this exercise I thought it was either a joke or the guy was mad! How could anybody draw without looking at the paper! Just didn't make sense! Now I can't imagine sketching without it! Fellow Barcelona sketchcrawler Lapin is also a big fan of this method, please check out his work here.

Últimamente tuve que animar usando un rotulador tipo pincel. La idea me intimidaba un poco así que para romper el hielo empecé las mañanas con unos cuantos "Blind Drawings"* mirando desde la ventana de mi casa (*dibujando sin mirar el papel -si en un momento dado quieres mirar el papel hay que dejar de trazar). Me encanta este método porque da resultados muy divertidos y dibujar se trata de esto - divertirse. A veces es dificil reconocer lo que acabas de dibujar (a ver si se puede encontrar el semáforo que hay en mi boceto!!). También es un buen ejercicio para los ojos después de muchas horas dibujando en una mesa de luz. La furgoneta estaba aparcada en la esquina debajo de mi casa pero el edificio es del final de la siguiente manzana. Como nunca logro usar colores cuando dibujo en exteriores, me apeteció añadirles un poco una vez escaneados.
La persona que me introdujo en este método de dibujar era el instructor de dibujo natural en Don Bluths. Se llama Lorcan y era profesor del NCAD, Dublín. En principio pensaba que era una broma o que el tipo estaba loco! Cómo se puede dibujar sin mirar el papel! No tenía sentido! Ahora no me puedo imaginar dibujar sin este método. Lapin, que conozco del grupo Barcelona Sketchcrawl, también es aficionado a este ejercicio. Se puede ver su trabajo aqui.

Emma's Room

2010-04-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

These are photos of the 2 drawings I did last year for my daughter Emma's room. Done with pastels and coloured pencils, the idea was to have simple shapes and with an emphasis on big smiles to project a happy feeling. She didn't pay much attention to them until recently when she suddenly started laughing at the cat. Then she made a connection between the cat and the dog and now laughs everytime she sees them both before getting her nappy changed and afterwards (although not much laughing is done during the act of nappy changing. It's more like a Houdini performance!! I never knew a baby could turn and twist so fast!!). The other stickers of animals were bought in a DIY store. ( Since the photo was taken someone pulled the parrot from the wall!)

Son fotos de dos dibujos que hice para la habitación de mi hija Emma. Hechos con pasteles y lápices de color, la idea era usar formas simples y resaltar las sonrisas grandes para dar sensación de felicidad. No se fijó mucho en ellos hasta hace muy poco cuando de repente empezó a reirse del gato. Luego asoció al perro con el gato y ahora se ríe antes y después de cada cambio de pañal (aunque mientras se lo cambiamos no se ríe mucho, se parece más a Houdini con tantos giros y vueltas para escapar!). Las pegatinas de animales los compramos en una tienda de bricolage.

Avinguda de Gaudi

2010-03-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

These were done on the Avinguda de Gaudi (it's the avenue right beside Sagrada Familia). They are just a little selection done from between August to October. They are of people sitting in the terrace of a wonderful icecream shop (for those who like icecream it's a must!!) that can be found on the way going towards Hospital de San Pau. People sit for hours chatting. I was just sitting on an ordinary street bench looking on (sob!) although more than once I had an icecream before starting to sketch! I feel like having one now just thinking about it!. Once scanned, I decided to digitally colour the more cartoony ones.
Son de gente tomando helados en la terraza de una heladería (muy buena por cierto, hay que probarla!!) en Avinguda de Gaudí, cerca de la Sagrada Familia, en direción de Hospital de Sant Pau. La gente se queda charlando durante horas! Yo solo observaba desde un banco normal de la calle (snif!) aunque en mas de una ocasión me tomé uno antes de empezar de dibujar! Me esta entrando ganas de comer uno ahora solo pensando en ello! Una vez escaneados decidí colorear los bocetos más cartoon.

I aslo include a photo of the sculpture "El Bon Temps Perseguint La Tempesta"(1978-79) by Apel-les Fenosa. I think it means either the good times chasing away the bad or the good weather chasing the storm (¿algú sap?). It can be found on the last block of the avinguda before arriving at the Hospital de San Pau. It's not supposed to be a great photograph, the idea is to simply share an image from this part of the planet with those who may never get the chance to see it in person.
También subo una foto de la estatua "El Bon Temps Perseguint La Tempesta"(1978-79) por Apel.les Fenosa. No pretendo que sea una buena foto sino es simplemente para compartir una imagen desde este parte del globo con los que quizás nunca puedan verlo en persona.

26th Sketchcrawl

2010-03-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

The results of the Barcelona Group can be viewed here. Barcelona Sketchcrawl
Se puede ver todo los resultados del groupo aqui. Barcelona Sketchcrawl

Long Time No See !!!

2010-03-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Oooopps! Almost 8 months have passed since the last post! Fatherhood hasn't allowed me much free time for wandering around sketching. So, catching up with where I left off the last time, here's some sketches from the Poble Nou area of Barcelona. These are from last Summer, so it's funny looking at them now and remembering how hot it was while sketching (to make it worse I did them during lunch, possibly the hottest time of the day). They are from the little sketch book I once mentioned (8 months ago!!), so the quality of the scans are not great. The yellow grainy paper is impossible to scan.(any suggestions would be very welcome!
These are the last batch of sketches I got to do in Poble Nou. After that I've only had time for some local sketches of people. They'll be posted real soon!!

Today my daughter is 9 months old and her first tooth appeared this morning!

Ya han pasado casi 8 meses desde que colgué el último post! Ser padre no me deja mucho tiempo libre para ir dibujando por ahí. Continuando por donde lo dejé aquí tenéis unos dibujos hechos en el barrio del Poble Nou de Barcelona. Son del verano pasado y es extraño verlos ahora recordando el calor que hacía (son de la hora de comer). Están hechos en el pequeño libro de bocetos que mencioné hace tiempo (sólo unos 8 meses!!!) y aún no he encontrado la manera de escanear este papel amarillo y granulado. (se aceptan sugerencias).
No he podido hacer más en este barrio de Barcelona. Después sólo tuve tiempo para dibujar gente más cerca de casa. Los colgaré dentro de poco!!!
¡¡Hoy mi hija cumple 9 meses y esta mañana apareció su primer diente!!

EMMA

2009-07-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Another one from last Summer, 9- 11 August.

More Spring Cleaning

2009-04-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T10:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-01-28T11:10:00.000-08:00

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.

December

2008-12-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Just over a year ago, I started the Sketch Blog on the day my nephew was born with a post dedicated to him. Now my other sister has given birth to a baby boy, 9th of December! So it gives me great pleasure to dedicate the last post of 2008 my new nephew.

Merry Christmas everyone!

November Sketch 2

2008-11-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

Following the style of the last post... this sketch was one from the plaza de la catedral. Not much of a post but haven't had anytime to do any regular sketching lately. Hope to try and pick up the habit of sketching at lunch time again. Until then...

November Sketch

2008-11-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

This one is for Victor who recently complained (and rightly so!) about the lack of colour in the blog. When sketching I'm lucky if I have time to put some tones in there, so putting colour is another thing. Although this isn't what he meant maybe it'll get him off my back for awhile!

20th Sketch crawl

2008-10-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

The following are some of the sketches from the 20th Sketch Crawl. The location was Parc de la Cuitadella and this time I had some company. Check out my partner in crimes results over at the SketchCrawl forum (under Barcelona,Spain results). Looking forward to the next one already!

September Sketches

2008-10-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, October 2nd means my nephew is now one year old. Happy Birthday to him and congratulations to my sister and her husband. It was great to see them when they came over to visit Barcelona during the summer.

It also marks one year of the Sketch blog. It also coincided with the preview of the movie "Cher Ami"( previously titled Flying Heroes ) during the film festival in Sitges. A lot of faces I hadn't seen in awhile eager to see the results of almost four years work!

So with the usual delay, here's some sketches which should have been posted in September.

Can't go to the Zoo without paying a visit to these guys, they're real fun to watch.

Barcelona Zoo is full of Peacocks walking around freely. They're so use to people, they usually come up close begging for food ( so if a male sneaks up behind ya while drawing and belts out his cry it's enough to scare the pants of you).

This isn't a great drawing but it made me think about keeping poses modern- I think if I had 've made a pose of someone taking a picture I still would've made them look through the viewfinder!! Ouch!! Nowadays it's all cameras up in the air (although once or twice I have forgotten and held the digital camera up to my eye instead of looking at the LCD screen).

Don't particularly like this one (thinks it because I lost concentration half way through and forced myself to finish it ) but as I don't have any other building drawing....

August Sketches

2008-09-08T11:14:00.001-07:00

Just catching up with some sketching done during August. Couldn't get myself around to scanning them until now, I'll use the hot summer as an excuse.
The sketches of buildings are from locations close to home done on my lunchtime walks. Those of people are from the Plaza de la Catedral.

July Sketches

2008-07-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back into the good habit of regular sketching ( don't know why but bad habits seem so much easier to pick up!).

Working with the computer all day is quite tiring on the eyes ( and not to mention what's left of my brain). Starting to notice the strain when trying to draw details of buildings in the distance (good excuse for producing weak sketches!). Hoping drawing things in the distance more often will balance out spending all day glued to the cintiq otherwise I'll soon be needing binoculars .

19th Sketch Crawl

2008-06-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday 21st of June was the date set for the Worldwide Sketch Crawl.

Saturday 21st of June was the date set for the Worldwide Sketch Crawl. This was my first time to participate in the event and my first time to take part in any forum. If anyone feels like checking out the work of people sketching from all the around of the world, check out Sketch Crawl, it's well worth the visit!

My plan for the day was to start at the Parc de Ciutadella, pass through Born and finish up at the Plaza de la Cathedral. The following are some of examples of the days sketching. Let's see if the next time I can round up some company.

Nike Spot

2008-06-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Just as I completed 3 months of having " gone digital", a nice opportunity came along to do some 2D animation on a spot for Nike with Boolab studios in Barcelona. It was great to put pencil to paper again and the experience was even more enjoyable thanks to the great working atmosphere in the studio, a real cool bunch of guys. Unfortunately the spot won't be released until September, so can't post any related images 'til then. In the meantime, here's something that, although nothing to do with the spot, could be seen as how it felt animating 2D again.

Después de 3 meses en el mundo de animación digital, tuve la oportunidad de animar en 2D para un spot de Nike, con Boolab en Barcelona. Fue genial volver a coger el lápiz y la experiencia fue todavía mejor gracias al buen ambiente que hay en este estudio. Como el estreno del spot se ha retrasado hasta septiembre, no podré colgar imagenes hasta entonces. Mientras os dejo este dibujo que, aunque no tiene nada que ver con el spot, quizás refleja como me sentí al volver a animar en papel.

Goodbye Cerdanyola

2008-04-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's goodbye Cerdanyola and farewell to the ol' drawing board! Quite some time has passed since the last post! This has been due to some recent changes. Work on the 2D project finally came to an end. This has implied a few alterations to my daily routine! No more sketching in Cerdanyola and no more sketching on the train (for the moment anyway). Now I’m working in the centre of Barcelona city, on a new project using Toonboom and Cintiq, so along with a change in time schedules I haven’t been able to get around to doing any drawing lately. Hopefully that’ll change as soon as I get use to the new job. Until then, here’s some photos of Cerdanyola and what has been my working area for the last few years.

It’s funny but in the beginning I didn’t really like Cerdanyola as I found it to be quite a cold and ugly place. Then, when I started to go sketching at lunch time, I began to find all the things I didn’t like became interesting and inspiring. All those tower blocks and roof top aerials, gonna miss ‘em! Can’t wait to start sketching again, tons of amazing buildings in Barcelona to draw, just a little bit more clustered than in Cerdanyola.

Cerdanyola

2007-12-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

These are a few sketches done at lunch time in Cerdanyola, where the studio is located. Guess it won't be too long before all those roof top aerials become a thing of the past.

Train

2007-11-27T10:13:00.001-08:00

Some fellow train travellers on the way to work

Parc de la Cuitadella

2007-11-26T04:31:00.001-08:00

The Barcelona Zoo is located in the Parc de la Ciutadella, another good sketching spot. It's amusing at this time of year to see some people in t-shirts and shorts while others are well wrapped up with hats, scarves and gloves.

Plaza Sketches

2007-11-15T01:39:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite spots for sketching is the Plaza Catedral in the Barrio Gothic. A lot of people gather there on sunday mornings to see the Sardana dancing,so there is usually a good mix of old people and turists to sketch from. As usual, no one stays still for very long...

Thought I'd play around with proportions with these two.

line and tone study

2 October 2007

2007-10-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Today is a day to remember; my sister gave birth to a baby boy at 2am today. Thought I'd celebrate by making my first posts, with some sketches of some fellow train passengers and from other locations around Barcelona.