Emma's Room

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

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

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 !!!

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

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