40th Sketchcrawl

First time in a while to do some outdoor sketching, spending around 2 hours between Parc de Cuitadella and Passeig de Lluis Companys. I was feeling very rusty on the day. The other sketches I did can be viewed on the SketchCrawl forum.
 

Sketching in the Rain. Sant Andreu

5 YEARS!

Today 5 years ago, my first nephew was born.  Way back then, I dedicated my first post on this blog to him. He's grown a lot since then and has just started school. Here's a few digital doodles to mark the occasion!

I don't particularly like this last sheet but I included it to remind myself that today during lunch, my 3 year old daughter said she wanted a real dog!

SUMMER 2012

Some sketches and stuff from this summer. Mostly from where La Rambla de Poble Nou meets the beach. The seated figure is from avinguda de Gaudi.

 

Best of luck to my daughter who starts school today!

Smoking To Go

 (Sketch on A4 paper/colour added digitally)

These are from last year. I use to enjoy sketching this guy whenever he was about. Haven't seen him this year yet.

PILOT-EVOLUTION

Here's a publicity spot I worked on awhile back for Boolab studios. It was for the new Frixion pen for the Pilot brand. Although it looks like one continuous scene, it was animated by a crew of around 7 animators using Wacom tablets and Flash. I just did 3 scenes, starting from just as he falls to his knees in the desert and finishing just before the first drops of rain fall on his head. It was good fun to work on, especially the quick "morphing through history" section.

Pilot: 'Evolution' from boolab on Vimeo.

Summertime Blues

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

Good luck to everyone for the New Year!

Dog's life.

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!!!

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!!

                                                   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

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

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

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

Avinguda de Gaudi

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

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

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

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

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).