Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers is a colective blog recently created by my pal Gabi Campanario in wich artists from all over the world post sketches of the life in their respective cities. Gabi was kind enough to invite me to join he group and here is mi first contribution.

It's rainy in Bologna so my first contribution for Urban Sketchers has been made comfortably drawing with the sketchbook leaning over the kitchen table. I tried to catch a little piece of blue sky between the clouds that put some strange colors on the nearby houses. I had already taken this view here, but then I looked straight from the window over the hills, this is about 45º to the left and much less bucolic. The center of the image is an strange military property, somekind of Area 51 alla bolognese. I've lived in this house for 3 years and I've seen just a couple of big trucks entering or leaving it. It's forbidden to park or even stop near and when somebody does it a soldier materializes as teletransported, throws you out and disappear. That's all the human life you can see around. You can't film or take photos but there are bills that advice you that they film and take photos of the surroundings. I imagine everyting is located underground because all you can see is a couple of little huts between some lonely trees.

À la Biennale du Carnet de Voyage

Last weekend I went to Clermont-Ferrand for the 9th Biennale du Carnet de Voyage. I had been invited to show my sketchbooks and it was my first exhibition, I mean not my first in Clermont-Ferrand but the first in my life. I had never shown my drawings to anybody but family and friends (blogging is not the same, it's like hitting and running, you don't see the faces of the people looking at your work).


I felt like a kid with a new toy, it was absolutely amazing. Seeing people round my table leafing through my sketchbooks (often from the first to the last page!) was unbelievable to me...

...but the best was to hear some of them laughing (I'm not kidding!) with my cartoons. Now I understand comedians when they say make 'em laugh: I'ts one of the greatest sensations I've ever felt.
I've posted many other pics here, and as you can see on them, every lunch ended sketching over the tablecloths: with pens, brushes, ink but also with wine, sauce, forks, fingers...
I learnt so much, I knew lots of great artists, some editors and many funny and nice people.
I'd like to go back next year!

I also found the time to make some sketches, here they are:


At Bologna Airport before the departure.


At the Lyon-Part Dieu Station.


On the train between Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand.


At the Clermont-Ferrand Station.


The last day I had some hours in Lyon and I took a walk in the Vieux Lyon (really nice!)


This is the brasserie La Gargouille where I took a fantastic lyonnaise salad.


This the view of the Saône river from the Bonaparte bridge.
It was a sunny day but the wind blew so hard and it was really difficult to draw.

...That's all folks!
Next year in Clermont-Ferrand!