Drawings made while teaching the course "Drawing the City" about which I blogged some weeks ago. Every lesson consists of about half an our in the classroom and 2 and a half hours of drawing from life. I always make the same exercises I propose to the the students.
In this case, identifying simple volumes...
...before drawing architecture (this is a crossroads in Poblenou 100 meters far from my house).
Here we went again to see a rehearsal of the Castellers de Sants for drawing people.
For the next drawings we went to the Parc de la Ciutadella and the idea was to draw without lines, just color stains were allowed.
Drawings from other people at the course can be seen on this flickr group.
Some weeks ago, with the usual wild bunch (César, Lapin, Sagar, Víctor and Javier de Blas who had stopped for a few days in Barcelona on his long trip throughout the Mediterranean coast), I had the opportunity to attend a couple of the indoor rehearsals of the Castellers de Sants (Sants is a neighborhood of Barcelona). They are one of the most famous collas (teams) of castellers in all Catalonia. This are not my first castells live but in this occasion I could see everything from different high levels and I could appreciate the intricate way they construct the basis, the different figures and roles, and the complex organization and hierarchy of the colla.
At some times I had to stop drawing: seeing l'enxaneta (the 6-8 y.o. child that ends the castell) scaling a human tower till the 9th "floor" is really hypnotizing. I felt as pushing with my eyes to help all that remain standing.
Friday 24 was La Mercè, a big festival in Barcelona. I went to Plaça Sant Jaume to see the castellers. I've always thought this is a beautiful metonymy of the collective work, and I'd say it's not a case that this old tradition had taken deep roots in Catalonia. I've seen castells all my life on tv or films, but this was the first time I had the opportunity of seen them live. Really exciting, at some moments I got goosebumps.
