Enough was enough some time ago

I made this drawings a couple of weeks ago on a demonstration of Il Popolo Viola (the Purple People). Seems that finally some italians are waking up of the Berlusconi's sleep, seeing that it was always a smiling nightmare and that they are in danger.

Just one sample: tomorrow there will be a regional election and while Mr. B. banned all political debates on TV 3 weeks ago, yesterday he made speeches and interviews in prime time on 5 (of 7) national TV channels.

Am I wrong or this is some kind of new fascism?

blogged at urban sketchers.

Cachivaches

Cachivache (it sounds more or less kah-chee-vah-cheh) is a fantastic spanish word that means piece of old junk. Some days ago I took a walk at home drawing some of the cachivaches I have. I love so much many of them but I'm not sure how long some others will last (actually I'm not sure how they arrived and I wonder why they live on my shelves).

In this page there is a pot from IKEA, a devil shaped pen holder, a glass candlestick from my grand mother, an elephant puppet from India, a duck shape badge from Cuba, a wooden methane molecule shaped massage gadget, a mysterious wooden fish nobody remember how arrived home but that I like so much, a wooden woman figure from Kenya bought in Rome by my parents, an old counter bell, a little rolling stone my son gave me when he was 6 years old as if it was a gold nugget, a house shaped anti stress toy, a bilboquet from Paris, a calabrian liquorice box, a french porphyry egg, and a little glass ashtray from Naples.

Cachivaches (spanish), tchotchkes or pishifkes (yiddish), knickknacks (english), ıvır zıvır (turkish). More languages are welcome.

Barcelona: Parc Güell

26th dec was a great sunny day, we passed the morning at Parc Güell, an amazing place designed by Antoni Gaudí, and one of Barcelona's main appeals.

Home sweet home

Sometimes tight deadlines on my work don't allow me to take the time to sketch out from home. When this happens i often feel the need of taking a break of some minutes from drawing storyboards on the tablet and draw some sketches on paper. In such a little time I just can do sone quick takes of my home. Here are a some of them, all made in the last months.

The chair Roberta uses to work on the computer.


An angle of the living room with my favorite armchair.


My bedroom. I had a sudden impulse, so this was the first thing I did that day (apart having breakfast).


My working angle. This was really a quick break from work, I did not even stand up from the chair. There's another view of this here.

25th SketchCrawl Bologna 21.11.2009

The days before I though it should be a not so good SC. Some people said they wouldn't come and no special route or place was decided. But at the end many new people came and it was a great day.

There was a stand of a local radio station too, with a stupid host shouting and putting on shitty music. I decided to ignore it on my drawing (it was on the right side of the building entrance) and so I gave attention just to the architecture.

We went to Piazza Galvani were I drew this statue of Mr. Galvani and since I finished it quickly I decided to draw my drawing fellows.

This is Viola watching a sketchbook (with drawings made by yours faithfully).

San Francesco's Church at dusk.

Left: people on the bus while I went to our appointment. Right: Andrea and Marco.

We ate at the Osteria del Sole. Left: people at the next table. Right: Benedetta.

At the end we went to Modo, a bookshop where there was the presentation of a comic book.

Left: Daniele Caluri, one of the authors. Right: people listening his speech.

It was a great day.

People here and there

Some weeks ago, while I was in Croatia, I started a new pocket sketchbook.
Even if I use to change subjects and tools, this new sketchbook took suddenly some kind of "personality" that hasn't changed so far. Now I'm on page 35 (more or less in the middle) and trying to keep the continuity till the end.

Winter 2009 Sketches

Sketchbook completed between 21 december 2008 and 25 march 2009. All drawings were made in Bologna and Casalecchio. I used 3 Lamy fountain pens (extra fine, calligraphic 1 and 2 mm), 6 water brushes loaded with different watered fountain pen inks (except for the yellow that was aniline dye) and watercolors.

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Bus sketching

I work at home so I don't take the bus everyday, but when it happens it's one of my favorite places to sketch. It's not easy because the shaking, but it's funny to take aim while the bus runs and shoot strokes madly fast in the few seconds it remains stopped .


This beautiful lady was sleeping when I got the bus, and still she was sleeping when I got off about 35 minutes after. She wore very elegant clothes and seemed to be a tired businesswoman, except because it's not usual to see businessmen and mainly businesswomen on the bus in Bologna.


This little old white haired woman wore a pair of big odd old fashioned glasses. She moved her head jerkily with her lively eyes behind the jumbo glasses fixing everything like a chihuahua.


A couple of quickies I made in may diary (no sketch gear with me that day, it's not usual) with some watercolor washes put afterwards at home.

Sketching on sale

These are all sketches taken on a afternoon we did some january sales shopping.


At a certain moment if I turned 360º I could see 9 (yes nine!!) people phoning simultaneously.
Too much even for a big store.


This old lady pushed her grandson's stroller while her daughter looked for some more things (the stroller was full of shopping bags).


This man took the box of the shoes chosen by his wife and went to the cash desk while her kept on shopping. First he placed carefully all the boxes she has left opened (about a dozen).



Clothing shops are often creepy: this is half a (plastic) woman hanging from a hook to display half a woman's clothing.


This were just little quickies. Too many interesting people doing their january sales shopping.

Buildups

These are all doodles made while watching TV.
I started to draw the first building and then I suddenly remembered my friends Leticia and Javier, a couple (in all senses) of architects that became illustrators, awesome illustrators, I should say. They have told me more than once that there's a hidden architect in me. I don't know if it's true but I like to hear it. This thoughts made me build and build up more and more buildings.
Days after, the second one was a response to the first. The following ones are alternatives to building and buildup. (To be continued)

Autumn 2008 sketchbook

In november, at the Clermont-Ferrand's Biennale du Carnet de Voyage, my friend Enrique Flores gave to many of us one of this little sketchbooks (10x15 cm) for which he had made the cover illustration. I started to draw on it when I came to Bologna and finished it exactly one month after. Almost all drawings were finished at place. I used 6 water brushes loaded with different watered fountain pen inks, except for the yellow that was liquid watercolor. The black lines were made with a Pentel brush pen and 2 Lamy Safary (with EF and calligraphic nibs) both loaded with Noodler's ink. Click on the image to zoom and leaf through pages, or see a video here.