Sketch & The City

I started this sketchbook on october 25 at the Bologna SketchCrawl. Then I decided to use it just for SketchCrawls and urban sketches for the Gabi Campanario's Urban Sketchers blog. It contains drawings made in Bologna, Casalecchio Lyon and Verona between october 25, 2008 and february 26, 2009.

Music: W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) "Eine Kleine Gigue" K. 574

(Mitsuko Uchida, piano, 1991)

SketchCrawl in VIlla Spada

Villa Spada is a great place for drawing. It's a big house of the XIXth century with a big garden full of amazing places and views. It was the first time I was there and from then on I've come back several times. Here's a video that gives some idea.
In the garden there's a row of 12 statues that cought my attention. They are quite weird, with some particular motifs and attitudes. First 9 are women and last 3 are old men with some resemblance to Emperor Palpatine. I decided to draw all them and color just the shadows but about noon the day got cloudy. At that moment i had made just 4 of them so I must finish a week after. In the meanwhile I must reload my waterbrushes, and it's because of this that color changes from the 5th on.

Portable WC gear

After making my Itty-Bitty WC box, I thought that since it weighs just 40 grams it could be good to make some device to attach it to the sketcbook in order to draw without the need of any kind of surface for the watercolor box.
After some missed tests, I made this prototype. It will be enhanced when I find better materials (for example, I used cardboard and I think aluminium would be better). Until now this works fine (I made it 2 months ago) so I think it will not essentially change... but any ideas are welcome!


This is the holder and the WC box about to be fixed...


...and in ther final position.


Here is the Itty Bitty WC box 1.0 and the new 2.0.
I loaded 1.0 with very basic colors: Winsor yellow, alizarine crimson, Winsor blue, Hooker green, burnt sienna and sepia. On the last weeks I felt the need of a palette just for values. I made 2.0 with an ice mint box and loaded it with "non-color" colors: raw umber, burnt umber, Davy's grey, Payne's grey, sepia and ivory black.


There's a new hi tech version here.

A SketchCrawl at the Children's Book Fair

Sketches made on 25.03.2009 on a special SketchCrawl organized at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Open publication | More

Andrea Joseph left this pearl in my sketchbook

We were in a fantastic and cheap osteria in the center of Bologna. Anah and me started sketching while we wait for our meal (there was some unforgettable tagliatelle with cocoa and radicchio) and then I invited Andrea to draw too. She told me that she doesn't use to draw in public, but since I insisted, she made this sketch with my brush pen in my sketchbook. Once finished, she told me that she not only doesn't use to draw in public, but she doesn't use to draw with brushes either.

Looking at this gorgeous sketch I'm still wandering why she doesn't, and I' feel so proud she left this rare pearl in my sketchbook.

What a great day we had in Ferrara!

The –magic– week of the Children's Book Fair in which Anah, Andrea Joseph and Lapin were here, we had the opportunity to make a little trip to Ferrara, a fantastic town just 30 km far from Bologna. Andrea made some beautiful photos that you can see here, and Lapin made some of his amazing sketches.

I made a couple of quickies: the Catherdral facade...


...and one of the "lions"(???) before the Cathedral facade.


Andrea took photos of both sketching moments, the first with Lapin, both drawing the Cathedral...



...and the second while I was drawing some middle-age sci-fi.

Some years ago mi father made the armchair, few days ago I made the sketch (and seems France made it too)

After the all the mess with the Bologna Children's Book Fair, I went to Spain for a week to meet my parents and I have so many drawings to post (more than 100 pages!). Of course I'll put some films on my YouTube if not I will never finish.
I haven't planned to start posting all that stuff from this drawing but I changed my mind when I saw France posted this yesterday. She made the drawing of that chair just one day after I did mine. Her chair was at the doctor's office where she went because of her future son. Mine was made some 20 years ago by my father. Me and France love Paul Auster and he loves coincidences: I suddenly thought this one was a little pretty one.
Salut, France!

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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Drawing guests

Last week I had 3 guests that came to Bologna for the Children's Book Fair.
I made som sketches of all them:

Anah, wich I knew last november in Clermont Ferrand at the Biennale du Carnet de Voyage.

I made her portrait at a trattoria in Ferrara where we made a little scape.

Lapin (my second guest) took this opportunity to make this gorgeous sketches.

I knew him in Clermont too. We use to meet on line at Urban Sketchers of which we both are members. By the way, I made his sketch while he was drawing another urban sketcher: Simo Capecchi.

My third guest was Andrea Joseph (yes!!!!!!!). As many of you know she was one of the artists selected by the Book Fair for the exhibition of this year.

Andrea is one of the first artist I knew about when I started blogging a couple years ago. I've followed her work from then on and we have a common project running with some other pals (I still can't believe they all say yes to that, they were my dream team).
After all this time of comments and emails, even if we both met for the first time only last week, I could proudly say we're old friends.

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.