Cacharritos

Cacharrito (it sounds more or less kah-cha-rree-toh) is more or less the same as cachivache.

These are some more I've found here and there at home: a wooden hen shaped pencil sharpener (one of the very first my son had); a little shell he found in Palinuro in summer 2003; a beautiful cheap porcelain box of uncertain origin; a tin legged pot 1/10 scaled (60 cm in real life) that comes from my grand mother and was very old in the 60's when I was a child (my favorite cachivache) , a tiny round alabaster box I stoled from my parents house and an uncertain swinging head animal I bought in Guadalajara (Mexico).

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

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.

Barcelona: in the bar, café, restaurant...

Second round of sketches from my trip to Barcelona over Christmas.
These were made in different bars and cafés.

Barcelona: people in the metro

Some days passed in Barcelona over Christmas.

These are sketches made in the metro.

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.

La Certosa di Bologna

Some months ago my SketchCrawl fellow Sara insisted on include the Cemetery of La Certosa on our route. It was a real discovery. Since that day I've come back several times. After 8 years living in Bologna, I wonder why nobody had told me about this amazing place before.





Here are some photos.

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.

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.

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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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)