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!

20th Worldwide SketchCrawl in Bologna

These are the sketches I made last saturday in Bologna during the 20th SketchCrawl. I had to deliver a job so I must work all night on friday, I went to bed at 7:00, woke up at 9:00 took a shower and went to Piazza San Francesco were our first meeting took place. It was a funny day (as every SketchCrawl) and I forgot my tiredness till I came home (and went to bed at 9:00 and slept 11 hours in a row). More stuff here.

France's portrait

This is my contribution to France's japanese Moleskine for the Moly_X_12.
France is one of my first loves since I started to navigate in search of sketch junkies in april 2007. I've always admired her portraits, her cars, her style, her technique... When I had to draw on her sketchbook, I decided to make this humble joke (just to demonstrate she's inimitable).
I used some Pigma Microns and a Copic Drawing pen for the blacks and a Faber Castell OHP-PLUS 1523 for the green.

Summer sketches

Sketches made in Marilleva (Trento), Barberino Val D'Elsa (Firenze) and Ferrara between august 8 and 31, 2008.

Old Diary

Some days ago I found this pages in an old 2004 diary. After the oldies of the previous post, here I am again scratching he bottom of the barrel.
Not a so fertile season.

This is a particular doodles page since I tried to draw just faces. When I lost count there were more than 50 (many of them are really hidden).


These are sketches for a character I was working on in 2004...


...and this is just a page of doodles.

Oldies

Some new old drawings:

This was made about 1984 and it's one of my very few brush drawings before... 2008!





These 4 pages of doodles were made about january 1993.
I remember those were really happy days.


This was drawn on march 1997 on a trip to Bologna.
At that time I didn't know that 4 years after I'd move to live less than 2 km far from this park.

Garabatos (3rd issue)

Previous:
1st issue
2nd issue

Update

This is a sketchbook that was in my pocket this spring, from middle april till the end of june. Actually it's a moleskine notebook someone gave me for Chrsitmas a couple of years ago, but since I didn't find a better use, I decided to fill it with quick brush sketches.

100th post

I started this sketchbook in the airport on my last vacation, but when I turned back home it wasn't finished (I drew the last pages only last week). This is a little movie of the whole sketchbook.
You can leaf through a better version of the vacation pages here.



This is my 100th post.
I opened this blog on 2006 but its real life started on june 2007 when I discovered EDM. It was a really great moment for my blog and so was for my drawing activity... and for me.
Thank you all.

Father

I don't use to make portraits. I must recognize I'm afraid of failing the resemblance and so, when I draw people I pay attention to gestures and attitudes leaving resemblance aside (I'd like to have France's eye for portraits!). Anyways, I'm quite proud of this one. My father was solving a crossword puzzle near the swimming pool and I made a very fast scribble (less than a minute) with a Pentel GFKP brush pen. I was really surprised of the (lucky) resemblance on such a quick sketch and I put immediately some watercolor touches. The whole drawing took about 5 minutes. I don't know if I really "catched the moment" as it's used to be said for photographies, but I sure can relive the whole scene when I see it.
The whole sketchbook can be seen here.