I heart BCN

Como conté en otra entrada, me mudé a Barcelona exactamente el día de mi 50 cumpleaños.
Un año después dibujé esto para regalárselo a alguien muy querido que  a su vez cumplía el medio siglo y no dejé escapar la ocasión para hacer un homenaje a esta ciudad tan...  (bueno, en vez de adjetivos pomposos diré sólo que me encuentro muy bien aquí).
Para variar no está en un cuaderno ni dibujado del natural, lo hice dentro de casa y ahora está fuera de ella. Este dibujo es el revés de todo lo que suelo hacer.

Reproducciones en venta aquí.

As I told in other post, I moved to Barcelona the day of my 50th birthday. I draw this as a gift for someone very dear to me that was 50th one year after, and took the occasion to make a tribute to this city so... (well, instead of some pompous adjectives I'll just say I feel fine here).
It's not made on a sketchbook neither from life. I did it at home and now it's far away. This drawing is the absolute opposite of what I use to make.
The writing means "50 years in the world + 1 year in Barcelona".

Prints on sale here.

Roberto Saviano en Barcelona

Anteayer estuve en la presentación del nuevo libro de Roberto Saviano que se titula "Vente conmigo".

Ser considerado pura escoria por la camorra napolitana y una vergüenza para Italia por Berlusconi (y que una de sus 10 razones para vivir sea Bill Evans tocando el tema de la pelicula Espartaco), hacen de  Saviano un tipo bastante simpático a mis ojos. Que lleve años amenazado de muerte, viva en un lugar secreto y tenga escolta permanente del estado italiano a causa de lo que escribe, son pinceladas de un panorama bastante menos simpático.

Estar cerca de un tipo al que podrían disparar en cualquier momento es un sensación... nueva (dejémoslo ahí). Mucha gente, mucha seguridad, muchísimos guardaespaldas.

Saviano es por encima de todo un  fantástico escritor. Sus historias son muy amenas, uno se las bebería como cualquier libro de serie negra, si no fuera porque la sordidez bestial que relatan es tremendamente difícil de digerir. Si fueran novelas tendrían un pase, el problema es que son reportajes.

Roberto Saviano es uno de esos hombres imprescindibles de los que hablaba Bertolt Brecht.

Y sus libros, también.

Last monday I went to the presentation of Roberto Saviano's new book.
It's a weird sensation to be near a man that is commonly considered a hero, that is menaced by several organized crime groups, that can be shot on every moment.
So many people, so much security, lots and lots of bodyguards.
Saviano is one of those indespensable men Bertolt Brecht talked about.

Bits of jazz

For some reasons (moving house among others) I haven't blogged so much on the last 2 months. Back to normal (or so) I've realized I have several unblogged drawings I'd like to share. For example this series of drawings made in two jazz concerts I had the opportunity to attend last november.

The first one was a concert of Flavio Boltro on trumpet and Danilo Rea on piano, with opera arias revisited in jazz key.


The second one had two parts: first, Giovanni Guidi on piano...


...and second, the Conservatori del Liceu Big Band with Jere Laukkanen.

Not so twins

Here are a couple of brothers recently born.

The big one is a collection of spread pages from my sketchbooks containing drawings made from life between 2007 and 2011, most of them already published here.

The second one (on the left side) is the facsimile of a tiny sketchbook (on the right side) that was always inside my pocket from may 20 to july 3 of 2011.

I used it for making quick portraits of the people around me...

...most of them on the bus or the underground, none of them yet published online.


Here are a couple of videos of both books:



And for those interested on having a copy, they are on sale at my new shop online.

Drawing with Inma

A couple of weeks ago Inma Serrano came to Barcelona for a little trip.
They were 4 days of intensive drawing and a lot of fun.
Sometimes I feel very grateful to urban sketching for allowing me to know people like her.

This is a panoramic view of Barcelona from the Palau Nacional de Montjuïc.


It got dark while we were drawing the Casa Milà.


Inside the Sagrada Familia...


...and over the Sagrada Familia.


Some of the drawings Inma made on thes days can be seen here.

More from Teruel

Here are some (not so) forgotten pages I made in Teruel (I told something about this trip on a previous post).  When I'll grow up I'll post twice a month. Seems I'm yet unable to do it.

London

Seventeen years after, last august I came back to London.

I loved it so much, as always (and now it's possible to eat!!)

Covent Garden. This drawing took me more or less the time of two shows, a juggler and an acrobat. I finished when a magician was about to start.

I don't know if Norman Foster had in mind a couple of fishes doing synchronized swimming when he designed the Millenium Bridge, but this idea came to my mind at the first sight.

The Royal Courts of Justice is one of those buildings as Neuchswanstein Castle or Milan's Duomo that, apart of their architectural value, seem to be a –fantasy– film set. It's because of this that I love them.

Back from Lisbon

It's hard for me to express my thoughts and feelings about the 2nd Urban Sketchers Symposium that took place in Lisbon on july 21 to 23. Words can hardly give an approximate idea of the experience. Drawing on such a marvelous place as Lisbon, learning from masters as Frank Ching, Melanie Reim, Joao Catarino and many others, knowing new people, meeting for the first time people known on the web or meeting again old friends, made this days absolutely unforgettable.

Here are some of the drawings I made on those days, most on them on the workshops.


On the leftside the Elevador de Santa Justa, my first drawing in Lisbon the day before the party started. On the rightside a drawing made at Largo de Saõ Paulo on the first workshop with Filipe Leal de Faria and Marc Taro Holmes.


Drawing made at Largo Luis de Camões on the workshop of Nina Johansson and José Louro.


This is Largo do Chiado drawn at the workshop by Pedro Cabral and Frank Ching.


A scene taken at Largo do Rossio on the workshop by Melanie Reim and Ângela Luzia. This is the only workshop I was absolutely sure I didn't want to miss when I booked my schedule. I guess I'll work on Melanie's thoughts for months.


Rua da Bica, workshops called "Contrastes" (easy to guess) by Asnee Tasna and João Catarino.

Here are also some portraits of the fellow sketchers I met on those days.

Farewell Lisbon!

De vuelta de Teruel

Back from Teruel where I went for the 3rd course "De Vuelta con el Cuaderno" this time as "professor" (this word reminds me people as Higgins, Moriarty or Xavier, nothing to do with teaching).


In this 3 fantastic days we had the opportunity for drawing the streets of Teruel
(here's the cathedral for example)...


...people here and there (fellow sketcher Javier de Blas on the leftside, 2 actors playing a scene on the street on the rightside)...


...a bus driver from Pakistan that asked me to portrait him (left) and some old houses (right).


We also passed a whole day drawing at Dinópolis.

As always, we had some gorgeous sketchbooks handmade by Choni Naudin.
I filled 2 of them, here are all the pages:

El Monestir de Pedralbes

Some weeks ago I made a visit to the Monastery of Pedralbes, a little gothic jewel inside Barcelona. I liked it so much that I went again a couple of weeks after with Sant Lluc course attendees.


The cloister is not as rich as some others I've seen before (with a different capital for each column and so on) but is really elegant and harmonious.


This is the Queen's Hall, a good example of how proportions and space are Pedralbe's main appeals instead of richness and ornaments.


This a well in the cloister garden seen from the upper gallery. There was a marriage at the church and some few visitors, not so much people for a spring weekend. A very still, quiet and beautiful place to draw. I think I'll come back.