santa maria del mar

gérard michel

just after being instructor together with gérard michel in zaragoza, we had the great pleasure to have him as a guest in barcelona for a few days - so much fun, merci gérard!
see you in a few days to sketch again together in france…

belchite

on the way to zaragoza 2 weeks ago, some sketchers friends and I passed by the village of belchite wich was destroyed during the civil war in 1937, and since then, keep as it is: a battle field.
strange feeling there…

live from santo domingo - usk symposium day 3

yesterday was the 3rd and last day of the usk symposium, and at 9:00 am the instructors marc taro holmes, lynne chapman and liz steel talk about their experience of the last days during their workshop.
than I went first to jason das “color games” workshop, an invitation to play with the perception, like painting with the wrong colours (which is not easy at all actually). I run to “panoramas in 4 steps” lead by simonetta capecchi and claudio patané, and had a master class of watercolour and line.
at 2:30 pm was gabi campanario’s lecture about the community of urban sketchers, how it starts, how it grows, and that “anytime you are drawing something there is a story behind”…
at 4:00pm start the 36th sketchcrawl in the place of the cathedral, many sketchers joined us, and everywhere we were looking at, people sketching and sketching, just magic.
the symposium closed with an exhibition of all the sketchbooks at the “museo de las casas reales” with a drink and lots of happiness.
I have a strange feeling this morning, the last 3 days were such intense that it could have been a week that we all spent together, and now, we all have to go back home, in spain, italy, portugal, us, brazil, australia… until next year. I feel lucky that I take part of it and I’m already nostalgic.
keep sketching everybody!!

live from santo domingo - usk symposium day 2

9:00 am, we met at the “centro cultural de españa” to discuss about the past workshops.
at 10:00, I went to nina johansson’s workshop “challenge through limitation” where she invited us to try any kind of “strange” tools, brushes and pens to forget about the “too much respect of the white paper”. funny to look at the sketcher painting their shoes to than walk on their sketchbooks… so I tried it to.
than I joined for a short time frank ching and liz steel at the cathedral, it gets something to do with architecture from what I understood.
after a lunch at the general quarter “el conde”, we met again at the CCE for a talk about the regional usk groups and how to organise some sketching meeting in our own city.
in the afternoon, it was time for new workshops, and I first attend to eduardo bajzek’s “straight to colors”, or how to sketch directly with marker, from the clearer tone to the darker one, layer after layer – which sounds impossible when we compare our try to eduardo’s pieces of art.
I run to thor’s workshop on “calle el condal”, and focus on the people there. they love to be sketch, and I love to sketch them.
in the evening, the all instructors and usk correspondents had a diner on a chirringuito on the coast. a huge table of legends of urban sketching from all over the world – it’s crazy to be all there together.
the second day is over, and I get prepared for the 3rd and last day of the symposium, and 36th worldwide sketchrawl at 4:00 pm at the cathedral place.

live from santo domingo - usk symposium day 1

the serious stuff are going on now!
after a breakfast with shiho, the correspondent from los angeles, we all went to the opening of the symposium leaded by gabi, orling, elisabeth and jason. than, every sketcher went to the first workshop. I attend to mélanie reim & nathalie ramirez “mercado merengue” workshop. they gave us 3 directive: sketching the all place, telling a story and creating patterns behind the scene. I enjoyed a lot sketching the locals there, as “camilo & camila”…
at lunch, we followed the recommendation of nathalie ramirez, and ate in a vegetarian reggae restaurant, yummy!
at 2:30 started the first lecture “dibuja caracas” by ricardo benaim, about the social and political implication of sketching in some “unfriendly” districts of the city. than I joined lynne chapman’s workshop “quick on the draw” and learn the secrets of her “sexy line”!
I started sketching the cathedral by the end of the day, when a group of kids surrounded me. verenice was so cute that I had to sketch her…
finally we all met for a drink and draw in “quintana bar” until late in the evening.
a great start, and lots of sketching tips and great meetings.
see you tomorrow for the report of the 2nd symposium day!

live from santo domingo - D-day

today is the D-day, in less than 2 hours will start the 3rd urban sketching symposium! I already have my “press card” as the symposium correspondent ;)
yesterday was a long day, meeting even more usk instructors: thomas thorspecken, mélanie reim, nathalie ramirez, marc taro holmes, lynne chapman, jason das and frank ching; but also many of the participants, and volunteers. I mind that I did not sketch that much of the city. today I will have to for you to have an idea of the beauty of the colonial district, but surrounded by such a great group of people, I had to sketch them. after the registration of the participants at the “centro cultural de españa”, we met at “quintana bar” for a “drink & draw” to portrait each other, as an ice breaker. tomorrow I will publish the first day of santo domingo, world capital of urban sketching for the week!!
 

blogged by symposium correspondent lapin

live from santo domingo - exploration

first day in the city exploring the colonial district, and so much to sketch that I even don’t know where to start by. first of all, it seems that urban sketchers are multiplying every hours: you can’t walk in the area without meeting people sketching under a tree, in the cathedral, at a terrace…
I just needed half an hour to understand that sketching under the sun would be not prudent at all. sketching this first building in the morning was quite painful, forget about the best point of view, just look for shadow and then hunt for the subject.
a good thing about santo domingo is that people get curious about sketchers sitting in the street, and you’re quickly surrounded by a dozen of dominicans, and once finishing to sketch this “voladoras” buses, all of them want to be portrayed. it will be easy to sketch some dudes.
finally for diner, I met new instructors: eduardo bajzek (that I met for the first time), and veronica lawlor. we spoke and looked at each others sketchbooks until late in the evening, until gabi campanario finally joined us.
tomorrow are arriving the last guests, can’t wait the registration in the afternoon to meet all the team! blogged by symposium correspondent lapin

live from santo domingo - arrival

 
santo domingo, here we are!
some of the european urban sketchers instructors and I met yesterday in madrid to fly together to santo domingo.
it was like having an "urban sketchers airline": I was surrounded by "la crème de la crème" of the correspondents. on my side was simonetta capecchi and swasky, in front of me, josé louro, miguel herranz and inma serrano, and behind me claudio patanè.
between 2 movies, I manage to sketch the mood on board!
9 hours latter, orling, loulou & co was waiting for us at the airport, to go together to the historic district.
here we met liz steel (who already filled her first sketchbook, wow!) and borromini bear, who invite us to sketch at 10am today.
we are already training for the symposium! 2 days left before the 3rd woodstock of sketching, stay tuned! 

on the way to santo domingo

I was selected to be the official correspondent from the 3rd international urban sketching symposium next 12, 13 and 14 of july.

here an extract from the press release:
"Lapin was selected by the Urban Sketchers board of directors from a total of 33 candidates who submitted applications. Regular contributors of Urban Sketchers blogs were eligible for this award, which covers round trip airfare and accommodation for the winning candidate.

The Symposium Correspondent is expected to document the Symposium experience in sketches and share regular reports of the event at the urbansketchers.org and the Symposium blog site.

Upon receiving the news, Lapin said he was already dancing the Merengue to celebrate such an opportunity. “I’m so honoured to be the eyes of the Urban Sketchers blog readers, telling them through my sketches all that will happen during the three intense days of the Symposium,” he said.

Lapin has been a regular contributor of the Urban Sketchers online community from its very beginning. In November of 2008, he inaugurated the Urban Sketchers group blog with a sketch of Barcelona’s Casa Batlló. Since then, he has published more than 200 entries with over a thousand sketches drawn in Barcelona and other cities around the world such as Tokyo, Istanbul, Paris and New York. Lapin also served as a board member of the Urban Sketchers nonprofit from its launch in 2009 until 2011, when he decided to step aside to meet the new demands of being a father. He was also an instructor at the 2010 Symposium in Portland, Oregon."

I'm leaving tomorrow morning, I can't wait to meet urban sketchers and friends there!

workshop "de vuelta con el cuaderno"

I'm back from the 4th workshop "de vuelta con el cuaderno" in zaragoza last week end, where I was invited by the director clara marta to join gérard michel, sagar, luis ruiz or josu maroto (…) to lead 100 sketchers during 3 days.
we spent a wonderful time sketching day and night.

photo: ©airojo

each sketcher had a hand made japanese sketchbook made by choni naudin.
here is mine:

gracias clara, y hasta la proxima!!!

more from valencia

valencia

some sketches made last week in valencia, spain:

architect: santiago calatrava.