home sweet home

a new home for my sketchbooks!

igrejas do porto

"oldies but goldies" opening in porto

the exhibition is open until the 19th of october, including 18 original drawings:
sput&nik thewindow
praça marquês do pombal, 169
4000-390 Porto
(metro: station marquês)
schedule: from 5.30pm to 8.30pm (by appointement)
contacts: +351 919 010 716 /  sputenik169@gmail.com

packing drawings…

preparing my stuff for my upcoming exhibition "oldies but goldies" in porto next friday!

exhibition in sput&nik gallery, porto

nice people in sput&nik gallery invited me for an exhibition to their gallery.
the exhibition will be a presentation of my original car drawings of my upcoming book “oldies but goldies”.
the opening will be on the 20th of september and will last for a month.
if you are in porto come and say hi !

workshop in toscana

next 4, 5 and 6 of october, I will teach next to gérard michel a workshop in toscana, italy, about perspective: "Sketching in the footsteps of Piero Della Francesca".
we will work on extreme perspectives: cylindrical and spherical perspective, and how to fit all you see in a page, and having fun sketching from life.

you will found all the details about the workshop and how to apply on the blog urban sketchers workshop.

see you in sansepolcro!

beautiful old cars

I'm back from holydays, my sketchbooks full of beautiful dusty cars for an upcoming exhibition in porto, portugal, next 20th of september.
stay tuned for more fresh news very soon!

icone of barcelona

my icone of barcelona for the newspaper "el periodico".
the full article in spanish here!
gracias cristina.

louise turned 2

2 years, 2 days, today!

"sketching barcelona" exhibition

don't miss the collective exhibition "sketching barcelona" at the "sala ciutat" at barcelona's city hall until the end of september.

"motorcycle graphics" book

oh yeah! I received my copy of the rock'n roll book "motorcycle graphics" published by graffito, uk, that featured my collection of motorcycles sketches next to la crème de la crème of bike fanatic illustrators.


"the most complete collection of contemporary bike art ever compiled, by leading outsider artists from the us, uk, europe, australia and japan.
choppers, road rockets, greasers, cafe racers, dirt trackers and conceptual creations. every tribe, sub-culture and shade of emotion which four-stroke freedom machines inspire is represented.
includes art by will barras, dirty donny, adi gilbert, stefan glerum, philippe gurel, conrad leach, leviathan, antonio merinero, raulowsky, lennard schuurmanns, tokyo guns, carby tuckwell and many, many more brilliant artists in the genre.
this is the art that captures the dreams and realities of every motorcyclist in the world.
256-pages hard-back, with foiled and embossed jacket."

and the winners are…

louise pick up 3 names from the hat.
congratulation to the winners to this 7th lapin-lottery: suhita, filipe almeida & jose manzanaro!
 I'm waiting for your addresses (send to my contact, on the right side).

the book is already for sale in nearly 200 bookstores in barcelona, including "laie", "la central", "el corte ingles" & "la fnac", and available on amazon.
thanks to all of you for participating!

portraiting the urban sketchers

I really enjoyed to meet some of my urban sketchers friends the days after the symposium, and having time to chat together, out of the busyness of the symposium.
let me introduce you to:

marina from tel aviv.

lynne from sheffield.

suhita from san jose.

isabel from nouakchott.

jason from new york.

jason and liz from sydney.

new book "barcelona m'inspira" lottery

after the launching 2 weeks ago of my last book "barcelona m'inspira" during the exhibition "sketching barcelona", it's time for the traditional "lapin-lottery"!
this new book is an extended edition of my past book "te quiero bcn" included 85 new pages made during the past year. the result is a 168 pages luxury edition (offset print, hard cover, gold stamping title and round corners) published by the city council of barcelona.
louise will pick up 3 names from the comments of this post, to win a dedicate copy.
and the winners are: suhita, filipe almeida & jose manzanaro!

soon available online and in the bookstores of barcelona.

bcn2013usk in the media

the symposium is over and barcelona is back to normality, no more hundreds of sketchers as last saturday for the final sketchcrawl in front of the triumph arc (photo: alvaro carnicero).

the medias made some great reports about the symposium, the sketchcrawl and the exhibition "sketching barcelona", as this double page in "el periodico" of last sunday:


if you want to watch or read about it, please visit the following links:
- btv 'connexió barcelona' (10/07/2013)
- btv 'notícies' (10/07/2013)
- el periódico (11/07/2013)
- tve 'informatiu 2' (11/07/2013) after 8min 50s
- video barcelona.cat (12/07/2013)
- btv 'notícies' (13/07/2013)
- el Punt Avui (13/07/2013)
- el periodico (14/07/2013)
- tv3 tn vespre (14/07/2013)
- la vanguardia digital (16/07/2013)

bcn2013usk - day 3

the 3rd and last day of the symposium. I manage to wake up on time to assist at the panel discussion at 9:00am at the cccb, but I was still asleep…

than started the workshop cessions, and I join virginia hein with her "panorama in light and shade" workshop. she invites us to sketch only the value, before starting a bigger panorama playing with warm & cool.
while teaching us, we assist to a rescue operation, an old man failed in the water at 5 meters from us, and the quiet landscape was totally changed by the arriving of 3 rescue boats, the police, a medical team and many tourists talking pictures, and of course, we sketched it to!

riding as fast as I can on a "bicing" (public bicycle), I arrived just on time for the last part of marion rivolier's workshop "capturing space through form and color".
her masterclass was not a piece of cake at all, you have to be already an expert urban sketcher to rich its aim, and few sketchers get a trauma I guess by sketching without line, pencil, or marker, without black, using light and shadow, complementary colours, warm & cool contrast and layering the composition with many grounds…
"sors de ta bulle de confort" she told me.

at 2:30pm started the demos, I went to the demo "C" digital urban sketching by mónica cid and josu maroto, or how to sketch with an ipad. they told us all their tricks, I especially like the 2 fingers glove.

and at 4:30pm, we join the 40th sketchcrawl in front of the triumph arc.
wow! so impressive! I never seen such a big meeting of sketchers, every where you were looking at, people were sitting with a sketchbook in hand, chatting, sharing drawings. we spent a wonderful time!

the closing reception was at the cccb, we clinked glasses for USk and the great organisation of this 4th symposium.
tina won my drawing of the silent auction:

after the cccb close, we can't leave each other, and stayed for a wild in front of it, before having an other beer at a terrace, watching a bollywood dance show, and many more drinks until very early this morning. better not to show here what I was sketching at that time ;)

once again it was a huge chance to participate to the symposium, and I was very glad to be the correspondent next to suhita. you're gorgeous!
I want to apologize to the workshops and lectures we can't report, we did our best running all the time, but too many things were happening at the same time.
take a look to the flickr group or to the tag #bcn2013usk on instagram for more about the party.

see you soon sketchers, and have a safe trip back to one of the 40 countries represented this days in barcelona!

bcn2013usk - day 2

the 2nd day of the symposium start far to early to me, but anyway, suhita and I were already corresponding at 9:00am at the cccb.

at 10:00, I join the workshop "I" actors and stage by luis ruiz, that explain us how to compose a sketch mixing architecture and people:

than I run again to the exhibition "sketching barcelona" for an interview for the local newspaper "el punt avui":
to finish the morning at the workshop "G" sketching urban place, people, space and streets by richard alomar in plaça reial:
at 2:00pm starts the demo of kiah kiean, sketching with dry twig and chinese ink. suhita went already there yesterday, but listening to the people who attend to it the day before, I really wanted to see him in action. after a short time, not only the urban sketchers where surrounding him, but also tourists and curious in front of the cathedral. it's just magic what this man could do with a piece of wood and some cheap ink.

meanwhile, since 10:00am, the 3rd day of sketchcrawl was going on in the born ditrict and the barceloneta. I decided to join at the 4:00pm meeting under the "peix" of the olimpic port, to have a look at how the public events were running out.
around 40 sketchers, half of them french, were chatting and sharing their sketchbooks. but after an hour, 2 sheriffs told us that it was forbiden to sit and stay there being a private area… nevermind, I lead the sketchers to the nearby olimpic village, and we stopped on "avinguda d'icària", under the strange sculpture of miralles there: some kind of iron dinosaurs.

we well deserved a fresh beer, and to meet everybody at the drink and draw party at the cccb, before having a diner at a vegan restaurant following jason's recommendation. I guess that after 2 evenings eating burgers, I could eat something healthy for once…

see you in a few hours for the last day of the symposium, and for the 40th worldwide sketchcrawl!