The young year

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Happy New Year 2015 to all my friends and loved ones!
Better late than nothing an old motto says. So this is mine for all of you!

Some wishes. For me, for you.
I’m talking to all you but it’s like talking to me:
Please for the next year keep talking and listening to your family
Please keep running your fearless art
Please share distribute and donate
Please keep enjoying any kind of art, music and museums
Please make everything makes you better not more beautiful
Please be driven by good mood
Please work smarter and focused but not forget to not work
Please have a nice food and a good walk or a bike
Please always let love rule your life and everything will follow

No time but at least some sketching during the lunch break

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It’s hard to say but there are times where even the simplest action takes ages to be accomplished.
These are hard times for me and for my family. Other challenges are coming soon and we should be able to cope with them.
I’m also a bit sad because I don’t find time enough for my sketching.

But some days ago I forced my self to find really 19 minutes sharp for me for my soul and I sketched very loosely.

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I sketched nothing but my daily set that is getting rusty…

It’s also a time where I’m trying to not use my Waterbrushes and more my travel brushes. This implies also to have water in handy. For this reason it’s also difficult to me to find a leak proof, cheap and effective water storage.

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I found in this baby juice container a lot of good sides: one overall that has a big lid that can be used as a small container. Enough to make also a good wash for a single page. Still experimenting though. Also with the back pack or messenger.

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Whats your favorite water container? And what about your back pack or messenger?

Military Green Lighthouse

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Military Green Lighthouse

My office is luckily near the sea, and just few meters from the sea there is this military green lighthouse. It’s small, it’s like a two people room with a powerful lantern over it.
I have sketched many times this subject  like here recently, but not alone, and from distance.
You know, when you are going closer to some subjects, you always find a surprise in a way or another.

I made this sketch in two sessions.

On the first session I took a chair with me and I enjoyed a lot the sketching of the outlines and the washing of the sky. I was so amazed of the sky and the subject that in my forty minutes of my sketching session I spent at least 30 minutes in enjoying and appreciating the scene. Trying in the same time to memorize as many interesting details as possible. I ended the sketching of this military green lighthouse with the outlines and some washes for the sky and the sea, that I left almost untouched on the second session.
I felt pretty uncomfortable, since I was spreading  all my materials on the grass but I really enjoyed a lot. I finished taking a couple of pictures with my phone.

On the second session this military green lighthouse became alive with several light washes on it, on the ladders and on the ground. Plus minor details and quick blackening on the deeper sides with my black brush pen.
I was also finishing this sketch on the table as you can see in the pictures, trying to figure out the rest relying on memory> I just took a look very shortly on my p[pictures saved on my phone, but having done almost everything I relied most of all on my memory and my earlier feeling.
And it was also raining outside so this is another reason I finished sketching indoor.
military green lighthouse 02

As you can see in these ) I’m trying to use a slight different weapons from the usual
It took two sessions to complete these sketch.

In few words I’m trying to use less the waterbrushes and more the classic brushes bringing to me the water. It’s more difficult for many reasons, but gives me plenty more satisfaction and gives also stronger and vivid colors. and I can also make better washes and layers, that’s for sure. At least to my sketches I feel like that.
In this case I used the three of the Escoda Travel set (size #3, #6 and #12) inside a case that I hand-made in oiled leather.With this I’m not saying that I’m dropping the water brushes, often they are so comfortable and they works so good that for sketch quickies they are unsurpassed.

military green lighthouse 01

But I’m willing to use them less.

The equipment used for this sketch is my workhorse the Lamy Safari with EF nib filled with Platinum Carbon Ink. watercolors are the faithful Winsor and Newton and the paper is a Stillman&Birn Beta notebook.

 

Sketching My Cat Sleeping Close to Me

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Sketching My Cat Sleeping Close to Me

Sketching My Cat Sleeping Close to Me.

I’ve sketched several times our cat, but this time I felt different, because our cat is not a cuddly cat.
Our cat has a sweet name, Amelie (like Amelie in the wonderful movie), a gorgeous white hair, soft paws. But it’s nasty as Bengal tiger. Amelie it is not definitively a cat that you can cuddle like in the movies or cartoons.
We live with Amelie, but we suppose to be the guests not this white ball.

I was sitting on the couch while emptying my backpack. And I was enjoying recapping all the (too much…) stuff I carry everyday. And I felt very comfortable. Suddenly the cat arrived to me, purring as there was no tomorrow, and slowing caressing me in circular motions. At the end Amelie seated near to me and took all the strange feline positions possible. Then my cat started sleeping.

That’s the way because I felt weird. Because I received cuddle from our beloved white beast, and seeing my cat sleeping near to me made me so happy.

Luckily, very luckily I was emptying my back pack and I found immediately my Essential monochrome sketching kit. I thought also that I ever needed something else.

I started sketching with my fude pen, very loosely. The paws was taking some strange figures like a python in the rain forest. Very loose sketching, my cat sleeping was absolutely not caring about me.

my cat sleeping 03

Then later, once realized that the feline fury was really sleeping (or telling to me that…) I also went for a calm and relaxed sketching.
You know, having this chance, in a shadowed room, comfortably seated and with this white beloved cat sleeping it’s an unbelievable chance to get.

So I sketched these two loved pages of my cat sleeping.

cat sleeping 01 cat sleeping 02

I was also very happy to make such a minimal sketch with a minimal equipment. A Staedtler pigmented pen and a Moleskine Pocket sketchbook. And just a little touch of a Platinum Fude Pen.
I enjoyed a lot, really a lot, and I will remember that quiet and purr moments for all my life.

 

 

Ps: going to finish this Moleskine, I can’t see to start the Stillman&Birn Alpha or a Gamma in 4″x6″. So far the best pocket sketchbooks around!

Five Minutes Park, five minutes Sketch

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Five Minutes Park, five minutes Sketch

Five Minutes Park. Five minutes Sketch. That’s all I can draw in five minutes with my baby tightly secured in the rear sits.

It’s Sunday, parked near a gas station, lots of car ahead me and a fabulous sunny day>
I didn’t hesitate a moment and I pulled out my Essential Monochrome Sketching Kit. Now even more minimalist. I have just one Pigma, one fude pen and one Staedtler as spare pen. I don’t even remember the size of them…

five minutes sketch

Not finished, I’d really wanted to finish it, and it’s far to be completed. Nothing more. Just used the Staedtler Pen and a lot of patience while trying to stay focused.

I’d like to finish as soon as possible this Moleskine Sketchbook pocket so I can have the chance to start at the soonest  new Stillman & Birn Alpha or Gamma in 4″x6″ size. Far better because if I decide to make some washes of watercolour at least I can do it. Here not.
Cheers