Weekend in Paris

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Paris with a few friends to see an exhibition on Pixar animation.

One of our friends was unable to come, so we prepared a little surprise for her over lunch: 5 postcards (because we were 5) on which we wrote a story spanning over all of them.

The idea was that she would get one postcard per day and would only find out the whole story piece by piece.

I squeezed in a quick sketch of my friend Annick, who was trying to find a name for the main character using  the first letters of all our names. Needless to say the name got very strange, haha.

So many weird names to choose from...

I was staying at my friend Tula's apartment. I met her at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona last year. She even arranged for a sketching evening with other Paris sketchers.

I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout and also to see some people I had also met in Barcelona but not kept in contact with.

I wasn't very inspired, specially at first. Maybe because of the very busy scene or maybe just because I kept chatting with people and wasn't focusing much.

Marion's profile on the right, Myrto on the left.

One of the sketchers told me to try a bit of blind drawing, which turned out quite good, I think. I like how the lines are more simple and clear. It wasn't done all without looking. I had to look down to determine where to put my pen, but the lines themselves were made without looking at the page.

I like this result better than the previous one

I also met Kim, the administrator for the Paris Sketchers Flickr group. She invited me to upload my sketches as well.

Kim, very focused on her craft

It's always such a great feeling to meet other sketchers! I sketched Myrto the most. Actually, I think everyone must have sketched her, for she was sitting in a very strategic place. She didn't notice it at first.

She has a beautiful face. My last sketch doesn't do her justice, she looks much younger in reality.

Myrto comes from Greece

On Sunday morning I had time to make a sketch of the view from Tula's apartment. I think I will add some colour later on.

So very Paris...

It was a lovely morning, very sunny. Tula showed me around a bit and gave me some tips for my next trip. There were many people jogging along the Seine, probably training for the semi-marathon taking place next week.

We sat down for some quick sketching of the Pont Neuf. I always recall my history classes when I think about this bridge. Our teacher kept repeating that what was so special about this bridge at the time it was built, was the fact that there were no houses on it. Today that seems like such a normal thing.

I think I'll try adding some blue colour splashes on this one.

No houses on this bridge! How shocking!

It was great to be in Paris again. I love to visit from time to time, it's such an interesting city. I'm not sure I would enjoy living there for a long time, but it's definitely great for a few short holidays.