La petite France

I did my very last sketch from my trip to Strasbourg on Sunday morning before we took the train back to Luxembourg.

I used to study in Strasbourg, but back then I didn't really sketch. Which means that I had never even tried to draw the typical Alsacian houses before.

It was a lovely feeling to be back in Strasbourg for just that purpose. Granted, I mostly got to draw cars, but even just this one sketch made me happy.

So this is my first and only attempt to draw a part of the Petite France, Strasbourg's most iconic area, so far. The many tourists passing by seemed to like it. So do I.

Quai du bain aux plantes, Petite France, Strasbourg

Our group was pretty popular with passers-by and the weather was lovely, just warm enough to be pleasant.

We were even filmed by an Australian TV crew who was preparing a documentary on how sweet life is in Strasbourg. I think our group of avid sketcher was a boon for them.

If you ever glimpse me on Australian TV, let me know!

Sketching sketchers in Strasbourg

One of my favourite things in any USk event is definitely to meet people - old friends and new.

In all, there were around 200 sketchers over the weekend. Plenty of opportunities to socialize and sketch people.

Sketchers are among the best subjects to draw, as they are usually so engrossed in their work that they don't move much, so I was able to catch a few of them in action.

You might think that most of them look slightly grumpy on my sketches. But in reality it's their "in the zone" faces. So actually they're really happy faces.

Denis studying his subject

Georges had wonderfully colourful sketches

Gérard is the master of perspective

Lolo, one of the USk Strasbourg organizers. Can't thank them enough for this amazing weekend!

Dinner at Brasserie de la Bourse was great. I sat at the Luxembourgish table with a few sketchers from Paris (Marion and Christine) and one from the Netherlands (Rene).

If sketchers sketching are great subjects, sketchers eating are much more challenging. As a result you get funny looking portraits.

That floating partial face is supposed to be Tula, a friend I met in Barcelona :D

Rene, all the way from the Netherlands

Great food and great fun all around. The most difficult part, as usual, was to say goodbye.

Looking forward to the next USk event!

Oldies but goldies with the USk France in Strasbourg

Last weekend the annual national Urban Sketchers France meeting took place in Strasbourg. It is only 2 hours away by train, so of course I had to be there!

This time, Luxembourg was quite well represented, with 6 sketchers in total, Tessy, Aniela, Arnaud, Jean-Paul, Sandra and I!

The organisation was flawless. There were 2 different sketchcrawl routes to choose from every day, an official meeting place (Café Atlantico) and even a dinner on Saturday evening.

On Saturday, most of us decided to go on the "belles carrosseries" route. It was dedicated to places where we could find old cars. The day was a bit rainy, so we stuck to the 2 garages that were on the programme.

We stopped first at H.H. Services, where we stayed the whole morning until early afternoon.

There were many beautiful cars being repaired, like this Mercedes 300 SL...

Even without its "wings" it was beautiful

...or this MG PA 1935.

I wonder if it used to be a race car. For some reason, it looks like one to me.

Do not ask me any details on the cars. I am a total noob when it comes to cars.

The atelier was full of sketchers and there were many interesting subjects to choose from. The atelier was invaded by sketchers, so the tricky part was to find a spot with a clear view of the chosen subject.

Sketchers sharing their drawings everywhere

After H.H. Services, we went to l'Atelier de Jojo, which specialises in repairing old 2 CVs and other old Citroën cars.

Is there a more iconic French car than the "deuch"? I don't know, but I can't think of any.

Such a fun atelier!

I only had time to draw one car before we left for the "headquarters" at Café Atlantico, where I saw some old friends like Tula and Marion, for example.

Dinner was next, with an evening of Flammekueche or tarte flambée, miam!

More on that and the rest of the weekend in my next post.

PS: "Oldies but Goldies" is the title of one of Lapin's publications. Check it out on his website. It is really great!

A few days in the South of France - Nice

Before leaving the South of France, I spent a bit over one day in Nice. I was surprised at how much I liked the city. Before visiting it, the first thing that would come to mind when thinking of Nice was mainly beach. Nice, has beautiful architecture, though, and many great places to sketch.

My first stroll around the city led me to Place Massena. I'm not sure about all the historical aspects, for I was really just walking with no particular aim, but I think it is the biggest square in Nice. I might be wrong, though, so someone correct me if that's the case, please.

I didn't want to get lost in details (and I didn't have the patience for them either), so I applied the watercolour first and pencil later, like I first tried in Gréoux-les-Bains. I don't like the result as much, but it is definitely a good technique for me when I just want to record the impressions of a place and not all its details.

An old lady came to chat with me. She moved from Paris to Nice years ago and never looked back.

I went for lunch with Nathalie, the girl I met on the train from Marseille. We went to a restaurant a librarian recommended to me earlier, Restaurant du Gesu. It had typical yummy dishes from Nice. All in all a great lunch!

I aged Nathalie considerably on this portrait...

In the afternoon I walked up to the castle. I made a short stop at the cemetary, where I found a very convenient bench with a good view on this chapel. I tried to keep in mind what I learned during Sagar Fornies's workshop in Barcelona last year. I still need some practice, but I'm quite satisfied with the result, specially given the short amount of time I spent on it.

It was so nice and sunny that day!

On my way down, I sat down to sketch one of the narrow streets. I love such sights! I started with watercolour again, it seend to fit the subject. The weather got gradually greyer as I worked on this sketch, so I didn't stay there too long.

I have to saturate my colours more, I think

As the weather seemd to worsen, and I was near the museum of modern and contemporary art (MAMAC), I decided to go in and see what it had to offer. Plus the entreance was free. Que du bonus!, as they say.

I love Ben's work!

My flight only left the next day in the afternoon, so I took the time to enjoy the Promenade des Anglais in the morning. There were many people jogging, and graddually people came to sunbathe and enjoy the beach.

Baywatch!

I would have loved to go in the water, even if the beach full of pebbles was not really inviting. I'm spoiled by Portugal's nice sandy beaches!

Instead, I took out my Pentel brushpen and started to quickly sketch the people there. That was a fun exercise. Will definitely do it again.

People on the beach are the same everywhere

This short escapade in Nice was very refreshing. I might go back one day, for a longer time, to see what else this beautiful city has to offer.

A few days in the South of France - La Provence (part 2)

We were on the road a lot during my few days in Provence, so there was no opportunity to do one complete drawing in one sitting, but I got to see a lot of beautiful places and quickly sketch a few scenes.

We spent one afternoon in the region of Esparron de Verdon, where I got to try my hand at piloting a motor boat for the first time. I have to say my Portuguese seafarer genes kicked in quite nicely. It was a lot of fun!

I tried to quickly sketch Carole when she was at the wheel, but it's far from resembling her.

Pretty captain stranger

Esparron de Verdon is situated next to a river. Like all the places I have seen in Provence, it is very pretty. This quick sketch was done while eating a nice ice cream.

It is located on a small hill and overlooks the river

One of my favourite sights in Provence were the poppy fields. I had never seen so many poppies together and it was beautiful! It made up for not seeing the lavender in bloom.

I really wanted to have a reminder of those fields in my sketchbook, so I tried to quickly sketch a few. Not quite the effect I was looking for, but at least I got them in!

On another short trip we went to Roussillon, where colour pigments are produced. It was my favourite place from our excursions. I loved the town with all its rich earth colours: ocre, sienna, umber.

Again, no time for a full drawing, but I managed to sketch one building next to the restaurant where we were having lunch.

The evening was spent relaxing at Henri's place. I even got to sketch Carole sleeping on the terrasse. Henri cut a picture of her face for me, so I could paste it in my sketchbook. I love how fun it looks!

Exhausted but happy!

After my stay in Provence, I left for Marseille in order to catch the train to Nice, where I spent one day before returning to Luxembourg.

As is almost custom with the SNCF, the train was 1) overbooked, and 2) delayed - a lot! What started with a 10 minute delay became 1h30! Good thing I was not in a hurry...

On a positive note, I got to know a friendly girl from Switzerland, Nathalie, with whom I arranged to have lunch the next day. There is a bright side to every situation!

Every time an announcement was made, it was to increase the delay...

A few days in the South of France - La Provence (part 1)

About a month ago I went on a short trip to the south of France with my friend Carole. For this occasion I decided to finally use the Moleskine Japanese sketchbook we received at last year's USK Symposium in Barcelona.

I was very unfamiliar with the format, and I have to admit that scanning those pages didn't turn out as easy as with a traditional sketchbook, but I think it was the perfect choice for such a trip. Looking through the sketchbook just gives a nice feeling of continuity to the whole trip.

I inaugurated the sketchbook with an airplane sketch, what else?

These guys were sitting in front of us and just did not stop talking. Quite loudly I should add. After a while it became comical, so I made this sketch. It made the whole experience more enjoyable.

Carole got quite mad at them at some point, haha

The first thing we did after we checked in at our hotel was visit Carole's father, Henri. He's happily retired and has been living in the Provence for a few years now.

I loved his small terrasse with the flower pots. Very "south of France".

This drawing was actually made in a few sittings. I could still have worked on it a bit more, but I think it didn't turn out too bad.

Sun at last!

Henri is quite a character. Very outspoken and loves to joke around. It was a real pleasure to get to know him.

He loves to cut out images and funny quotes from books and magazines

We went on a short walk by the river nearby where we had some time to make a quick sketch. It was lovely to be surrounded by nature again.

Henri likes to feed some of the local stray cats. He says he doesn't, but he does.

Gréoux-les Bains is a cute village, with lots of beautiful little houses and picturesque corners. Choosing just one is not easy, so I picked a piece here and a piece there.

Carole wanted us to sketch the village church. I felt like trying a very different approach from what I'm used to: I drew everything in watercolour first and added the pencil lines later.

It gives the sketch a more spontaneous look, in my opinion. I was a bit ruseh in the end, but I like the result and tried it again at other times.

You can also view it on Flickr

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.