Farewell, captain!

I have been struggling with this post for several days now...

Last week, the sketching community lost one of its most charismatic members, Jorge Royan.

He was an engineer, photographer and sketcher from Argentina, but more importantly he was a visionary, a mentor and, above all, a good father.

He is the founder of the Sketching Workshop community I once mentioned, and its driving force.

From the first time I "spoke" to him via Facebook, when I applied to join the group, he struck me as someone a bit intimidating but kind, fun, open and very encouraging.

He was always striving to learn from others and teach what he knew. He always pushed people to be better and to reach their potential.

I don't remember how often he told me to "adjust the levels" of my drawings! I didn't even understand what levels were at the time. It was very humbling to have someone tell me that my sketches deserve better than a poor quality picture.

I feel fortunate to have know even just a little bit of him, exchanging ideas to improve the group, talking about our families. He was so fiercly proud of his family!

Although he was not exactly a close friend, I will miss him, I already do. He was a driving force for progress, the kind of person you don't meet often. I only regret that I didn't get to know him more.

His favourite quote, and the motto of Sketching Workshop, is "All that is not given is lost". I think that says a lot about him.

Now, after fiddling around so much with these stupid levels on this portrait, they still look off to me, depending on which screen I'm using! I'll do better, Jorge, I promise!

A piece of Italy

Agnes den Hartogh, one of the members of Sketching Workshop, is preparing a community project for an exhibition in Palazzo Moretti, Pozzuolo, Italy.

Her idea was to take 32 photos of streetview and let different artists interpret them into individual art pieces.

She will then put the panoramic streetview back together for the exhibition.

In this context, she asked if members of the Sketching Workshop group were interested in participating to this project and I got a piece of street as a result.

Here is the reference photo she sent me.

And here is my interpretation.

Yes, the windows are all crooked and deformed. For some obscure reason I just felt like they needed to be like this, haha.

I have seen some of the other finished squares and can't wait to see the finished result. It's going to be great!

The exhibition will be open during April and May, so if you get the chance go see it!

Dolphins and monkeys for the Sketching Workshop group

A rew months ago I joined a Facebook group called Sketching Workshop.

It's a community of 150 sketchers (Dunbar's number) who share their drawings and art tips and generally just get to know each other through their shared interest in sketching.

The group itself is divided into subgroups, each with its own topic and purpose: Albums & Chats, Details, Portraits, Tools, Games, Human Figure, Monthly Gig and Comics.

Last week it was my turn to contribute a panel to a series in SW Comics started in the beginning of the year, which was since named "Apollo Diner".

The idea of this activity is to make a comic as a cadavre exquis, each person continuing the story where the previous person left off.

Apollo Diner is a very surreal story, as it was inspired by a dream of one of the participants, who contributed the first two panels. Four people have since already added their crazy twist.

So far the story goes like this:

An Apollo rocket crashes in a city, which starts the rise of amoebe-shaped zeppelins and as a consequence the city starts getting deformed. Buildings start chewing on the zeppelins, and the cuts resulting from that are transformed into polite roasted chickens with legs and hats. Strange fruit starts growing from the ground and walk around with hats.

There is a scene in a diner (the Apollo Diner), where Amy is having drinks with a strange character (Apollo) who has a head that looks like plates with a greek mask. She falls in her drink into a strange world with an ananas dome, tetra milk buildings and strange creatures, until she lands on a spot called "right there".

From there she takes the Apollo airliner, a flying dolphin, which soars through the sky until she sees the "inverted island".

And this is where my panel fits in.

I'm curious to see what this is leading to. Can't be anything serious, which I'm loving!

I'll be posting more on the Sketching Workshop group from time to time.