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

Surprise flower bouquet

I was in Prague on my godchild's third birthday, so last weekend we celebrated it belatedly. I wasn't expecting to receive a beautiful bouquet, though, which was a lovely surprise.

I have no idea what the flowers are called, but they enticed me to pick up my pen and watercolours.

This type of subject is quite complicated to me, because I tend to lose myself in the details and not know on which leaf I left off, for example.

I really took my time for this one, overlooking any impatience that I was occasionally feeling.

Looking back, I know exactly at what moment I should have stopped: the background. Or at least the greenish colour I put on the corners.

Lesson learned for next time!

Trying to imitate Tommy Kane

Slowing down with Tommy Kane

It's already the last klass of this semester at Sketchbook Skool. I have to say I haven't been very dilligent these last couple of weeks... But I intend to catch up on that now!

This week it was Tommy Kane's turn to give us his insights and advice on sketching. I already knew his art and was very curious about this particular klass. I have to say his videos were probably the most entertaining of all so far.

His approach is very different from what is mine right now. I tend to be quite impatient and I think it shows in some of my sketches, so when he tells us to slow down it doesn't quite mean the same to him as it does to me.

His homework was to make one drawing of our kitchen. Nothing complicated with that. However, when he asks us to take AT LEAST THREE HOURS to do it, it gets slightly more complicated for me.

What he wants us to do is to look as long and as intently as we can in order to put in as much detail as possible, work with crosshatching (which I don't master at all!), etc.

This drawing, which took me a bit over two hours to make, was as far as I could get right now. I think I managed quite a bit of detail in there, but I am not satisfied with my crosshatching at all.

I intend to give it another try soon. This exercise is teaching me patience and not to stop my drawing prematurely.

I'm quite proud of the reflections on my owen and microwave, though :)

One more very important piece of advice is to never abandon a drawing, even if we are not satisfied with it. Another important lesson that I intend to take with me along the road. I know that many of the drawings I'm not satisfied with are actually just not really finished.

Latest portraits for JKPP

Here are some more of the portraits I made for Julia Kay's Portrait Party and did not get around to posting.

Constantine's photos offer a variety of funny faces to choose from. Not always easy to portray, but certainly an interesting challenge.

Constantine

I chose the next one because I liked the challenge of replicating the light shining on Amy's face. The lips got slightly too big, but it turned out to be one of my favourite portraits so far.

Amy

Mireille's photo inspired me a immediately. I exactly knew where I was going with it and which medium I wanted to use. Also one of my favourites.

Mireille

On the contrary, with this one I just went with the flow and saw it slowly develop.

Cooper

A few days in the Prague

I was invited to a couple of friends' wedding in Prague, which felt like the perfect occasion to go back to this beautiful city where I once used to live.

It had been 3 years since my last trip to "the Prague", as the Czechs say, and I was very excited at the idea of sketching the city a little (besides meeting my friends, of course). I didn't use to sketch back when I was based there.

However, since I had so many people I wanted to see, I ended up making almost all my sketches on my way there, haha.

There are no direct flights from Luxembourg to Prague, unfortunately, so I had to take the train to Brussels airport first.

and very uneventful, too...

After the check-in I waited about three hours at the airport, plenty of time to do some sketching. Here are a couple of drawings I'm more satisfied with.

Strangely enough, I only noticed this piece after sitting for at least one hour...

Some kids came to play with Budgie when I was almost done.

Once in the plane, I had to make the traditional plane sketch, of course.

It all started from the window.

And now to the only sketch of the city I actually made. It was on my first morning there on Jiriho z Podebrad, a beautiful square in Vinohrady where I remembered some very convenient benches, perfectly suited for sketching.

The weather was gorgeous and I was waiting to meet a friend. This must be the most complicated building I have sketched so far and I'm quite happy with the result.

I kept thinking that I was a masochist and telling myself to be patient and keep sketching.

To be completely honest, I made a few more drawings, but they were mostly doodles not really worth mentioning. I will only post a few graffitis I copied from the John Lennon wall, which is a place I love because it is constantly changing. It looked completely different from my last visit.

"Láska" means "love" in Czech

To round up the whole trip, one more plane sketch. I discovered milk in small paper bags like the ones for sugar. I had never heard of these before and found them quite strange. I guess it must be condensed milk.

I was not sure whether this person was a man or a woman at first. It was a man.