Highlight of My Trip!

I just happened to be in Paris in time to attend the book signing of one of my favorite artists, Lapin. Lapin is a French mobile illustrator, urban sketcher, and Sketchbook Skool teacher living in Barcelona. I love his style and have learned so much from his Sketchbook Skool kourse. He is definitely one of my major influencers for my artwork.

On June 14th, Lapin was at Artazart, an amazing design and art bookstore in the 10th arrondisement in Paris, to sign his new book, paris je t'aime. We made the trip out to Artazart and took the Metro - getting off one the wrong stop, about a mile away from the shop. On the way, my 9 year old, Chloe, was wondering how many people would be in line for the signing and whether Lapin would invite us over to his house for coffee and show us his sketchbooks, etc. I warned her not to get her hopes up as that was not likely to happen.

We were one of the first to arrive and waited patiently for Lapin. In fact, Chloe bought a little book to illustrate while we were waiting. And I was lucky enough to pick up not only paris, je t'aime, but also one of Lapin's other books that I had been wanting, Barcelona, Modernisme, Beyond Gaudi.

After much waiting, we were able to get Lapin's signature and also mentioned that we will be going to Barcelona the next day. To my surprise and delight, Lapin offered to meet us there in two days for a sketch!

Lapin started this signature in Paris and finished it two days later in Barcelona.

When we met in Barcelona, Lapin drew Chloe and me!

In our copy of the Barcelona, Modernisme, Beyond Gaudi copy

I had told Lapin when we sat down that I was showing Miguel Herranz's Sketchbook Skool's lessons the day before since Miguel was sketching El Born's Cultural Center, right where we were meeting. Lapin called Miguel and asked him to meet us as he lives very nearby in Barcelona. Miguel is an amazing illustrator and Sketchbook Skool teacher, so I was very excited to meet him and have the opportunity to discuss art and share sketchbooks with him as well!

It was so much fun to share my sketchbooks with them and to view theirs. We also talked a lot about art and what they are working on (Lapin has issued 5 books this year! and Miguel just completed one). I also tried to draw Lapin, but it was very hard for me to do so while we were talking. So, I started this at our meeting and finished it later.

Lapin's card with his self-portrait is affixed above  my drawing. — Lapin's card with his self-portrait is affixed above my drawing.

Meeting Lapin and Miguel was the highlight of my trip. And afterward, Chloe told me, "I told you so, Mom!"

Illustrated Travel Journaling

In an attempt to document and remember our European trip, I put together these illustrated journal pages in my travel sketchbook. In this first page, I added in illustrations of our special pastries from the Balthazar x Bobbi Brown afternoon tea in London.

Afternoon tea at Balthazar in collaboration with Bobbi Brown.

These next three pages document the excellent Sidewalk Food Tour we took in Paris in the Latin Quarter.

And this page documents Day 1 of our trip.

Completing Travel Sketches

These two sketches were started opinion Barcelona and finished here in California. Some day, I hope to get quicker with my urban sketches so that I can finish more on site! Always looking to improve!

Church of Santa Maria del Mar in Born, Barcelona

Our last meal in Barcelona - tapas at Artesans in El Born

Have you tried urban sketching on a vacation?

Travel Sketches

I just got back from a family vacation to Paris, London, and Barcelona. I tried to do some urban sketching while on the trip and made a sketchbook just for my travel,sketches. It was pretty fpdifficult to find time to sketch while on the move with my family, so I ended up taking a ton of reference photos for sketches that I will do in my studio on my return. The artwork below were done on the trip. As well as portraits for my 100 day portrait project, but I will post those separately.

The view from our apartment terrace in the Latin Quarter.

The view from the terrace in the bedroom of our Latin Quarter apartment.

Our dinner the first night in Creperie Oroyana on Rue Mouffetard

On the metro to catch the Eurostar to London from Gare du Nord

A quick sketch done on a cruise on the Thames

A sketch of the Louvre with just a brush pen on toned watercolor paper

On our food tour in El Born in Barcelona

On the food tour in Santa Caterina market

The view from a terrace of our apartment in Barcelona

The sketch was started in SFO and I finished it in the Barcelona airport

Our last breakfast in Paris on Boulevard Saint Michel

I drew this on the airplane home - it was one of our favorite dishes - octopus in black truffle

Urban Sketching using Marc Taro Holmes's Techniques

I have been loving Marc Taro Holmes's Craftsy classes, Sketching People in Motion and Travel Sketching in Mixed Media. I love how he understands the constraints of urban sketching - especially when people are moving, you're on vacation and your family wants to keep moving, etc. To sketch people in motion, Marc teaches us how to capture gestures quickly with pencil and then move onto fountain pens, brush pens, and watercolors. In terms of travel sketching, Marc teaches us to do single line drawings, then 5-7 line drawings (cinq à sept), use shading and brush pens, watercolors, and eventually, watercolors alone.

I recently practiced these techniques in my hometown, Walnut Creek.

Liberty Bell Plaza -- Main St. & Mt. Diablo Blvd. — Liberty Bell Plaza -- Main St. & Mt. Diablo Blvd.

And practiced these urban sketching techniques using photographs from Sktchy.

I followed Marc's demonstration using watercolors only

I practiced sketching people in motion at Chloe's gymnastic show.

Trip to Monterey in Comic Form

In Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool Polishing klass, he taught us to document our days in comic form. He said that the point is not really any one individual daily comic, but the accumulation of the days over time. I tried to do that, but realized that my daily activities are pretty routine and repeatable, and, frankly, not very exciting to motivate me to do it. But, on a recent trip to Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove with friends, I found the idea of a daily comic as a usual and fun way to document and remember the activities we enjoyed and shared together. Here are my comics from that three day trip.

Trip to Monterey

This weekend, I took a trip to Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove with my friends, Julie and Sharon. I had a lot of fun introducing them to the Sktchy app and drawing them!

I drew this at lunch at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had an awesome table with this lovely view.