Travel Sketchbooks - Volume 1

Last night I managed to put together some issuu publications of my sketchbooks from my big trip last year. This is Volume 1 which I completed in a week whilst driving through Wales - as I was on my own mainly for this part, I was able to approach every day as a sketchcrawl - wake, sketch, drive, sketch, drive, eat&sketch, drive, sketch, eat&sketch, sketch, sleep! There is no doubt that I was trying to do too much - but oh! I had lots of fun.

I hope this all works - it is exciting to be able to create a version of your sketchbook that you can flip through - like the real thing!

rincon de la ciudadela

one of this typical spanish places where I love eating some tapas (and especially "pulpos a la gallega", you can't imagine how good it is!!!) and drinking beers with friends.

blogged by lapin

Victim on the Nottingham Train

Smithfield Market, Dublin

Smithfield Market, Dublin

Very early on a cold misty morning, I tried to capture some of the activity around this flower and vegetable market. The freezing weather soon had me retreating to the warm fug of the local greasy spoon to defrost my fingers.

Flower Power

Most of the time my work doesn't show my sensitive side. I think I have one but I'm not really sure. Stuck once again in a place where the only thing to draw was this vase of flowers. Being the sensitive guy I am, I jumped at the chance to draw these suckers. Something happened while I was drawing them. Life. It was a Friday so the flowers were probably there for five days. Over time I was drawing I noticed the flowers were changing slightly. They ever so slowly were opening, drooping and bending. When I began to add color, all the flowers were in completely different positions. I showed people who were in the room what was happening. They were stunned by how much it had all changed in just an hour. It just goes to show you just how oblivious we are to our surroundings. Art has gotten me in touch with all that sensitive crap. I must be like, the most sensitive guy in the world.

Breakfast and homeless in Madrid.

Some sketches i did last weeks.

This bearded homeless saw me and hid his face with his cap.

More drawings here.

War of independence reenactment

In Spain, war of independence means the fight against french army during napoleonic wars.

Exactly 200 years ago, Napoleon's troops seized the city of Málaga. This weekend we have enjoyed the reenactment of the battle for the city; Colourful uniforms and flags were seen through the old part of the city. And the noise of guns was heard too! Fortunately, unless two centuries ago, this time just for fun.

Limbo Dancers

These are some drawings I made of Limbo Dancers when I was in St. Thomas on my last trip home. I constantly marvel at their ability to "go so low!" I bow to their flexibility!

:: upcoming Show - in need of some help, if possible ::

Hey guys.

My opening was postponed due to bad weather and will be taking place on February 12th. I have already invested quite a bit towards my initial promo material, leaving me somewhat empty-handed. Now that I only have a few days to promote the new opening date, I'll need a bit of support from those willing to spare a few minutes of their time.

Below is the flier with all the information. Spread the word!

And for those of you who wouldn't mind printing out a few small black and white fliers and giving them out (or sending them through e-mail) a black and white version is attached as well.

Thanks to everyone for being so patient and I hope to see you guys at the opening this Friday!

-Tin

Cool coffee cup graphics

Vancouver - urban graphics - jj bean coffee cup, originally uploaded by mc_bds.

This urban sketchers thing seems to be getting pretty popular.
This take away coffee cup from jj bean coffee in Vancouver has an urban sketch built right in.
And the coffee was okay too.
A nice sketch of back street houses and utility poles, probably somewhere around Commercial Drive - I wonder if the artist is aware of our blog ?

A rainy Saturday

After a morning sketching stuffed animals in the museum with friends, I ‘somehow’ managed to find myself back at my favourite tearoom - T2 tearoom at Macquarie Centre. I am trying to sketch more café views these days but as I always get a different combination of cup, saucer and pot, I just can’t resist sketching my cup of tea as well! All the sketches I did on Saturday (including my cuppa) are here.

Sitting in a great café/tearoom sketching is hard to beat!!!

shaving the baby's head

I went to a christening yesterday. The baby was a week old and has been named Nowa, meaning cloud (rain cloud ?)
 Her aunt had the task of shaving her head after smearing her face with a brownish red powder supposed to protect the child. She would apply a bit of soap to the baby's hair and used a shaving razor blade. Her fingers had henna decoration on them much the same color as the baby's face. The baby didn't suffer a single scratch!
We were mostly women at the party as its a womens affair and there where young and old. We drank zrig, a mix of milk and water with sugar on it, lots of small glasses of tea and ate a lot. In the afternoon the young girls started singing and dancing but I was to busy clapping my hands to draw!

JAZZ at Lincoln Center

Betza_Warmdaddy_1
Originally uploaded by gregillustration.com

By way of a friend, my wife and I were granted access to reportage a performance at JAZZ at Lincoln Center. An opportunity like this doesn't come along often so we really went for it. The performance by Wes "Warmdaddy" Anderson, Marc Cary, Neal Caine, and Jeff Tain Watts took place in Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola , a space acoustically designed for jazz. It was an unforgettable experience and I feel like, considering the limited light and space, the work I produced is strong and tells the story of that evening.

Click on the image to view more of the drawings I made that night.

reina sofía

Strange activities at the Reina Sofia Museum: three tables and six people played a strange looking kind of chess game. They seemed to follow instructions trough earphones and did weird things like painting the opponent arms or colouring water with red ink.
I feel kind of old, unable the keep the pace of "modern art"

More sketches I did the same day here. 

Guest Urban Sketcher: Ronald Searle

I was recently fortunate to meet legendary cartoonist & illustrator Ronald Searle. I spent a very pleasurable afternoon at his home in the south of France where he allowed me to look through old sketchbooks and even photograph some pages.
After such a long & distinguished career he has of course dozens of sketchbooks from his travels-I managed to photograph his books from Morocco, Hawaii & Palm Springs-all made on reportage assignments for HOLIDAY magazine.

You can see more at my Searle 'tribute' blog and read about our meeting on my own art blog.