footprints & doodles

color chart #1

2009-10-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

As a restart of the blog, I decided to start a weekly post of color charts. Why? Just because since I have memory, I've always liked them. My father works in a textil company as a representative, and when I was a child I was always playing with his work case. It was always full of textile samples, in all ranges of colors, textures and patterns. I guess my soft spot for crafting, design or DIY started just there. So each week I'll find a color chart that inspires me, and I'll post it here. If you have your favorite ones too, you can send them to me and I'll post them.

This week, DMC Senso Color Chart (crochet thread)

Some Sunday Sewing

2008-09-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've always thought that Sunday is a cool day to spend at home with crafts or having a coffee with a good book. This morning it's been the first thing. I took the dust off the sewing machine and finished a project I started many weeks ago cutting the fabric. I was testing a very nice tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. I bought the fabric at Ikea, and it was quite cheap, and nice enough to use the tote later. I didn't wanted to spend a lot on money on the fabrics since it's my very first tote! I like the result quite a lot, though the closer look is not as neat as it should be. But it's been a funny beginning!

My cat's been very supportive during the sewing ;)

The finished tote, with fine red leaves
on a white background

A place for the sweeties

2008-09-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

I received my order from the dollhouse supplier, so my little shop is now starting to look less empty. I took the photos with the furniture outside it because I haven't decidet yet their placement. some of the items I made some weeks ago are already inside. Hope you like it!

Some shelves with and without glass, a counter and my favorite one,
a small cart, which I think adds a some style.

Inside the boxes there're some sweeties, and below some cakes.
More cakes, already cutted, on the cart.

Finally, I thouth that cookies and cinnamon rolls
suit the wicker baskets.

Countryside and Hospital

2008-09-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

I had both of them this weekend. I always prefer the countryside rather than the hospital, but you have to be able to manage both situations as life can be a bit tricky sometimes. Watercolor helped at the hospital. It also helped that Sant Pau Hospital is one of the most beautiful hospitals in the world, I would say.

A view of the hospital

A hot chocolate helped too!

But, of course, I prefer the previous day when I has a nice BBQ at the house of my parent's friends. They own a beatiful cozy masia, a traditional Catalan farm. I could easily spend there days and days drawing all the interesting old objects they have inside!

A nice porch with ivy

The main door

It seems that the dust is out of my watercolor again, but I have to keep practicing!

More baking

2008-08-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

The oven has been busy this afternoon :)

From left to right: cinnamon roll, some berry cakes, lemon cake and chocolate cookies. A pity I can't eat them!

New minis for my Candy Shop

2008-08-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

For the last two years I've been working on a miniature shop. It's not been a constant work, more like a bit now and then. But it's summer and I'm trying to impulse it a bit. So here you have some of my last attempts with fimo to make the sweeties in the shop.

Some candies and orange cakes. I cut all the small boxes, (they're from Printmini) and molded and baked the stuff. Not bad for a first attempts, I hope!

cozy home

2008-07-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last month I lived in a shared flat with some friends, in Sants (Barcelona). Now I'm at home again, and I really miss both the flat and the friends! I did some quick watercolors there, and here they are :)

Flying doodles and stuff

2008-05-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

I had to take a trip to Britanny (France) last week for my job. I was expecting to have some spare time to draw there, but I didn't. So I just doodled something while waiting in the airport and sitting in the plane. I had a transfer so I had pleeeenty of time to draw that day. That's why I drew even the food ;)

The week before I practised with some objects I have at home, some of my favorite ones. I have a lot of favorite objects actually, most of them fot my trips, so I have things to practices for weeks!

The yellowish tint on the pics is because of the Moleskine paper. Finally I decided to keep this one just for black ink, I think it will look more consistant this way.

Orient, Occident, Ankara

2008-05-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

I spent a week in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was a very special week, so I was thinking about what to tell about it. Nothing came into my mind that could make justice to it. I wanted to experience more the city and the whole country. I'm just posting some pics I took.

Those are from the old part of the city, that surrounds a castle. I was on the highest wall, so there was anything taller than me. From there I could see the houses, small streets, minarets,... I got caught!

Sketchcrawling

2008-04-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Jumping from one site to another, I landed on Sketchcrawling, one of the more interesting projects I've founded lately. As they explain it far way better than I would, I'm just quoting them:

SketchaWhat?
Three or four years ago a good friend of mine had a fun bachelor party consisting of visiting ten bars and pubs along the N-Juda Muni tram line: a “PubCrawl”. And crawling we did, in fact we didn’t make it past the seventh pub. Quite the night, but that is where I got the idea for the name SketchCrawl when a few months later I decided to do a whole day of intense drawing around the city.
The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: "SketchCrawl" - a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.
I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people's drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.
The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.
So here it is, we have a website now, a few Crawls behind me, some by myself some with friends and artists from around the world … and hopefully plenty SketchCrawls ahead of us.

They have also a forum, where people from all over the world keep in contact for the next big sketchcrawl. You can find me there too. Enjoy this project!

Springtime

2008-04-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

My pic for Monday Projects:

Missing Paris

2008-04-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last time I posted, but I've been pretty busy at job. And I'm preparing a trip to Turkey for next week. It may be the first trip when I do some sketching, I don't know. Thinkin' on it. Anyway, here's what I've been doing the last three days. I took it easy :)

Letraset promarkers (warm gray 1,2,3,5)and Faber-castell's PITT pens in Clairefontaine Watercolor paper, 300gr.

Let me know what do you think, if you want. My favorite one is the top-right one. It was the last I did, and it seems I gained some patience on the way.

Australian quick trip

2008-04-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Kangaroos, koalas, a surfer boy with a dog... Have I traveled to Australia? Of course not, I'm not that lucky. But I read a travel magazine, and decided it would be a cool practice.

Faber-Castell PITT pens in my Moleskine

I'm trying to have a stable style, but it seems impossible to me right now. I don't feel well drawing in a random way always, I'd like to have some coherence when sketching or painting. But I don't know how to achieve it, really. I suppose it's something related with practice too ;)

EDM #10 Draw your hand ors hands (or someone elses if you like)

2008-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I forgot to scan and post #9, I'll do it tomorrow. But here is #10, my hand. And a fancy pencil sharpener, as I thought that just my hand would be a dull drawing...

This was done in Faber-Castell watercolor pencils in Montval Torchon watercolor paper, 270gr. I like its touch but it doesn't work with pencils, as is too soft and you can easily scratch it.

Comic attempt: "He lays in the reins"

2008-03-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

When I really like a song, I need to do something with it. Usually, I play it again and again, in front of my exasperated friends. Then I try to play it with the guitar, but since I don't know how to play the instrument the results are bad, no matter how exited I am. Today, I've tried something different: to draw a sort of comic. I've chosen "He lays in the reins", that it's been on my personal top-five lately. And at least I don't bother my neighbors!

Letraset Promarkers (warm grey 1, 2, 3 i 5), Faber-Castell pens, in Letraset paper. I don't like the combination, because the markers erase the pens. The markers are cool, but hard to mix with other things, actually. :)

Reykjavík i Letraset

2008-03-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm trying again my Letraset Pro-Markers with watercolor paper. I'm not satisfied with the paper, too absorbent for the markers, they leave strikes. I'll look for another one, for my trips :)

Letraset Pro-Markers (warm grey 1,2,3 i 5), Pencil HB and 2B, Watercolor paper Clairefontaine, 300gr.

Drawing people

2008-03-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

I find it pretty difficult to sketch people, and even more to paint them quickly. I want to illustrate when travelling, so I should learn it. Right now I'm practising with some photographies from my trip in Iceland.

I'll keep trying...

Into the wild

2008-03-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I went to the cinema, as I use to do on Sundays. But the movie I watched thrilled me. It was Into the wild, and it's based on a book with the same name written by Jon Krakauer. He tells the story of a young boy that, after the graduation, gave all his money to an NGO and, with his old car, started a long trip to Alaska. His obsession with the far North cost him his own life. I do recommend not to judge him before reading the book. Here you have some of his lasts words:

Greetings from Fairbanks!
Arrived here two days ago.
Might be a very long time before I return south.
Now I walk into the wild.

And this is one of his lasts photographies:

I couldn't avoid to paint a watercolor from it, but I didn't succeed transmiting his face expression:

EDM #8 Draw your watch or other piece of jewerly

2008-03-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

This drawing doesn't make justice to my handmade Sámi bracelet. It's made from brown leather and braided tin. I always wear it, to remember the 2.000 kilometers I traveled to have it.

EDM #5 Draw your favorite well-loved object, #6 Draw a bottle, jar or tin from the kitchen

2008-03-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

My iPod and my red Moleskine.

EDM #4 Draw your mug or cup, #5 Draw your bed

2008-03-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

I drawed my mug by heart from a friend's place.

EDM #2 Draw a desk land

2008-03-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

I think it's my mother's, but I'm not sure. But I liked it.

EDM #1 Draw a shoe

2008-03-22T02:19:00.000-07:00

Or both, as I did. I chosed the most colorful I have, so I wanted a happy drawing.

Hello world!

2008-03-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

This blog is a selection of some of my entries in lullaby in black & white, those concerning traveling, writing, drawing and illustrating. I think this way is more organised.