Around The World Blog Hop

I'm very happy that Miriam Benmoussa (http://mimisaquarelles.blogspot.com/) chose me to participate in the 'Around The World Blog Hop'. I met Miriam in London through a friend that we have in common, Isadora. Despite working in the same industry of business, which is very demanding with plenty of business trips, we can still find (or try to find) time to do our sketches. Miriam lives in Germany and was nominated by Juliette Plisson from Paris. 

I started my 'artistic life' when I was eight years old. I remember doing some drawings for my homework and my mom was looking at me and she realised that I had 'something' with arts. I studied all types of techniques from when I was 8 years old until 11 years old and I have learned all types, from gouache to oil painting. I had little contact with watercolour techniques during those years, so some years ago I decided to start learning...and I'm still doing it. Since I met Miriam, I was encouraged to create a blog to show my sketches and here it is. 

This "Around the World Blog Hop' works like this: once you are nominated, you need to commit to post on the following Monday and then name one or more artists who will then post on the following Monday, and so on. I have chosen Alessandro Cacciari from Brazil. I don't know him personally but I know a good portion of his works through Urban Sketchers page on Facebook and I loved his technique. 

To participate you have to reply to the following questions:

* What am I working on? 

Last year I had some personal problems and I was not in a mood to draw as before. It was when Miriam came to London and we drew together at the exhibition of the poppies at Tower of London. Since then, I decided to draw more and I'll commit myself to do at least 2 sketches per week using watercolour. This year I'll try to do acrylic painting as well. 

Ladie selling poppies at Tower of London, with Miriam Benmoussa, in celebration of
100 years Anniversary of the WW1

St Paul's Cathedral view from Tate Modern - London

Last December I tried to change the way that I draw: do it straight with a pen in a paper (usually I use a pencil to sketch before pen and watercolour) and do it quickly. So I went to Tate Modern and standing on the sidewalk, I sketched St. Paul's Cathedral and buildings. I quite enjoyed the result (as below). I'll also try to sketch more using this technique and do my watercolours with the strongest colours possible. One challenge is to keep them on a sketchbook instead of loose papers as I was used to.

* How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Comparing my work with another artists, I've realised that every time that I'm sketching, I try to do as much details as possible, which is time consuming and sometimes I don't have time to finish it. Depending on the location or the subject that I've chosen, it's difficult also to manage the final size. I'm trying to change my technique which comes from my formation in oil painting. To be honest I don't like much my genre. I love when I can see people doing the same drawing as mine with much less lines. Sometimes I don't like to use pen in my sketches, I prefer to keep it only with pencil and watercolour (specially portraits).

Portrait using only pen and watercolour

View of Tower Bridge

* Why do I create what I do?

I believe that sketches are part of our life and they bring memories of a trip, place, or everything related to our daily lives. I quite enjoy to see the final result and them remembering the smell, the light, weather and atmosphere of which sketch. When I'm drawing, I feel that everything around me is silent, I don't pay attention to what is happening, my focus is only on the subject that I'm drawing and I realised that I can stay hours drawing and do not notice it. To be honest, sketching works as a therapy to me.

My husband always encourage me to do it and maybe to try to sell it but I think that I'm not good enough to ask for money on my drawings. 

Emirates Cable Car - quick sketch in a sunny Sunday with my husband

* How does my creative process work?

Normally I choose a subject that can be a landscape or an object or a person. It will be decided depending on the size of sketchbook that is with me, as I don't carry all sizes all the time. If it's a portrait I prefer to do it in a medium and large size, if it's a landscape, on medium size. For portraits I normally don't use pen because to me the final result is too 'heavy'. For landscapes I prefer to use pen, specially if it is composed by buildings. In the past I was used to do all my drawing in loose paper and I was losing or giving it away to friends, but now I've decided to do it in sketchbooks. 

So my next steps are going to be: sketch as much as possible, try to do it at least twice a week. I'll also explore more acrylic painting. Also, I'll try to do some courses and workshops related to painting and participate in meetings and symposiums organised by Urban Sketchers. 

Next week I'm looking forward to seeing Alessandro Cacciari's post, taking the torch and showing his marvellous drawings. Many thanks Mimi for appointing me for this very interesting experience, putting me to think about my relation with art!

Brazil with S

On our trip to Brazil in the end of last year I had enough time to sketch some stuff so the first was the sketch of my mom watching TV at her house. She complained about the size of her nose and requested me to do a Photoshop in her face and we laugh when I said that was impossible.... :)

Also I had the opportunity to sketch the lovely garden of my husband's grandmother (also my grandmother by consideration) but unfortunately I could't transfer how magnificent it is. Lovely fruit trees, birds and the old red ceramic floor.

We had some time to chill out on my in-laws' pool and to change my tan from very white to very red color. Maybe I'm not used anymore to the hard sun that there is in Brazil...

Na nossa viagem ao Brasil no fim do ano passado eu tive a oportunidade de desenhar um pouco, entao meu primeiro desenho foi o da minha mae assistindo TV na casa dela. Ela reclamou do tamanho do nariz dela e pediu para eu fazer um Photoshop no rosto dela e demos risada quando eu falei que era algo impossível... :)

Eu também tive a oportunidade de desenhar o adorável jardim da avo do meu marido (que e minha avo também) mas infelizmente não consegui traduzir quão magnifico ele e. Adoráveis arvores frutíferas, pássaros e o velho chão de cerâmica vermelha.

Tivemos um tempo de descansar na piscina da casa dos meus sogros e mudar meu bronzeado de muito branco para muito vermelho rs. Talvez eu não esteja mais acostumada ao forte sol do Brasil.

 Mom's portrait

 Grandma's garden

Pool at my in-laws' house

Russia

I had to go to Russia to work so we decided to took some days of holiday. We spent some days in St Petersburg and in Moscow. Both cities are very beautiful with lots of cultural and historical things to visit but if you are like us, that like to enjoy local stuff and mix with the locals, you will find things quite difficult, because the signs are all in Russian and is a bit difficult to find people that speak English in the street.

We visited the marvellous Hermitage Museum and the gorgeous Red Square. St Basil's Cathedral is very beautiful from outside and the inside is all hand painted. Despite some bad experiences with people and the cold weather, we quite enjoyed Russia.

 

Eu tive que ir a Rússia a trabalho entao nós decidimos tomar alguns dias de férias. Ficamos alguns dias em St Petesburgo e em Moscou. As duas cidades sao muito bonitas com muitas coisas culturais e históricas para visita mas se voce é como nós que gosta de fazer coisas locais e se misturar com os locais, voce vai ver como é difícil porque todas as placas sao em russo e é bem difícil encontrar pessoas que falam ingles pela rua.

Nós visitamos o maravilhoso Museu Hermitage e a belíssima Praca Vermelha. A Catedral de Sao Basilico é muito bonita de fora e seu interior é todo pintado a mao. Apesar de algumas más experiencias com pessoas e o frio, nós até que aproveitamos a Rússia.

 

 

 

St Basil's Cathedral

 

St Petesburg

 

Vuknovo Airport waiting for my flight to return to London

 

 

Mika

Mikael came to our house when he was a kitten, my sister got him in a pet shop - no payment for him because he is a street cat. I call him 'Oldie' because he has no humour at all. He doesn't like to play much and if he does, always uses his sharp nails. He is fat now but still very agile. If he decides to walk around the picture frames on top of the cabinet, he is able to dodge every single one. 

Mikael veio pra nossa casa quando era bem filhote, minha irma pegou ele numa pet shop - nao pagou nada porque ele é um gato sem raca definida. Eu chamo ele de 'Velho' porque ele é mal humorado. Ele nao gosta muito de brincar, mas se decide, ele sempre usa suas unhas afiadas. Agora ele está gordo, mas ainda bem ágil. Se ele decide andar pelos porta-retratos em cima do móvel, ele nao derruba um sequer.

My beloved Ursa

Unfortunately Ursa passed away one day before my birthday. We guess she was 14 years old because she was a street dog and I don't want to think about her in her last year of life because she was not in a good shape. I remember the day when I first met her, she was afraid of men and living in the street. I started to feed her and gradually we started our relationship. She was the sweetest dog that I've ever seen. I've tried to draw her twice, felt a bit difficult because of her hair colour that is difficult to reproduce.

R.I.P. Ursa, you will be always in our memories and hearts!

Infelizmente a Ursa faleceu um dia antes do meu aniversário. Nós achamos que ela tinha 14 anos porque pegamos la da rua e eu nao quero lembrar dela no seu ultimo ano de vida, pois ela já nao estava tao bem. Eu me lembro do dia que nós nos encontramos, ela tinha medo de homens e vivia na rua. Eu comecei a alimentar ela e gradualmente comecamos nossa relacao. Ela era a cachorra mais doce que já conheci. Eu tentei desenhar ela 2 vezes e achei um pouco difícil por causa da coloracao do pelo dela que e difícil de reproduzir.

Descanse em paz Ursa, voce estara sempre na nossa memória e nos nossos coracoes!

Portraits

Portraits have never been my strength. I found it's very difficult considering that I need to give the correct proportion. So since it is part of a 'project', these are some that I made in August so you can see  more less the evolution.

 

Fazer retratos nunca foi meu forte. Eu acho bem dificil considerando que eu preciso fazer com a proporcao correta. Como isso foi parte de um 'projeto', estes sao alguns que fiz no mes de Agosto e da pra perceber mais ou menos a evolucao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the summer in Munich

We did a fast trip to Munich, a lovely city where I felt people are very friendly and polite. The food  in my opinion is not so good, because it's generally pork meat, lots of sausages, all types and colours - considering that I'm a type of vegetarian that eats fish only and sometimes chicken. 

We stayed in a hotel in Lehel area, a precious tip that Mimi gave to us. In this neighbourhood I sat near a church to draw, sharing my seat with a local old lady that approached me speaking German and I was replying in English - but in the end everything was fine! We really enjoyed these 4 days there specially because we met Mimi to draw at Odeonsplatz. We sat in a café and ordered a local specialty - cassis juice with sparkling water, interesting combination! I can't spell the name...hahaha

 

Nós fizemos uma viagem rápida a Munique, uma cidade em que achei as pessoas muito amigáveis e educadas. A comida na minha opiniao nao é tao boa porque e baseada em carne de porco, um monte de salsichas de todos os tipos e cores - considerando que sou um tipo de vegetarian que só come peixe e as vezes frango.

Nós ficamos em um bairro chamado Lehel, uma dica preciosa que a Mimi nos deu. Neste bairro eu sentei perto de uma igreja pra desenhar dividindo meu banco com uma senhora alema que pediu pra sentar ao meu lado - ela falando em alemao e eu respondendo em ingles e no final tudo deu certo! rs Nós aproveitamos muito esses 4 dias especialmente porque encontramos com a Mimi para desenhar em Odeonsplatz. Sentamos num café e pedimos uma especialidade local - suco de cassis com água com gás, uma combinacao interessante! Eu nao consigo dizer nem o nome! Ahahaha

 

 

Lehel area

 

 

My first drawing in landscape format 

 

We in action at Odeonsplatz - was so hot!

 

 

Sketching with Mimi in London

Last week Mimi (http://mimsiaquarelles.blogspot.com) came to London for work and we decided to sketch together on Tuesday after work. We walked down to Tower Bridge and Bankside area and I decided to sketch Tower Bridge and Mimi decided on a gorgeous landscape with the Tower of London and The Gherkin. After that we had dinner at Cote Brasserie and sketched a coffee, a project that Mimi is doing - One Coffee a Day. We stayed there for almost 3 hours drawing and talking. We were very excited to be doing something that makes us happy: sketch. It's a shame that we don't live in the same city, otherwise we would go out to sketch almost every day. 

Na semana passada a Mimi (http://mimsiaquarelles.blogspot.com) veio a Londres a trabalho e nós decidimos desenhar juntas na terca-feira após o trabalho. Nós andamos até a Tower Bridge e Bankside eu eu decidi desenhar a Tower Bridge e Mimi fez uma vista maravilhosa da Tower of London e Gherkin. Depois disso fomos jantar na Cote Brasserie e desenhamos um cafe, um projeto que Mimi está fazendo - Um café por dia. Nos ficamos desenhando e conversando mais ou menos 3 horas. Estávamos muito animadas por estar fazendo uma das coisas que nos deixa mais felizes: desenhar. E uma pena que nós nao moramos na mesma cidade, senao estaríamos saindo todo dia juntas pra desenhar.

London Bridge