Tuesday, June 2, 2015

If You REALLY Want to See Barcelona...

When I first read Danny Gregory's book Creative License, I was struck by his explanation that if you really want to know and understand something, draw it.  When you draw something, you look at it in such a detailed way, that you notice things you wouldn't otherwise see.  Although I'm no artist, that rang so true to me.  And I knew I wanted to keep an art journal. 

I've been trying to draw something most days for the past few weeks.  I'm even taking an online class called Sketch Book Skool that is fun and motivating and not intimidating at all. Thanks to that class, and those wise words of Mr. Gregory, I took a little sketchpad on our recent trip to Barcelona. 

Fermin would sit with me on a bench most days, somewhere around the city, while I drew something that caught my eye, but seemed like something this "little a artist" could handle.  So many of those old buildings are so beautifully ornate, I would have felt overwhelmed had I attempted to draw them.  I stuck with the more simple architecture instead. 

Here are a few of my sketches from our trip...
Here I am drawing the building in the background- Can you tell which one I attempted to draw?
Everyone seems to have a balcony in Barcelona.  But they're just for looks. Not big enough to even stand on usually.

Balconies, Dome Shaped Building, and a Outdoor Food stand in Barcelona
These were certainly not the prettiest things I saw while we were in Spain, but I sure spent a lot of time looking at them.  It was such a nice part of the day- sitting down to sketch, in no hurry, and just soaking in my surroundings.

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