Madrid Sketchbook

People sitting at cafes is something I wanted to capture for a poster I made to promote staying in the EU a while ago apart from that at the time it was winter and no-one sat in outside cafes because it wasn't warm enough which is something that is stereotypical to europeans. This has therefore haunted me and I wanted to capture people sitting outside at a cafe. This is a continuous line drawing (it stops me from being scared to start image making). I am quite impressed that it has perspective because when creating a continuous line drawing it is very at that moment/present/difficult to plan. I wanted to bring out the colour of the people which is interesting because it means that they are more prominent yet they are in the mid-ground as the table and chairs and glasses are in front of them yet not the focal point.

I wanted to capture the amazing buildings and their balconies. I wanted to illustrate the contrast between the buildings I drew of Cambridge. These were very fun to draw as I could incorporate pattern and that this makes them fun. However they did take quite a lot of time and there is only so much interest you can have when drawing balconies and windows. I am quite pleased with them, more so now that I have had time out from them. I like how one is full bleed and I think it really captures the atmosphere of walking down this street and I really like the composition of the landscape one and its perspective.

I saw this band busk in the big park in Madrid and they captured so much attention and were so in character and fun that I wanted to record the memory of seeing them. I wanted to leave it as a line drawing without colour because they were just wearing black and I didn't feel  it would add anything. I really like their body language/stances in here and their facial expressions. It was a really nice image to draw especially the instruments. This would be a nice image to digitalise and colour in photoshop I think and work well as a logo/something promotional. I think there is just enough marks made but enough empty space left as well in the construction of the figures.

This was a bizzare Easter parade. I just had to capture these costumes (looking freakily like the KKK) that I think are something to do with Catholic priests? The use of continous line drawing worked well here because it captured the creases in the white robes really well and coloured pencils captured the block colour of fabric well.

In response to my visual feedback, what makes something playful???

• out of proportion
• use of shape, wiggles and curves
• loose lines (not straight)
• confident lines (less is more)
• unmeasured/imperfect/not symmetrical
• solid colour

In these sketches I wanted to exhaustively capture movement, fluidity, power, passion and strength of flamenco dancing. They are inspired by a series of photographs I took when I went to watch a flamenco concert. 

I wanted to use minimal lines but the lines that I did use I wanted them to be confident. I chose to combine fine liner (to capture movement and fluidity) with felt tip (to show power and strength). the felt tips worked really well at capturing motion because they tailed off at the end creating a swishy line quality. I chose to add the colour to the areas where they had their weight (what I have learnt from the life drawing class I took). I think that the black and red works really well as red is a colour of intensity, passion and anger.

Also the image on the left is a different style it really captured her character when she was performing because she was very pissed off at her lover who was grovelling to her. On the right I tried to capture the ruffles of the dresses as they are a large feature of flamenco.

I thought I would try and capture them in a different way, through continuous line drawings which previously I have only done of landscapes. I like how ugly the women seem and how their bodies aren't accurate at all but they still capture motion through how spontaneous the lines fine liner marks are. Further more the body language of the man is very strong and confident and I like how only drawing one eye captures expression of sincerity. Here the costumes are captured better.

I really like the composition of these dancers. These are definitely my favourite ones as they are leaning in and away from each other passionately but also the minimal lines and the curves are just powerful.

This is a continuous line drawing of an amazing busking band we saw when on our travels. It is good that I don't know the band at all because the nature of continuous line drawings makes it difficult to capture characters accurately as faces are so important and the hardest to do as a line drawing. I feel that here I have managed to capture the busking, spontaneous, improvised nature of the band, that it isn't serious through their body language and the rough colouring.