Croatian Faces

I'm right now in Zagreb, Croatia spending the holidays with my wife and her family. I find that every place in the world has its own graphic quality - the marks of a culture as seen through the way that people adorn their world, the mustaches, the wrinkles on a face, a hair style or length of eye lashes. These drawings were drawn on my iPhone, using the Zen Brush app. 

More Dr. Sketchy with Nini de Paris

I was in Basel while this event took place, and was very happy to have been able to participate. Nini de Paris was very expressive in her poses and costume, which made her fun to draw. The organizers mentioned that they might begin an event closer to Geneva. I hope that happens! I've missed drawing the model since moving here.

Vel d'Hiv

Here are 3 quick drawings from my local velodrome, the Vel d'Hiv in Geneva, where I like to ride.

I'll be in Basel at the Dr. Sketchy event this Wednesday evening. If anybody plans to be there, shoot me a message. I'd like to meet some others in the group!

iPhone Portraits

Here are some recent portraits I created, of people in Geneva. I originally got an old iphone not to make calls, but to surreptitiously draw when commuting to and from work on the NYC subway. I enjoy working within the limitations of this tiny screen and an app (Zen Brush is the one I prefer). It makes me think of what Picasso said, that "forcing yourself to use restricted means is the sort of restraint that liberates invention. It obliges you to make a kind of progress that you can't even imagine in advance." I enjoy the discovery and play that occurs when quickly trying to capture the spirit and appearance of people as they idle or walk past, lost in their personal world.

Partly Sunny Dresden

The other month I was in Dresden with my wife while she was at a conference. I wandered around and drew while she listened to talks. I'd re-read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five before going there, which I'm not sure influenced me or not, other than making me aware of the burden of history and tremendous rebuilding that is part of the cities story. Burnt dark stonework stacked with light, what's new is old and what's old is new.
I'm sure the time of year had something to do with it, but the place had a vast ghostly atmosphere, windy and dramatic above, hushed and weighted below, empty spaces with scattered crowds. And then, enter a church and there is rococo rapture! Every day was described as 'partly sunny' in the weather forecast, and every day the sun came out for, maybe, five minutes. These Germans are one optimistic people, I thought, to call such dreary weather 'partly cloudy'. Maybe one has to go indoors to see the sun in Dresden.

Dresden Frauenkirche. The sky, weighted, moody, quieting the spotty crowd.

Walk around to the other side and again the windy sky dominates the stone and life below.

Before a old-looking new building is constructed, archaeology must occur. Here, a birds nest of exposed foundations where there was once a Jewish neighborhood.

Every day I rode a tram to the old city and saw people such as these three characters.

Want to see sunshine on a cloudy day in Dresden? Go inside Dresden Frauenkirche and light emanates from the altar.

Hello from Geneva

This is my inaugural post to Urban Sketchers Switzerland. Coming from NYC, I found Geneva to be a lot smaller, quieter, and cleaner than what I've become accustomed to. And I've come to understand that people in other parts of Switzerland would feel that my description of NYC could also describe Geneva! So maybe it is with a little bit the romance of a new arrival that I depicted some of what was before me. Well, except for that drawing of the guy pissing in the rose bushes and the lively crowd of drinkers. That felt more familiar.

A calm summer day reclining next to Lake Geneva.

Place du Molard, right near the old town and in the midst of some fancy shopping. 

The patterns of tile and repeating clocks are throughout the city. This scene is just beneath the cathedral. 

Want to relax and piss in some rose bushes? This is the place, along the Rhone river, where people of all ages and incomes can buy a beer and mingle with friends.