Saturday, July 27, 2019

several weeks, 100 people (1)

As a member of the Urban Sketchers community, I have become familiar in recent years with an annual global initiative called one week, 100 people.

The goal is to draw 100 people in 5 days (Monday to Friday).

Sounds simple, right? Indeed. Except that I could never get around to drawing just one person in a whole week. I do not draw people in general, and besides my workweek is too busy to try drawing something I prefer not to draw.

Yet, in the past several months, with a will to improve my technique, I started a habit of drawing one hour per workday. As it turns out, it's easy (and quite interesting) to fill up minutes of that hour sketching people in the metro, train, or bus during my commute to and from work. It is actually a matter of killing two birds with one stone.

Armed with a Fabriano sketchbook and a few Staedtler pencils, I went hunting for drawing subjects every morning and evening. Drawing in the subway and other public transportation vehicles will undoubtedly draw reactions from nearby passengers. Whether it was muted curiosity, verbal praise, a "thumbs up", or simply indifference, I just kept piling 'em heads up. At some point, I realized that I had gathered a bunch of them in several weeks.

Below is a collection of 100 of them.

Which ones are your favorites?



















Friday, July 19, 2019

la lune



All I wanted was to take my inner artist out on a date. An opportunity to take the next morning off came up at the last minute, and I took it. It was decided: we were going to the exhibition LA LUNE : Du voyage réel aux voyages imaginaires (literally "THE MOON") at the Grand Palais in Paris. I really wanted to see this exhibition even though I did not really know what to expect. Maybe it was the words in the title that evoked beautiful things for me : lune (moon), voyage (journey), imaginaire (imaginary). Maybe it was the blue in the promotional poster (yes, blue is my favorite color). Whatever it was, I was not going to pass up the occasion to check out this exhibition, which would end in four days.

This decision-making happened yesterday, and the exhibition ends on Monday.

So I showed up at Grand Palais this morning. Just moments after entering the exhibition space, I discovered something when I read the first text display. It was the 50th anniversary of the first walk on the moon!

Indeed, that historic event took place on July 21, 1969 and today is only July 19, 2019. But still!

Recognizing the total coincidence of my visit, I went on to celebrate history and appreciate some moon love in the exhibition.

Saturday, July 13, 2019

love your dragon


I don't know much about How To Train Your Dragon or Game of Thrones, but I have taken a liking to dragons as they are described in the film Finding Joe.

In this documentary, the dragon is used as a metaphor for those things that scare you. Sharing your truth with your parents or initiating a conversation with a stranger are two of my current favorites. For some people, perhaps it's about speaking before a large audience. For others, it may be the idea of dancing at a party whereas everyone else is sitting down. I do not think that scary things are necessarily problems, unless we spend a lot of time thinking about them and yet avoiding them in the end.

Perhaps giving lots of attention to the dragon ‒ via thought and avoidance ‒ is a sign that we should face it?

Gay Hendricks, a psychologist featured in Finding Joe, thought similarly. He suggested that by facing the dragon, or more appropriately 'your' dragon, you would develop a larger sense of yourself. Yet he thought that loving your dragon was a more efficient approach. Possibly because, like we all know, love is something positive and powerful.

Rather than facing our fears, let us love our dragons. In doing so, we become able to love ourselves more.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

in color

One Sunday last month, I branched out like never before. After five steady years of subtle persuasion from sketcher friends, I took my first steps in urban sketching in color.

I joined several members of the Urban Sketchers Paris group on Quai d'Austerlitz that day with the intention of breaking in the watercolor set that my colleague Purnima had gifted me. Even though I brought some paintbrushes, which had also been gifted, I was really lost on what to do. Using the technique that Anne suggested to me and the paintbrush and water container that Blandine lent me, I was able to do something with the view of Port de la Rapée.


It took me just fifteen minutes to fill the A4 page, whereas it would have probably taken three hours to do the same with my black pens!

We'll see how the watercolor exploration unfolds ...