Around the World Blog Hop

I had the honor to be chosen by my friend, artist and Urban Sketcher Juliette Plisson from Paris to participate in this "Around the World Blog Hop" which is a great way to get to know other artists and discover what moves and motivates them. 

Juliette was, together with Martine (her work here) the first urban sketchers I met outside of Munich, when I went to Paris for a monthly get together of Urban Sketchers Paris. This was in 2011. Since then we have met on many occasions to sketch together. 

Juliette was herself nominated by Michele Cooper, an Artist and Urban Sketcher from the US (North East Pacific). 

So, 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 two artists: Tatiana Garbelini and Beliza Mendes. 

• What am I working on? 

My current biggest project is an exhibition together with my sketcher friend Gisela which will take place in March here in Munich. I am working on the concept, what to show, how, etc... it is a nice and interesting adventure as it is my first own exhibition. I already participated in some group exhibitions, or small exhibitions in cafés, but nothing comparable to this project coming up. 

I am also working on getting more discipline to sketch every day. There are times where this goal seems reachable and others where I cannot find a minute.

I had projects like this before, where I tried to sketch something I would come across with daily : my daily coffee. I did this over weeks , this was the result: 

I am also working on improving my painting skills, in acrylic and oil. While sketching can in some cases be a deal of 15 or 20 minutes, painting is a lot more time consuming. 

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

On the technique side, I would probably say that my focus is color. When I do a sketch without coloring it, I feel it is not completed, which is a subjective perception.

I am still working on values at lot and still have a long way to go to be able to grasp the right value independent from color. 

Light is also an important topic for me. I grew up in Morocco which has a special "golden" light that certainly influences me in my paintings. 
Morocco has always been a source of inspiration to me.

Here are some of my Moroccan Acrylics:

•  Why do I create what I do?

This is a good question I often ask myself too. Am I loosing my time filling up sketchbook after sketchbook?
I very much identify myself to the Urban Sketchers movement, documenting your life, the city, the place where we spend time, where we travel to, etc. 
Gerard Michel, the Maestro in architectural drawing and Urban Sketchers from Liège, once said, that sketchbooks are like jam. We transform fruits into jam in order to make them last longer, and we sketchers, transform moments into sketches and gather sketchbooks to conserve our memories longer.  That may be the reason - a desire to keep special moments, places, people longer and in a more intense way than by taking pictures. 
Here are some sketches I did that carry a lot of memories:
Sketches from a two months stay in Peru:

I absolutely am a sketchbooks addict and I could not sketch on loose papers.

The other reason why I create what I create via sketching, painting, is that it means a great balance to me.

 ·        How does my creative process work?

I do not have one favorite size of sketchbook or one favorite material, I like to alternate also between materials. I recently discovered coloured pencils (Polychromos and Inktense from Derwent) which I like a lot. I use them for drawings at home, smaller subjects, where I can play. These sketches were down using Inktense and Polychromos:

                       

My creative process is boosted by the interaction with others and by traveling: Urban Sketchers is a worldwide family and meeting Urban Sketchers is inspiring. Having the chance to visit and sketch a city with local Urban Sketchers you have never met is great, a very enriching experience.

Next step:
I would like to start weekly posts and I came across some artists that do daily posts, which I admire a lot. The wonderful Shari Blaukopf is an example. But this is not feasible yet for me.
Koosje Koene posts her Draw Tip Tuesday every Tuesday and my friend Karina Kuschnir, her "post de quarta feira" every wednesday. Maybe this is the right occasion to pick up the Monday and try weekly posts, this might be a solution for more discipline, maybe?

Until then, I would like now to introduce the next Around the World Blog Hoppers: Tatiana Garbelini and Beliza Mendes.

Tati is a good friend, she lives in London, and the first time I met her, she invited me at her place to have a delicious dinner with our common friend Isadora.. because of my blog... how incredible was that?... Since then we kept exchanging thoughts about sketching, materials, techniques, etc.. We have similar professions (very far from art) and are both fascinated by art, sketching, sketchbooks, materials, etc.. Her blog has been resting since last april and I hope that I will soon have the opportunity to see more sketches from her.

Beliza and I went to 2 Urban Sketchers Symposiums (Barcelona in 2013 and Paraty in 2014), we met briefly but our exchange about sketching developed afterwards online. Beliza is a very international and talented person, she lives in Luxembourg and is active in the local Urban Sketchers and Sketchcrawl groups. Here is also here Flickr.

Looking forward to seeing Tati's and Beliza's posts next monday taking over the torch, and thanking Juliette for having passed it over to me!